," Paul informed her. "But you don't go on to-day.
This is only a rehearsal."

"But they've been firing real powder," remarked Alice, "and it looks as
though they were going to fire more," and she pointed to where men of
the masked battery were ramming charges down the iron throats of their
guns.

"Yes, they're firing, and charging, and doing all manner of stunts, and
the camera men are grinding away, but they aren't using any film," went
on Paul. "It's just to get every one used to working under the
excitement. They have to fire the guns so the horses will get so they
don't mind them when the real time comes."

Hundreds of extra players had been engaged to come to Oak Farm for these
battle scenes in the drama, "A Girl in Blue and A Girl in Gray," and
some of them were already on hand with their mounts. As has been said,
special accommodations had been erected where they were to stay during
the weeks they would be needed. There were more men than women among the
extra people, though a number of women and girls were needed in the
"town" scenes.

Most of the men were former members of the militia, cowboys and
adventurers, all of whom were used to hard, rough riding. This was
necessary, for when battle scenes are shown there must be some "killed,"
and when a man has a horse shot from under him, or is shot himself,
riding at full speed, even though the cartridges are blank, the action
calls for a heavy fall, sudden and abrupt, to make it look real. And
this is not easy to do, nor is it altogether safe with a mob of riders
thundering along behind one.

Yet the men who take part in these battle scenes do it with scarcely a
thought of danger, though often many of them are hurt, as are the
horses.

In brief the story of the play in which Ruth was to take the part of a
girl in Blue, and Alice of a girl in Gray, was this. They were cousins,
and Ruth was visiting Alice's home in the South when the war broke out.
Alice, of course, sided with her people, and loved the gray uniforms,
while Ruth's sympathies were with the North.

Ruth determined to go back North and become a nurse, while Alice,
longing for more active work, offered her services as a spy to help the
Confederacy. Though on opposite sides, the girls' love for one another
did not wane.

Then came the scenes of the war. Battles were to be shown, and there
were plots and counter-plots, in some of which Ruth and Alice had no
part. Mr. DeVere was cast for a Norther