GREAT TIMES
That was not so, however, and Helen and Ann soon blurted out the good
news:
"It's a great success!"
"He's going to bring up the company next week and make the pictures at the
Hall!"
"He's been with Mrs. Tellingham all the afternoon planning when the
pictures shall be taken, and how they shall be taken," Helen said. "I
guess it's _not_ a failure!"
"I should say not!" joined in Ann Hicks.
"Oh, girls!"
If it had not been for Ruth's long day in the open and the fact that her
nerves had become much quieter, she could never have forced back the tears
of relief that answered so quickly these reassuring words.
Then a great flood of thankfulness welled up in her heart. She had
accomplished something really worth while! Later, when she saw, on the
screen, the story she had written, she was to feel this gratitude and joy
again.
She went to bed that night and slept, as she had promised, until Mrs.
Sadoc Smith knocked on the door for them all to rise. She got up with all
the oppression lifted from her mind, and wanted to race the other girls to
the Hall before breakfast.
"It won't do for you, young lady, to go gallavanting into the woods with
Curly another day," said Helen, holding on to Ruth. "You're neither to
hold nor to bind after such an expedition. I say, girls, let's all go with
Curly next time."
Amy had been very sullen ever since the evening before. Now she snapped:
"I guess Curly didn't want her--or any of us. Ruth just forced herself
upon him. He doesn't like girls."
"Bless the infant!" said Ann. "What's got her _now_?"
"Jealous of our Ruth, I declare!" laughed Helen.
Amy burst out crying and ran ahead, nor did the older girls see her at the
breakfast table. Ruth was sorry about this. She had only then begun to win
Amy Gregg's confidence, and now she feared that the girl would be angry
with her.
That day, however, Ruth was too happy to think much about Amy Gregg.
Recitations went with a rush. Miss Brokaw even was disarmed, for all
Ruth's quickness and coolness seemed to have returned to her. She did not
fail once and the strict teacher praised her.
Besides, there was a long conference with Mrs. Tellingham and Mr. Hammond.
The scenario of "The Heart of a Schoolgirl" was to be filmed at once.
"We will do our best to release it for first presentation in six weeks,"
the producer said. "And I assure you that means some quick work. You
girls," he added, to Ruth, "must do your prettiest when we take the
pictures here. Your physical culture instructor will drill you in
marching, and forming the tableaux we require. Your exposition of the
legend of the Marble Harp is a clever bit of invention, Ruth, and in the
picture will make a hit, I am sure."
Of course Ruth was proud; why should she not be? But her head was not
turned by all the flattering things that were said to her.
The girls adored her. The fact that they were all working in unison toward
the rebuilding of the dormitory, removed from the daily life and
intercourse of the big boarding school one of its more unpleasant
features.
It was only natural that there should be cliques among two hundred girls.
But now rivalries were put aside. All were striving for the same end. Some
of the girls interested various societies in their home towns to hold
fairs and bazaars for the benefit of Briarwood Hall.
Personal appeals were made directly to every girl on the alumni list--and
some of those "girls" now had girls of their own almost old enough to
attend Briarwood.
By these methods the dormitory fund was swelled. In the results from the
moving picture drama, however, was the possibility for the greatest help.
Mrs. Tellingham risked rebuilding the dormitory on the same scale as the
burned structure, because of Mr. Hammond's enthusiasm over Ruth's
achievement.
The days of early spring passed in swift procession now. It seemed that
the longer the days grew, the faster they seemed to go. There were not
hours enough in which to accomplish all that the girls, who looked toward
graduation in June, wished.
Even Jennie Stone worked harder and took her school tasks more seriously
than ever before.
"But, see here!" she said to her mates one day, "here's some 'hot ones'
Miss Brokaw has been handing the primes, and I believe they'd puzzle some
of us big girls. Listen! 'What is longitude?' Sue Mellen came to me,
puzzled, about _that_," chuckled Jennie, "and I told her longitude is
those lengthwise stripes on a watermelon."
"Oh, Heavy!" gasped Lluella. "How could you?"
"Didn't hurt me at all," proclaimed Jennie, calmly. "And I told her that a
'ski' is what a Russian has on the end of his name. That quite
satisfiedski Miss Mellenski, whether it does Miss Brokawski or not!"
