ay was made into sandwiches. There were hard
boiled eggs, and smoked beef and cookies, pies and cakes. In fact, the
good woman stripped her pantry for the needy people in the stalled train.

Her husband got into his outer garments and helped Si Snubbins carry the
baskets across the snow. Mrs. Morton's last words to the girls were:

"Do, _do_, my dears, try to find my girl and Celia when you go to
Chicago."

Nan and Bess promised to do so, for neither realized what a great city
Chicago is, and that people might live there, almost side by side, for
years and never meet.

CHAPTER XII

RAVELL BULSON'S TROUBLE

"What do you think of those two girls, anyway, Nan?" Bess Harley asked.

This was late in the evening, after the porter had made up their
berths again in the Pullman. The baskets of food had been welcomed by
the snow-bound passengers with acclaim. The two girls were thanked
more warmly for their thoughtfulness than Nan and Bess believed they
really deserved.

Bess Harley's question, of course, referred to Sallie Morton and Celia
Snubbins, the girls who had run away from home to become moving picture
actresses. Nan replied to her chum's query:

"That Sallie Morton must be a very silly girl indeed to leave such a
comfortable home and such a lovely mother. Perhaps Celia Snubbins may not
have been so pleasantly situated; but I am sure she had no reason for
running away."

Bess sighed. "Well," she murmured, "it must be great fun to work for the
movies. Just think of those two country girls appearing in a five-reel
film like 'A Rural Beauty.'"

"Well, for goodness' sake, Bess Harley!" cried Nan, astonished, "have you
been bitten by _that_ bug?"

"Don't call it 'bug'--that sounds so common," objected Bess. "Call it
'bacilli of the motion picture.' It must be _great_," she added
emphatically, "to see yourself acting on the screen!"

"I guess so," Nan said, with a laugh. "A whole lot those two foolish
girls _acted_ in that 'Rural Beauty' picture. They were probably two of
the 'merry villagers' who helped to make a background for the real
actresses. You know very well, Bess, that girls like us wouldn't be hired
by any film company for anything important."

"Why--you know, Nan," her chum said, "that some of the most highly paid
film people are young girls."

"Yes. But they are particularly fitted for the work. Do you feel the
genius of a movie actress burning in you?" scoffed Nan.

"No-o," admitted B