The exchange had been accidental, but one that the woman couldn’t seem to understand. Vevi had less than five dollars in her savings bank at home. How could she ever pay the sum Mrs. Gabriel might ask? It made her fairly ill to think of it.
At the next corner, the girls parted to go to their separate homes. As Vevi started away alone, Connie reminded her that all the Brownie Scouts had been invited to take part in a puppet show that evening in the public library.
“Don’t forget, Vevi.”
“I’ll be there,” Vevi promised. With a nervous giggle, she added: “That is, unless Mrs. Gabriel puts me in jail!”
Miss Mohr and Miss Gordon had planned the puppet show as a special treat for the girls. The Brownies themselves had made scenery and painted the clever figures which were to be used in a dramatization of “The Brownie Story” by Juliana H. Ewing.
Using patterns provided by Miss Mohr, the girls had traced them on stiff cardboard. These they had cut out, pasted and painted. Each character had a narrow, stiff strip of cardboard at the back which could be used as a handle to make the figures move in a life-like manner on the little stage.
Besides tiny elves, the girls had created a Tailor, his aging mother, Mary and her little brother, and an Old Owl.
Vevi was assigned to speak the words of the Old Owl and to handle that particular puppet.
Her part had not been hard to learn. Mostly the owl only had to say “Who-oo,” and “Hoot! Hoot!”
“Don’t be late,” Connie warned as she and Jane bade their friend goodbye. “After the puppet show we’re to have an investiture ceremony. Hanny’s to be made a real Brownie.”