Mrs. Tellingham gave the school a serious talk the day before the film
company arrived to take the first pictures for Ruth's play. She read and
explained that part of the scenario in which the Briarwood girls would
appear, and begged their serious co-operation with the director who would
have the making of the film in charge.
Ruth still shrank from seeing Mr. Grimes again; but she found that, while
engaged in the work of making these pictures, he behaved quite differently
from the way he had acted the day she had first seen him on the bank of
the Lumano river.
He was patient, but insistent. He knew just what effect he wanted and
always got it in the end. And Ruth and Helen told each other that, ugly as
he could be, Mr. Grimes was really a most wonderful director. They did not
wonder that Hazel Gray expressed her desire to work under Mr. Grimes,
harsh as he had been to her.
It was difficult for the girls--even for Ruth who had written the
scenario--to follow the trend of the story of "The Heart of a Schoolgirl"
by closely watching the taking of these scenes in and about Briarwood
Hall; for they were not taken in proper rotation.
Mr. Grimes had his schedule before him and he skipped from one part of the
story's action to another in a most bewildering way, getting the scenes
about the school filmed in each "setting" in succession, rather than
following the thread of the story.
Nor could Ruth judge the effect of the several pictures. She was too close
to them. There was no perspective.
Sometimes when Mr. Grimes seemed the most satisfied, Ruth could see
nothing in that scene at all. Again he would make the participants go over
and over a scene that seemed perfectly clear the first time.
Hazel Gray and several other professional performers were at Briarwood and
had their parts in the scenes with the schoolgirls. Hazel played the
heroine of Ruth's drama, but Mr. Hammond had insisted upon Ruth herself
acting the part of the heroine's chum--a not unimportant role.
Ruth did not feel that she had histrionic ability; but she was so anxious
for the moving picture to be a success, that she would have tried her very
best to suit Mr. Grimes in any role. She was surprised, however, when he
warmly praised her work in her one scene which was at all emotional.
"You naturally feel your part in this scene, Miss Fielding," he said. "Not
everybody could get the action before the camera so well."
"'Praise from Sir Hubert!'" whispered Hazel Gray, smiling at her young
friend. "You should be proud."
Ruth was not quite sure whether she was proud of this unsuspected talent
or not. She had written to Aunt Alvirah about her acting in the play, and
the good woman had warned her seriously against the folly of vanity and
the sin of frivolity. Aunt Alvirah had been brought up to doubt very much
the morality of those who performed upon the stage for the amusement of
the public.
What Mr. Jabez Potter thought of his niece's acting for the screen, even
his opinion of her writing a play, was a sealed matter to Ruth; for the
old miller, as Aunt Alvirah informed her, grew grumpier and more morose
all the time. "He is a caution to get along with," wrote Aunt Alvirah
Boggs in her cramped handwriting. "I don't know what's going to become of
him. You'd think he was weaned on wormwood and drunk nothing but boneset
tea all his life long."
However, it must be confessed that Ruth Fielding's thoughts were not much
upon her Uncle Jabez or the Red Mill these days. The work of making the
pictures occupied all her thought that was not taken up with study.
Jennie Stone, Sarah Fish, Helen, Lluella and Belle, all appeared
prominently in the "close up" scenes Mr. Grimes took. In the classroom,
dining hall, the graduation march, and in the Italian garden scenes, most
of the seniors and juniors were used.
A splendid gymnasium scene pleased the girls, and views of the hand-ball,
captain's-ball, tennis and basket-ball courts, with the girls in action,
were bound to be spectacular, too.
These typical boarding school scenes closely followed the text of Ruth's
play. Hazel and Ruth were in them all; and on the tennis court Hazel and
Ruth played Helen and Sarah Fish a fast game, the former couple winning by
sheer skill and pluck.
Ruth naturally had to neglect some duties. Discipline was more or less
relaxed, and she lost sight of Amy Gregg.
One evening the smaller girl did not appear at Mrs. Sadoc Smith's after
supper. Of late the other girls had let Amy Gregg alone and Ruth had
ceased to watch her so carefully. But when darkness fell and Amy did not
appear, Ruth telephoned to the school. Miss Scrimp, who answered the call,
had not seen her. It was learned, too, that Amy had not been at the supper
table. Nobody had seen her depart, but it was a fact that she had
disappeared from Briarwood Hall sometime during the afternoon. Nor had she
been near Mrs. Sadoc Smith's since early morning.