“I will agree to furnish the costumes,” said Miss Dayton; “they will not have to be very fine to look extremely pretty in the frame. Mr. Gray has made me a fine frame which you and I will cover with evergreen. Then Mrs. Gray has two bracket lamps which we will fasten to the back of the frame to light up the pictures, and I have a lot of odds and ends of pretty things in my trunks which will be sufficiently bright and gay for costumes. Now let us go at once to the barn and decorate the frame.”
Mr. Gray’s man, Roger, had just brought in an immense load of evergreen. Randy was all eagerness to help, and together they worked all the afternoon.
When she left for home the frame was thickly covered. There was evergreen and asparagus over the pictures in the “best room” where they were to exhibit to the townspeople their tableaux, and Randy had seen her costume which Helen had designed.
Miss Dayton was an ardent admirer of Greuze, and she possessed many photographic reproductions of his paintings. She also owned a number of photographs of Sir Joshua Reynold’s portraits of beautiful women and children, and knowing the bareness of the walls in the average New England farm-house, she had brought these pictures with her to decorate her room during her stay. She intended to copy these beautiful pictures in the list of tableaux which she arranged.
Randy was spellbound when she saw the photographs. “Oh, Miss Dayton,” cried she, “do you really think any of us will do?”
“Why, yes indeed,” laughed Helen, “I have you all selected now. You are to be the girl with the broken pitcher in the painting by Greuze. Would you like to see your costume?”
“I guess I should like to,” answered Randy, excitedly clapping her hands; so Helen showed her a waist with large, loose sleeves, a kerchief or scarf, and a wide ribbon “to tie up her bonny brown hair.”
Randy went home in a fever of excitement. Think of a girl of fifteen who had never witnessed an entertainment of any kind, and you will understand with what delight she looked forward to an evening of tableaux in which she would take part.
Miss Dayton called upon those girls who she thought would like to pose for the tableaux, and every one was invited to be present.
The girls, both large and small, were delighted, and their elders were quite as pleased with the promise of an evening’s enjoyment, and every invitation was enthusiastically accepted. Mrs. Gray’s attic proved a perfect treasure room. She generously offered the contents of all the old trunks to Helen, saying, “If you see anything which you can make use of, I shall be truly glad.” Mrs. Gray had been a city girl, and had spent the greater part of her married life there, and she brought to the farm-house many trunks containing faded finery, which, while far too good to be thrown away, were of but little use in that small country town. Helen chose those things which she could best utilize and carried them down to the front room, where she deposited them behind an improvised screen.