will be
plenty of time to make arrangements."

However, Meg could get no further with her suggestion, for Betty and
Mollie had both flung their arms about her and Betty exclaimed:

"It will almost make me have a happy holiday time, Meg dearest, and I
can never bear to refuse your invitation if we are to be together at
Sunrise Cabin once again."

CHAPTER IX

THE CASTLE OF LIFE

It seemed to Esther Crippen that she had been sitting in the wings of
the theater every evening for half her lifetime, although it had been
only a week since Polly's initial appearance as the Fairy of the Woods
in the dramatization of the ancient legend "The Castle of Life."

At first she had spent every moment after Polly's departure from the
dressing room in peering out from some inconspicuous corner at whatever
action was taking place upon the stage. Now, however, the play and
even the actors themselves had become a comparatively old story. Her
interest centered itself chiefly in Polly--in Polly and the odd human
characters that she saw everywhere about her. Indeed, except for her
nervousness and care of her friend, this week had been almost as
absorbing to Esther Crippen as to the other girl. For after the first
two nights she had lost her fear that Polly might make an absolute
failure of her part, and also the impression that either of them might
be insulted or unkindly treated by the men and women about them.
People had been rough perhaps, but thoroughly business-like. And if
Polly were told to hurry, or to move on, or corrected for some mistake
in her work, it was all done in so impersonal a fashion that both girls
had learned valuable lessons from the experience. Esther had been
amazed at the spirit in which Polly had accepted the discipline and
hard work. Perhaps, after all, she had been making a mountain out of a
mole hill and this disobedience on Polly's part, wrong though it
certainly was, might not result in anything so disastrous as she had at
first feared.

And there was no doubt that Polly was achieving a real success, one
that surprised her and every one else. Her part was only a small one,
with but few words to speak; otherwise she could never have managed it
with no previous experience and so little time for rehearsing.
Nevertheless she had made one of those sudden yet conspicuous triumphs
that are so frequent in stage life. Sometimes it may happen with a
girl playing the part of a maid, sometimes with a