The Berk-ville Ham-let School pu-pils took much in-ter-est in the Fresh
Air Chil-dren who had been sent out to their vil-lage for sum-mer
out-ings. They had thought of ways in which mon-ey could be raised to
help a-long the good cause.
"Why could-n't we have some tab-leaux and oth-er things in our school
house on Sa-tur-day af-ter-noons in May?" asked Jen-nie Hill. "Tom-my
Burns would print the tickets and all the chil-dren in the vil-lage
will, I know, sell them."
So the mat-ter was talked ov-er, and all the peo-ple liked the plan so
much that the young folks soon be-gan to prac-tice their parts for the
first day.
Le-on and Ef-fie King were to wear old time cos-tumes, stand ver-y
still, and not speak. They made a pleas-ing tab-leau. There was a
plat-form in the school room, on the back of which were placed
ev-er-green trees. For some scenes a pho-tog-ra-pher's screens were used
for a back-ground.
[Illustration]
An-na Mor-ris ap-peared af-ter Le-on and Ef-fie. She made a pret-ty
pic-ture.
Al-lan Frost, in a clear, pleas-ant voice gave the name of each scene.
He was a boy in the Pri-ma-ry class. All liked to hear young Al-lan
speak. When he called "The Task," the cur-tain, which had been hung
a-cross the plat-form end of the room, was pulled aside, and there sat
Ann Green, the lar-gest girl in school look-ing as if she were hard at
work at the task of puzz-ling out some prob-lem.
[Illustration]
Bes-sie Burns said she would play she was a laun-dress. She did her part
well.
[Illustration]
The school chil-dren thought up what they would like to be. Hen-ry
Hard-ing a dark-eyed, black hair-ed boy said he thought he could get
him-self up to look like a pic-ture he seen of an East-ern Grass
Sell-er. So he was announced un-der that ti-tle. All thought he looked
his part.
It would make too long a sto-ry to tell ev-er-y thing a-bout that show.
But the last scene was rath-er an odd one. One far-mer who lived out a
short dis-tance from the vil-lage, had an old-fash-ioned ma-chine which
had been in his cel-lar for a great man-y years. One of the school boys
knew of this queer ar-ti-cle and coaxed the loan of it for the show.
[Illustration]
Jer-ry Jar-vis, fath-er of one of the pu-pils, said that he had turned
the crank of that ma-chine time and time a-gain when he was a boy, and
that he was will-ing to go on the stage with it at that time if it would
help a-long the "Show," and raise mon-ey for the "Cause." So when the
clos-ing scene came Al-lan Frost called "The Grind-er!"
[Illustration]
The folks all en-joyed those Sa-tur-day af-ter-noons. The chil-dren
tried to va-ry the shows as much as they could. One day they gave a
con-cert. Once they sold home-made can-dy and cakes. Their "Col-o-ni-al
Loan" par-ty was much praised. The vil-lage had man-y treas-ures in old
chi-na, fur-ni-ture, can-dle sticks, kit-chen ar-ti-cles, pic-tures,
guns, swords, and clothes of old times.
[Illustration]
All were sur-prised at the ti-dy sum col-lect-ed and man-y a poor ci-ty
child re-joiced in the out-ing that mon-ey brought to them through the
Fresh Air So-ci-ety.