Page:Girls of Central High on the Stage.djvu/73

Rh have a new party dress—and a really nice one—and the furs I have been hoping to buy you for two seasons. Dear, dear! what a lot of things you really could get for that sum."

"I guess it would help us out a whole lot," admitted the girl. "We need so many things"

"Why, I shouldn't allow you to use a cent of it for the household—or for me," cried her mother. "No, indeed."

"I haven't won it yet," sighed Jess. "But I guess if I did win it you'd have to take a part of it, Mother."

"Nonsense, child!" cried Mrs. Morse. "We'll have some checks in shortly. And we sha'n't starve meanwhile. Now, let us look over this plot you have evolved and perhaps I can suggest some helpful points—and show you how to write brisk dialogue. That is something the editors always praise me for—although I have never dared try a play myself. It is so hard to get a hearing before a really responsible manager."

Outside help for the girls was not debarred by the terms of the contest, so long as the main thread of plot in each play was original with the author, and she actually did the work. Jess listened to the practical suggestions of her mother in relation to her play; but all the time she had