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THE FIRST DRESS REHEARSAL
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"You wouldn't!" exclaimed Hester.

"I would in a minute. And this Signor Pizotti could place me very advantageously——"

"Pooh! you don't believe anything that fellow says, do you?" demanded her chum, who was eminently practical and had none of the silly ideas in her head that troubled Lily.

"You don't know him!" exclaimed Lily.

"Don't want to," replied Hester, gruffly.

Preparations for the first dress rehearsal of "The Spring Road" went on apace. But, of course, Bobby Hargrew would have bad luck! She was thrown from Short and Long's bobsled one night and had to be helped home. The hurt to her foot was a small matter; but the doctor said she would have to wear her arm in a sling for a time.

"And how can I play Arista with my arm strapped to my side?" wailed Bobby, when Jess and Laura came in to commiserate with her over the accident. "Oh, dear me! I am the most unlucky person in the world. If it was raining soup I'd have a hole in my dipper!"

Mr. Monterey, the local manager, came himself to the dress rehearsal. He only sat out front, and watched and listened; and he went away without expressing an opinion to anybody. Yet Jess saw him there and was excited by the