"Say! you"re a wonder, you are, Ruth Fielding. Never anybody got around Gran the way you do, before. You"re a wonder!"
Helen and Ann met Ruth in great excitement. "Where under the sun have you been--and in that ragged old gym suit?" gasped Helen.
"You look as though your face was burnt. I believe you"ve been playing hooky, Ruth Fielding!" cried Ann.
"Right the first time," sighed Ruth, happily. "Oh, I feel _so_ much better. And I know I shall sleep like a brick."
"You mean, a railroad tie, don"t you?" demanded Ann. "_That"s_ a sleeper!"
"Of course we found your note, and we told Miss Brokaw. But she"s got it in for you just the same," said Helen, slangily. "And only guess!"
"Yes! Guess! Ruth! Fielding!" and Ann seized her and danced her about the room. "You missed it by being absent to-day."
"Oh, don"t! Never mind all this! I"m tired enough. I"ve walked _miles_,"
groaned Ruth. "What have I missed?"
"Mr. Hammond is in Lumberton. He came to see you about the scenario,"
Helen eagerly said.
Ruth sat down and clasped her hands, while her cheeks paled. "It"s a failure!" she whispered.
CHAPTER XIX
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 rea.s.suring 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 grat.i.tude 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 a.s.sure 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 pa.s.sed 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.