CHAPTER XXIV
THE FINAL REHEARSAL
Before the tableau in which Tess Kenway had so covered herself with glory was again rehearsed, the scaffolding was rebuilt as a series of broad steps and made much lower.
Tess was not to be frightened out of playing her part as Swiftwing, the hummingbird.
"No. I was not in danger," she reported to Mrs. Eland, when she and Dot went to see the gray lady as usual the next Monday afternoon. "The wire held me up so that I could not possibly fall. It was only the other two girls who might have fallen. But they hurt my arms."
"If you had been a real hummingbird," put in the practical Dot, "you could have caught one of them with your beak and the other in your claws. Butterflies aren't very heavy."
"Those butterflies were heavy enough," sighed her sister.
"It was splendid of you, Tess!" cried Mrs. Eland. "I am proud of you."
"So are we," announced Dot. "But Aunt Sarah says we ought not to praise her too much or maybe she'll get biggity. What's 'biggity'?"
"Something I'm sure Tess will never be," said the matron, hugging Tess again. "Why so sober, dear? You ought to be glad you helped save those two little girls from a serious fall."