rettily promised to do something wonderful. She asked
them to remember that she was no longer a mere girl, but a woman with a
woman's determination. They both patted the little thing encouragingly
on the back.

The interiors possible on the Holden lot having been finished, they
motored each day to a remote edge of the city where outside locations
had been found for the humble farmhouse and the grand hotel. The
farmhouse was excellently chosen, Merton thought, being the neat,
unpretentious abode of honest, hard-working people; but the hotel, some
distance off, was not so grand, he thought, as Baird's new play seemed
to demand. It was plainly a hotel, a wooden structure with balconies;
but it seemed hardly to afford those attractions that would draw
wealthier element from New York. He forebore to warn Baird of this,
however, fearing to discourage a manager who was honestly striving for
the serious in photodrama.

His first exterior scene saw him, with the help of Mother and little
sister, loading the one poor motor car which the family possessed with
Mother's products. These were then driven to the hotel. The Montague
girl drove the car, and scenes of it in motion were shot from a car that
preceded them.

They arrived before the hotel; Merton was directed to take from the car
an iron weight attached to a rope and running to a connection forward
on the hood. He was to throw the weight to the ground, plainly with the
notion that he would thus prevent the car from running away. The simple
device was, in fact, similar to that used, at Gashwiler's strict orders,
on the delivery wagon back in Simsbury, for Gashwiler had believed that
Dexter would run away if untethered. But of course it was absurd, Merton
saw, to anchor a motor car in such a manner, and he was somewhat taken
aback when Baird directed this action.

"It's all right," Baird assured him. "You're a simple country boy, and
don't know any better, so do it plumb serious. You'll be smart enough
before the show's over. Go ahead, get out, grab the weight, throw it
down, and don't look at it again, as if you did this every time. That's
it. You're not being funny; just a simple country boy like Wayne was
at first." He performed the action, still with some slight misgiving.
Followed scenes of brother and sister offering Mother's wares to the
city folks idling on the porch of the hotel. Each bearing a basket they
were caught submitting the jellies and jams. The brother wa