MOVING PICTURES
Well did the Curlytops know the place spoken of in such a hurry by fat
Jack Turton. Ted and Janet had often gathered flowers in the meadow,
and Ted had, more than once, caught fish under that same white bridge
spoken of by the fat lad.
“The water is deep down by the white bridge,” said Ted, as he watched
Jack hurrying down the street. Other children, gathered to say good-by
to the Curlytops, had heard what Jack said about a big crowd in the
meadow, and they were following him down to the place.
“I hope no one is drowned,” murmured Mrs. Martin, looking at her three
children in the auto and feeling thankful that they were safe with her.
“Oh, Daddy!” exclaimed Janet, “couldn’t we drive down past the meadow
on our way and see what the crowd is there for?”
“Maybe it’s a circus!” exclaimed Trouble, who had caught some of the
talk, but didn’t know exactly what it was all about.
“No, it can’t be a circus,” declared Ted. “There haven’t been any
circus posters around town. I’d have seen ’em if there was.”
“It isn’t a circus,” decided Mr. Martin. “I think, as long as we have
time, that I’ll drive around that way. We can take the road over the
white bridge as well as any other.”
In fact, the Curlytops were going to tour around the country, not going
to any certain place at any certain time, so they could do as they
pleased, which is half the fun of touring.
“Dick,” said Mrs. Martin, touching her husband gently on the arm as he
was about to start the car down the street after Jack and the other
children, “perhaps we had better not go down there.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“If it’s a drowning it would be a sad sight, and----”
Mr. Martin appeared undecided as his wife brought this thought to his
mind, and it might have been that he would have taken some other
route, except that he saw Doctor Whitney driving along in his small
car. The physician was coming from the direction of the white bridge.
“Dr. Whitney will know if an accident has happened,” said Mr. Martin.
“If there’s been a drowning he wouldn’t be coming away from it. He
would stay there and try to save the drowned person.”
“Please ask him,” suggested Mrs. Martin.
Accordingly her husband called:
“Anything the matter down at the white bridge, Doctor?”
The doctor brought his car to a halt near that of the Curlytops, and
waved his hand to the children after he had raised his hat to Mrs.
Martin.
“Drowning at the white bridge?” he asked. “No, nothing like that.
Though there may be if they keep on. There’s a big crowd there and some
of the youngsters may fall in.”
“What’s going on?” asked Mrs. Martin.
“Is it a circus?” Trouble asked. “I’d like to see a nellifunt!”
“Yes, you saw one once!” laughed his mother.
“No, it isn’t a circus, though the kids are having almost as much fun
as if there was one,” chuckled the doctor. “And the men are having as
much trouble trying to keep the boys and girls back as though there
were two circuses.”
“Sounds rather interesting!” laughed Mr. Martin. “But I’m glad no one
is drowned--that’s what fat little Jack suggested.”
“What in the world is it?” asked Mrs. Martin, and Ted and Janet
listened eagerly to the answer of the physician, for they could not
imagine what was happening at the white bridge.
“It’s moving pictures,” the doctor replied.
“Moving pictures!” cried the Curlytops together, just as twins might
have done. But Ted and Janet were not twins, though they were born on
the same day of the year. Ted was exactly a year ahead of his sister.
“I didn’t know they were showing movies in the meadow,” said Mr. Martin.
“They aren’t _showing_ moving pictures,” replied Doctor Whitney.
“They’re _taking_ them.”
“Taking movies!” gasped Ted. “Oh, I want to see that!”
“Real moving pictures?” Janet wanted to know.
“I guess they’re real enough,” answered the doctor. “I don’t know much
about such things, but there is a company of men and women down in the
meadow, posing around on the bridge and on boats in the river. They’re
all painted up--I mean their faces--and they are wearing fancy clothes.
A lot of men with megaphones are shouting directions, and other men are
grinding away at the cranks of moving picture machines. So I guess it’s
real enough.”
“Oh, Daddy, please take us there!” begged the Curlytops.
“Shall we go, Mother?” asked Mr. Martin of his wife.
“Yes, I would like to see it,” she answered. “And I’m sure the children
would be amused.”
“Oh, say, I guess we would!” murmured Janet.
“Come on, Dad! Step on it!” cried Ted, meaning for his father to press
on the gasoline accelerator of the car and move the machine faster.
“Ted and Janet, they didn’t ’muse me,” remarked Trouble. “An’ Ted, he
fell down in the well--he did!”
He remembered this event quite clearly.
“Well, we hope no one falls into the river,” laughed Mrs. Martin, as
they said good-day to Doctor Whitney and moved along. A large creek, or
a small river, whichever way you looked at it, flowed under the white
bridge on the outskirts of Cresco.
“Let’s go! Let’s go!” chanted Ted.
“I’d love to watch them take movies,” remarked Janet. “I’ve never seen
them do it.”
“I did once, at a baseball game,” stated Ted. “But it didn’t amount to
much. This’ll be a lot better.”
As the Curlytops approached the white bridge and the meadow through
which flowed the river, they saw others also hurrying to the scene. For
Cresco was a small city, or a large town, you might say, and anything
like excitement--such as taking moving pictures near it--was sure to
draw a throng.
As Mr. Martin drove his car over the bridge and down a lane into the
meadow, where many other cars were parked, there was no doubt about
what was going on. Moving pictures were certainly being taken there, or
“filmed,” to use the right word.
“Oh, look at the cowboys!” cried Ted, for some of the actors were
attired in western suits--big hats, “chaps,” or leather breeches,
and spurs on their shoes, while some of them carried coils of ropes.
“They’re lassoes,” explained Ted.
“Pooh, I knew that!” scoffed Jan.
“Why, there’s quite a company of them!” remarked Mrs. Martin, as she
noticed the number of men and women who, it was plain to be seen, were
not residents of Cresco. They belonged to the company. “Why do you
suppose they came here to take pictures?” she asked her husband.
“It’s hard to say,” he answered. “Probably the play they are taking
needed just such a scene in it as this bridge, river and meadow
provide. The company is out on ‘location,’ as it is called. That is,
they have come out from their studio, or the ‘lot,’ as they call it,
and they have found just the right location for making certain scenes.”
“Oh, look, that lady is going to jump from the boat!” cried Janet,
pointing to a small skiff on the river, which held one young lady and
several men.
The actress was, indeed, standing up in the bow of the boat and, as Jan
had said, seemed about to jump into the river. One man was rowing the
boat, and the other, in the stern, was moving forward as if to stop the
young lady from leaping overboard.
“This is great!” cried Ted, with shining eyes.
“Awfully exciting,” admitted Janet.
“It’s like a circus,” said Trouble. “But I don’t see any nellifunts!
Where are the nellifunts?”
Several persons standing near Mr. Martin’s car laughed at this. But
they quickly looked away from the Curlytops and toward the boat on the
river as the young lady in it gave a scream and leaped into the water,
making a great splash.
“Oh, my goodness!” cried Mrs. Martin. “There’ll be a drowning after
all!”