s
Robbins. "I've got as far as this, that you're all high-school girls and
want to give a show. It would take a reg'lar racehorse of a brain to
keep up with that tongue of yourn."

Peggy's further explanations were characterized by the utmost
deliberation, so that Mr. Robbins had time to ask any questions that
occurred to him, and the outcome justified her expectation. Not only did
she secure the use of the school building, but Mr. Silas Robbins agreed
to purchase tickets for himself and family.

"And to think I took you for a perfessional," said Mr. Robbins, smiling
very broadly as he turned back to his waiting horses. "If there's
anything in your show funnier'n that, it'll be wuth the price. Going to
ask a quarter, be you? That's right. Folks don't appreciate a cheap
ten-cent show, the way they do one they've got to pay a good price for."

Peggy met a similarly cordial reception at the office of the _Weekly
Arena_, the country paper, on which she was relying for free
advertising. Mr. Smart, the editor, was a careworn little man, whose
frayed and faded business suit suggested that too many subscriptions
were paid in potatoes and cord wood, and too few in the coin of the
realm. He agreed to her request with a readiness Peggy thought
wonderfully kind, though it would have surprised her less, had she
realized with what eagerness Mr. Smart was continually seeking items
with a news value.

"I'll make one or two references to it in this issue," Mr. Smart
promised, "to sort of pique curiosity, you know. And next week you might
give me a little write-up of the thing. Outline the plot, without giving
away the surprises, and put it on thick about its being funny. It
_is_ funny, ain't it?"

"Oh, yes, very."

"That's the talk," said Mr. Smart approvingly. "I don't know how it is
with city people. Sometimes it seems to me that they must like to have
their feelings harrowed up, judging from the kind of plays they go to
see. But here in the country, we like to get our money's worth of
laughing. And, by the way, I suppose you understand, Miss, that it's
customary for the Press to receive two complimentary tickets."

Notwithstanding this cordial and valuable support, Peggy was to find
that the lot of an actor-manager is not altogether free from thorns.
Claire had obligingly agreed to accept the vacant _role_ in the
cast, but after one reading of the little play, a marked decrease in her
enthusiasm was observable.

"Do you kn