imple-minded young farmer. "And they've got troubles enough as it
is."

"They certainly have," agreed Mr. Pertell. "Nothing was disturbed
last night, though; was there?"

"No, all th' hens seem to be around. I can't imagine who that fellow
was. He must have had a guilty conscience, or he wouldn't have run
when I hailed him," Sandy said.

The day was given over, on the part of the manager and Russ, to
selecting the most favorable spots for the taking of scenes in the
rural dramas. A good background, and places where the lighting
effects would be proper for exposing the films, were essentials. Some
scenes were to be laid in the village proper, and when the moving
picture manager and his photographer went about, making notes of
likely spots, they were watched curiously by the village loungers.

Mr. Pertell paid a visit to Squire Blasdell in reference to getting
permission to burn the old barn on the Apgar place.

"Well, you can do it if you pay me my price," said the crabbed man,
who was a local judge and lawyer, acting for several clients.

The price was sufficiently high, Mr. Pertell thought, but he had no
choice.

"That's a valuable barn!" said the squire.

"It's only fit for kindling wood," protested the manager. "And that's
what I propose to use it for."

"Well, it's a sin to burn down a building like that," went on the
squire. "But this is a queer world, anyhow. And I want my money in
advance."

He was so unpleasant about the matter that, after arranging for the
destruction of the barn, Mr. Pertell left without carrying out his
half-formed resolution of asking for more time for the payment of the
Apgar mortgage.

"I'd better try to find some other way of helping them," thought the
manager. "If I said they were in hard circumstances the squire might
get suspicious and foreclose at once. Then I would have to take my
company away, and I couldn't get the rural dramas. No, I'll wait a
while. But I would like to help Sandy and his folks."

During the two days that Mr. Pertell and Russ were mapping out the
locations of the various scenes for the plays, the others of the
company were becoming familiar with Oak Farm, and the delightfully
quaint house where they were to remain all summer.

There were many little nooks where one could spend a quiet hour with
a book, and there was good fishing in the stream that, in times past,
had furnished power for the old grist mill. The mill was now in
ruins, but it was ve