More Portmanteau Plays Part 35

Father was going to get strict and keep me off the water tonight and just as I came down here to get my sweater I heard him coming to the coat room so I jumped behind the curtains and let him pa.s.s and then Joe and Ethel came in and I couldn't let them see me this way. And then somebody else came and then you came in--well, I got cold.

HE (_looking out_)

Run on now, Bob, the hall is clear.

[_Boy starts._

BOY

What was it you did, Sis?

SHE

I didn't do it.

BOY

Why didn't you do it?

SHE

I didn't do anything.

BOY

He said Joe squeezed your hand.

SHE

Absurd!

BOY

Well, I hope not, because he and Ethel got engaged in here too!

[_He and She look fondly at each other and He murmurs_, "Genevieve" _as he reaches out for her_.

_The Boy begins to sing, "Oh, Genevieve, Sweet Genevieve," and they become aware of him, turning upon him and pursuing him with a warning cry of_ "Bob."

_The End_

JONATHAN MAKES A WISH

A PLAY IN THREE ACTS

CHARACTERS

AUNT LEt.i.tIA SUSAN SAMPLE UNCLE NATHANIEL UNCLE JOHN JONATHAN MLLE. PERRAULT HANK ALBERT PEET MARY JOHN III

ACT I

JONATHAN MAKES A FRIEND

[_The scene represents the lumber room in the carriage house on John Clay's suburban estate. The room is crowded with old trunks, paintings, barrels, boxes, chests, furniture showing long residence during slow epochs of changing taste. Everything is in good order and carefully labelled. At the right of the room is a door opening onto the stairs which lead to the ground floor. A small window is set high in the peak of the gabled end up centre. At the left a chimney comes through the floor and cuts into the roof as though it had been added by Victorian standards of taste for exterior beautification. An open stove intrudes its pipe into the chimney.

The single indication of the life of today having touched the place is the studied arrangement of an old rosewood square grand piano. The keyboard is uncovered. On the top is a tiny theatre--a model masked and touched with mystery, according to early adolescent standards. Two benches stand in front of the piano, and the piano stool is meticulously set in place. A flamboyant placard leaning against the music rack announces:_

TODAY

ZEn.o.bIA

A tragedy in ten acts by Alexander Jefferson, Sr.

_The light in the room is dim, although it is quite bright out of doors.

There are two low windows which are heavily barred. The little theatre is so arranged that when the manipulator stands on the box to work it, his head can be seen over the masking._

_The curtain rises disclosing an empty room. Presently laborious steps are heard on the stairs and a key is turned in the lock. Then Aunt Let.i.tia enters followed by Susan Sample. Aunt Let.i.tia is a motherly old woman who has been in the Clay home for many years. She may have preferences, but like the buildings on the estate, she stays where she is. Susan Sample is a tall, slender girl of fourteen with a very gentle manner and a way of looking at people that indicates a receptivity rarely met in one so old.

Let.i.tia goes to one of the trunks marked E R in large white letters and unlocks it._

LEt.i.tIA

Here they are, my dear. Help me with the hasps.

SUSAN

What does E. R. really stand for, Mis' Let.i.tia?

LEt.i.tIA

E. R.... That's a secret, Susan, that little girls aren't supposed to know.

SUSAN

I won't tell.

LEt.i.tIA

But what good would that do, my sweet? Please open the windows.