Mrs. Gish kept her part during the second season of the “False Step” Company, and had something in each of the Fisk O’Hara plays. The company was a very good one, made good towns and played in good theatres. The papers paid a good deal of attention to Dorothy. Her dimpled face looked out from dramatic columns; the little scrapbook which her mother kept for her contains notices of the “dainty child actress, who risks her life nightly in a lions’ den,” or “ably supported Fisk O’Hara in ‘Dion O’Dare.’” False Fisk O’Hara! We hope he has been properly punished for not waiting for her. It was during the second season in “Her First False Step” that Dorothy had her Christmas Tree. In the last act of the play, there was a Christmas scene—no tree, but Dorothy, looking into the wings, had to pretend to see one. In his book, “To Youth,” John V. A. Weaver,[1] gives this incident in verse better than anyone could hope to do it in prose. Here is the latter half of it: Of course, we never carried a Christmas tree, But she was supposed to act like it was there. Well, then, we get to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, And, bein’ it’s really Christmas, the rest of the troupe They get a bright idea. They’re goin’ to give The kid a celebration, to make her happy. So then, Dorothy’s goin’ along, as usual, Doin’ her stuff real good. And the third act, She starts to gallop on in her big scene— And there’s a real tree standin’ on the stage, Lit up with candles, and hung with all the fixin’s! She takes three steps—and her eyes start to pop. She stops dead in her tracks, tries to go on Sayin’ her words—and gives a couple of gulps, And busts out cryin’. And she cries, and cries, Watchin’ the tree. And the audience all laughin’, And me dried up, with lumps stuck in my throat.... Finally, they have to ring the curtain down. I tell you, it ain’t fair to have a little Yellow-haired kid puttin’ things in your head,— Things you gave up many’s the year ago. It was a season or two later, when they were with the Fisk O’Hara Company, that Dorothy woke one night in a hotel in Toledo, to find her mother very ill indeed, with high fever and delirium. The day before, she had complained of a cold, and Dorothy had bought her a bottle of some mixture, chiefly persuaded by the picture on the label. Apparently it had not helped. The frightened child crept down the hall to summon help. Mrs. Gish had intermittent fever, and Dorothy next day had to leave her and go on with the company. There was nobody to take her part. She was only too kindly treated, but during the days before her mother joined them, she was a sadly worried little girl.