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When he remounted his wooden pedestal, thereby transforming himself into a Chinese Giant of wax, he looked the part. Where the other statues broke into giggles, to the detriment of their mechanical perfection, or squirmed visibly when the broken alarm clock whirred its signal against the small of their backs, Happy Jack stood immovably upright, a gigantic figure with features inhumanly stolid. The schoolma’am pointed him out as an example to the others, and pronounced him enthusiastically the best actor in the lot.

“Happy’s swallowed his medicine–that’s what ails him,” the Japanese Dwarf whispered to Captain Kidd, and grinned.

The Captain turned his head and studied the brooding features of the giant. “He’s doing some thinking,” he decided. “When he gets the thing figured out, in six months or a year, and savvies it was a put-up job from the start, somebody’ll have it coming.”

“He can’t pulverize the whole bunch, and he’ll never wise up to who’s the real sinner,” Weary comforted himself.

“Don’t you believe it. Happy doesn’t think very often; when he does though, he can ring the bell–give him time enough.”

“Here, you statues over there want to let up on the chin-whacking or I’ll hand yuh a few with this,” commanded Mrs. Jarley, and shook the stove-poker threateningly.

The Japanese Dwarf returned to his poisoned rice and Captain Kidd apologized to his victim, who was frowning reproof at him, and the rehearsal proceeded haltingly.

That night, Weary rode home beside Happy Jack and tried to lift him out of the slough of despond. But Happy refused to budge, mentally, an inch. He rode humped in the saddle like a calf in its first blizzard, and he was discouragingly unresponsive; except once, when Weary reminded him that the tableau would need no rehearsing and that it would only last a minute, anyway, and wouldn’t hurt. Whereupon Happy Jack straightened and eyed him meditatively and finally growled, “Aw gwan; I betche you put her up to it, yuh darned chump.”

After that Weary galloped ahead and overtook the others and told them Happy Jack was thinking and mustn’t be disturbed, and that he thought it would not be fatal to anyone, though it was kinda hard on Happy.

From that night till Christmas eve, Happy Jack continued to think. It was not, however, till the night of the entertainment, when he was riding gloomily alone on his way to the school-house, that Happy Jack really felt that his brain had struck pay dirt. He took off his hat, slapped his horse affectionately over the ears with it and grinned for the first time since the Thanksgiving dance. “Yes sir,” he said emphatically aloud, “I betche that’s how it is, all right and I betche–“

The schoolma’am, her cheeks becomingly pink from excitement, fluttered behind the curtain for a last, flurried survey of stage properties and actors. “Isn’t Johnny here, yet?” she asked of Annie Pilgreen who had just come and still bore about her a whiff of frosty, night air. Johnny was first upon the program, with a ready-made address beginning, “Kind friends, we bid you welcome on this gladsome day,” and the time for its delivery was overdue.

Out beyond the curtain the Kind Friends were waxing impatient and the juvenile contingent was showing violent symptoms of descending prematurely upon the glittering little fir tree which stood in a corner next the stage. Back near the door, feet were scuffling audibly upon the bare floor and a suppressed whistle occasionally cut into the hum of subdued voices. Miss Satterly was growing nervous at the delay, and she repeated her question impatiently to Annie, who was staring at nothing very intently, as she had a fashion of doing.

“Yes, ma’am,” she answered absently. Then, as an afterthought, “He’s outside, talking to Happy Jack.”

Annie was mistaken; Happy Jack was talking to Johnny. The schoolma’am tried to look through a frosted window.