asked to be allowed
to stay and dance more, and this was allowed. Ruth and Alice, with
Russ and Paul, also remained and had a jolly good time, making
friends with some of the country girls and boys.

"I've got something new for you, Miss Alice," said the moving picture
manager a day or so later, coming up to Ruth and her sister as they
sat on the farmhouse porch. Mr. Pertell had some typewritten pages in
his hand, and this generally meant that he was getting ready for a
new play.

"What is it this time?" asked Alice. "Have I got to fall overboard
out of any more boats?" for that had been one of her recent "stunts."

"No, there's no water-stuff in this," answered the manager with a
smile. "But can you drive horses?"

"Mercy, no!" cried Alice.

"Oh, I don't mean city horses. I mean these gentle country ones about
the farm."

"Oh, I've driven the team Sandy uses to take the milk to the dairy,"
confessed Alice. "I could manage them, I suppose."

"Those are the ones I mean," went on the manager. "In this play you
are supposed to be a country girl. Your father falls ill and can't
cut the hay. It has to be cut and sold to pay a pressing debt, and no
hired men can be had in a hurry. So you hitch up the horses to the
mower and drive them to cut the grass. It's only for a little while.
Think you can do it?"

"Well, I never drove a mowing machine; but I can try. I don't know
about hitching up the horses, though."

"Better practice a little with Sandy, then," the manager advised.
"He'll show you how."

He gave Alice some written instructions, and then went over Ruth's
part in the play. Alice, resolving to learn how to hitch up a team,
went out to find Sandy.

It was much easier than she had expected to find it, to attach the
slow and patient horses to the mowing machine, and the young farmer
took her for a turn with it about the barn yard, so she would be
familiar with its operation.

"I think I can do it," said Alice, and two days later, the rehearsals
were ended and all was in readiness for making the film of the new
rural play.

Alice took her place on the seat of the machine, and began to guide
the horses around the edge of the hay field. The mower has a long
knife extending out from one side, and as the machine is driven along
the wheels work the mechanism that sends this knife--or, rather a
series of knives--vibrating back and forth inside a sort of toothed
guard, thus cutting the hay or grain.

"All read