For the next ten days Lovey Mary dwelt in Elysium. The prompt-book,
the rehearsals, the consultations, filled the spare moments and threw
a glamour over the busy ones. Jake, with his vast experience and
unlimited knowledge of stage-craft, appealed to her in everything. He
sat on a barrel and told how they did things "up to the opery-house,"
and Lovey Mary, seizing his suggestions with burning zeal, refitted
the costumes, constructed scenery, hammered her own nails as well as
the iron ones, and finally succeeded in putting into practice his
rather vague theories. For the first time in her life she was a person
of importance.

Besides her numerous other duties she prepared an elaborate costume
for Tommy. This had caused her some trouble, for Miss Hazy, who was
sent to buy the goods for the trousers, exercised unwise economy in
buying two remnants which did not match in color or pattern.

"Why didn't you put your mind on it, Miss Hazy?" asked Lovey Mary,
making a heroic effort to keep her temper. "You might have known I
couldn't take Tommy to the show with one blue leg and one brown one.
What must I do?"

Miss Hazy sat dejectedly in the corner, wiping her eyes on her apron.
"You might go ast Mis' Wiggs," she suggested as a forlorn hope.

When Mrs. Wiggs was told the trouble she smiled reassuringly.
Emergencies were to her the spice of life; they furnished
opportunities for the expression of her genius.

"Hush cryin', Miss Hazy; there ain't a speck of harm did. Mary kin
make the front outen one piece an' the back outen the other. Nobody