Love to mother and father.
Your loving brother.
Jack
P.S.—Polly says you need not expect to recognise that deer by his portrait, should you ever meet him, as no one could expect to get a striking likeness at a distance of a half-mile. But, honestly, we have been closer than that to several deer.
CHAPTER V
THE FOREST OF ARDEN—GOOD NEWS
“From the East to western Ind,
No jewel is like Rosalind;
Her worth, being mounted on the wind,
Through all the world bears Rosalind;
All the pictures, fairest lined,
Are but black to Rosalind;
Let no face be kept in mind,
But the fair of Rosalind.”
The grand performance of “As You Like It” must have a more extended notice than it has yet received, inasmuch as its double was never seen on any stage.
The reason of this somewhat ambitious selection lay in the fact that our young people had studied it in Dr. Winship’s Shakespeare class the preceding winter, but they were actually dumb with astonishment when Bell proposed it for the opening performance in the new theatre.
“I tell you,” she argued, “there are not many pieces which would be effective when played out of doors by dim candle-light, but this will be just as romantic and lovely as can be. You see it can be played just ‘as you like it.’”
Philip and Aunt Truth wanted a matinée performance, but the girls resisted this plan very strongly, feeling that the garish light of day would be bad for the makeshift costumes, and would be likely to rob them of what little courage they possessed.
“We give the decoration of the theatre entirely into your hands, boys,” Polly had said on the day before the performance. “You have some of the hardest work done already, and can just devote yourselves to the ornamental part; but don’t expect any more ideas from us, for you will certainly be disappointed.”