anyway.

What worried Happy Jack most was trying to discover how the dickens
Weary found out he liked Annie Pilgreen; that was a secret which Happy
Jack had almost succeeded in keeping from himself, even. He would have
bet money no one else suspected it--and yet here was Weary grinning and
telling him he and Annie were cut out for a tableau together. Happy
Jack pondered till he got a headache, and he did not come to any
satisfactory conclusion with himself, even then.

The rest of the Happy Family stayed late at the school-house, and Weary
and Chip discussed something enthusiastically in a corner with the
Little Doctor and the schoolma'am. The Little Doctor said that
something was a shame, and that it was mean, to tease a fellow as
bashful as Happy Jack.

Weary urged that sometimes Cupid needed a helping hand, and that it
would really be doing Happy a big favor, even if he didn't appreciate
it at the time. So in the end the girls agreed and the thing was
settled.

The Happy Family rode home in the crisp starlight gurgling and leaning
over their saddle-horns in spasmodic fits of laughter. But when they
trooped into the bunk-house they might have been deacons returning from
prayer meeting so far as their decorous behavior was concerned. Happy
Jack was in bed, covered to his ears and he had his face to the wall.
They cast covert glances at his carroty top-knot and went silently to
bed--which was contrary to habit.

At the third rehearsal, just as the Chinese Giant stepped off the
coal-oil box--thereby robbing himself miraculously of two feet of
stature--the schoolma'am approached him with a look in her big eyes
that set him shivering. When she laid a finger mysteriously upon his
arm and drew him into the corner sacred to secret consultations, the
forehead of Happy Jack resembled the outside of a stone water-jar in
hot weather. He knew beforehand just about what she would say. It was
the tableau that had tormented his sleep and made his days a misery for
the last ten days--the tableau with red fire and Annie Pilgreen.

Miss Satterly told him that she had already spoken to Annie, and that
Annie was willing if Happy Jack had no objections. Happy Jack had, but
he could not bring himself to mention the fact.

The schoolma'am had not quoted Annie's reply verbatim, but that was
mere detail. When she had asked Annie if she would take part in a
tableau with Happy Jack, Annie had dropped her pale eyelids and said: