pening night there was a good
deal of local interest shown, and the first picture was being finished
when Nan Sherwood and her friends crowded into their seats.

"That's a good picture, I warrant," Walter said. "We want to stay and see
that run over again. Ah-ha! here comes a Keynote Comedy. That will be a
funny one, sure."

"I like to laugh," announced Inez, with her most serious air. "But I
ain't never had much time for it."

"You poor little mite," said Bess. "I should say you hadn't. But you'll
laugh all right when you get home with us to Tillbury. Won't she, Nan?"

"Of course she will," agreed Nan, squeezing the little one close to her.

They did not, however, laugh much at the picture which followed. The
reels did not seem to run very evenly. Either the operator was not an
experienced one or there was something the matter with the machine. The
flash-card, "Wait a minute, please," appeared so frequently on the screen
that the audience began to murmur, and some got up and went out.

There were others ready to take their places, and this continual changing
of positions in the half-darkness of the house made a confusion that was
hard to bear.

Nan and her friends moved over against the wall and another party came
rustling in to take the seats in that row nearest to the aisle. Not until
this crowd was seated did the party from the Mason house realize that it
was anybody whom they knew.

Then Pearl Graves' rather loud voice broke in upon Nan and Walter's
whispered conversation:

"Why! see who's here?" she cried. "Hullo, Walter Mason. Who's that you've
got with you? Nan Sherwood, I'll be bound. And Grace, and Bess Harley.
Hullo, girls! Is the show any good?"

"For goodness' sake!" interposed the sharp voice of the girl on the other
side of Pearl. "Can't we go anywhere without running up against that Nan
Sherwood and her crowd?"

"Oh, you be still, Linda!" laughed good-natured Pearl. "You ought to
be pleased as Punch to see Nan and Walter. Between them they just
about saved your life when Granny Graves' horses ran away with you the
other day."

Little Inez was on Nan's other side and immediately Nan gave her
attention to the child, leaving Walter free to talk with the new-comers
if he chose.

"Did you like that picture, dear?" asked Nan of the little one.

"Hi! I liked it where the fat man slipped up on the soap at the top of
the stairs and slid to the bottom where the scrub-woman left her tub of
water.