Alice hook up a waist that fastened in the back.

"Oh, not for some days yet, I fancy," was the answer. "Mr. Pertell
will have to look around, and pick out the best backgrounds for the
different scenes. I wonder what sort of parts I'll get? Something
funny, I hope; like tumbling into the river and being rescued."

"Alice! You wouldn't want anything like that!" cried Ruth, much
shocked.

"Wouldn't I, though! Just give me a chance. I can swim, you know!"

"Yes, I know, but tumbling into the river--with your clothes on--it
might be dangerous!"

"Oh, well, if we're in the moving picture business we will have to
learn to take chances. I read in the paper the other day how a couple
leaped from the Brooklyn Bridge with a parachute--a man and woman."

"Yes, I know; but we're not going to do anything like _that_! Papa
wouldn't let us."

"No, I suppose not," and Alice sighed as though she really wanted to
indulge in some such daring "stunt" as a bridge leap.

"I know one part you're going to have, Ruth," went on Alice, as she
surveyed herself in the glass.

"What is it?" asked Ruth, eagerly. "Shall I like it?"

"I think you will, dear. It's laid in an old mill--there is one on
Oak Farm, I believe. You're to be imprisoned in it, and your lover
rides up--probably on one of those silly milk-white steeds I object
to--and rescues you--breaks down the door in fact--and gets you just
as you are about to be bound on the mill wheel."

"Really, Alice?" cried Ruth, clasping her hands in delight, for she
dearly loved a romantic role.

"Really and truly--truly rural, I call it."

"How did you hear of it?"

"Oh, I overheard daddy and Mr. Pertell talking about it. Mr. Pertell
asked daddy if he'd object to your taking a part like that."

"And what did dad say?"

"Oh, he agreed to it, as long as you weren't in danger. But I want
something funny. I believe I'm to be a sort of 'cut-up' country maid,
in some of the plays. I'm to upset the milk pails, tie a tin can to
the calf's tail, hide under the sofa, when your country 'beaus' come
to see you, and all that."

"Oh, Alice!"

"That's all right--I just love parts like that. None of the love
business for me!"

"I should say not--you're entirely too young!" exclaimed Ruth, with
sudden dignity.

"Pooh! You're not so old! Oh, there goes the supper bell. Come on!
I'm starved!"

The entire theatrical troupe gathered about the table, and a merry
party it was. That Mrs. Apgar wa