The overture was finished, and the orchestra played a “riser” for the curtain to go up.
“True Blue” began.
It was an audience to make any actor do his best. Gallup in the part of Reuben Grass soon put the audience in a good humor. He strolled onto the stage in his jay make-up, singing the song with which he had made such a hit in Merriwell’s first play:
“I alwus mind what dad says ter me
Sense fust he tuck me uver his knee;
But when I’m away ’way outer his sight
I do jest abaout as any boy might;
Fer then I know that he’ll never see
That I don’t mind what he says ter me.”
The audience received him with a burst of applause, and Ephraim responded by getting off several country gags that delighted everybody.