felt confident that she would make no serious slip. Her memory
was quick, and responded to the spur of necessity. If her attention
wandered even for a minute, she caught herself up, realizing how much
depended on her application. Luckily the _role_ appealed to her,
and for that reason was more readily memorized. Though she had prefaced
her offer with the assurance that she should not distinguish herself in
the part, she began to be hopeful that she would be able to do more than
repeat the lines mechanically.

As the critical hour approached, Elaine was perhaps the least nervous of
any of the household, and she gleaned more than a little amusement from
the efforts of the others to reassure her. "You know I'll be right there
with the book," said Aunt Abigail, who had accepted the important post
of official prompter. "So it won't be a serious matter if you forget."
The others had similar encouragement to offer, some of it mingled with
good counsel. "Don't lose your head if you get tangled up," Peggy warned
her. "Because the rest of us know our parts perfectly, and we can go on
with it, even if something is left out." And Elaine, while agreeing not
to lose her head, promised herself the satisfaction of surprising the
doubters.

Early as the girls reached the schoolhouse, they were not the first
arrivals. Farmer Cole's Joe, transformed almost beyond recognition, by
what he would have designated as a "boiled shirt" and a high collar, had
already quite a little pile of tickets and silver ranged on the table
before him. Jerry and his orchestra were in their places. Jerry's
hand-painted necktie was, of course, in evidence, while the pointed
shoes creaked whenever he moved, as if in protest against the exacting
service that was being required of them at their time of life. The
Dolittle Cottage girls hurried past the observant eyes, and in the
improvised dressing-rooms found Lucy and Rosetta Muriel awaiting them.
Resentfully Rosetta Muriel had dressed according to Peggy's
specifications, black dress and ruffled white apron, with a jaunty cap
perched on her fair hair. Then she had viewed herself in the mirror and
had experienced the surprise of her life.

"Why, I look real pretty!" exclaimed Rosetta Muriel staring, but there
was no vanity in the observation. Rosetta Muriel announced it as a
scientist would proclaim the news of some discovery in physics. She
tested the accuracy of her impression by the help of a hand-mirror. She