're cast for a parlor-maid."

"I know it," said Rosetta Muriel, indifferently.

"You can't dress in apple-green silk. You ought to have a plain black
dress and a little white apron."

Rosetta Muriel flushed and tossed her head.

"I don't know what difference that makes. If you're going on the stage
you want to look as nice as you can, I should think."

"One can look very nice in a black dress and a white apron. I'm going to
be a frumpy old woman, with the worst rig you ever saw. But of course,"
concluded Peggy firmly, perceiving that Rosetta Muriel was inclined to
argue the point, "If you'd rather not take the part, I can probably find
some one else. But whoever takes it, will have to be dressed suitably."

That argument was as effective with Rosetta Muriel as it had been with
Claire. She yielded as the other girl had done, and as ungraciously.
"It's easy enough to see through that," she told herself angrily. "Those
city girls want to be the whole thing. They're afraid to let me dress up
nice, for fear folks will look at somebody else." And it argues well for
the strength of Rosetta Muriel's vanity that for the moment she actually
believed her preposterous charge.

Plans for the play absorbed the leisure of the cottagers. Little else
was talked of. To Jerry Morton had been assigned the responsibility of
organizing an orchestra of local talent, and he came twice a day or
oftener, to report progress or ask counsel. The tan shoes, whose
excessively pointed toes betrayed that probably they were as old, if not
older than Jerry himself, but which in Jerry's estimation were
synonymous with unpretentious elegance, appeared so frequently that the
razor-like tips began to look somewhat scarred and battered, as if they
might perhaps retire from active service in ten years' time, or so. But
the tan shoes were not Jerry's only concession to the social amenities.
An unwonted attention was given to grimy knuckles and finger-nails. More
than once he made his appearance with his usually frowsy hair as sleek
as the coat of a water rat, and dripping, in further likeness to the
animal mentioned. Peggy, whose original interest in Jerry had been
intensified by the favorable impression he had made on Graham, hailed
these signs of awakening with satisfaction, and laid plans to bring
about still more startling changes.

The little comedy did not require much in the way of scenery. But to
present even a simple home scene on the schoolhou