“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; a peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked; if Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?” “A perfect peck of pickled peppers, Peggy,” said Miss Linden, the elocution instructor, “except that you picked them a trifle too quickly. That’s the big temptation of tongue twisters; you always want to show that you can rip them out at great speed without making a mistake. What I want you to do this time is to say the same thing, but to concentrate on a normal rate of delivery that will allow your voice to carry to the rear of a hall without becoming blurred. Distance, you know, tends to make sounds run together. Now, Peggy, if you don’t mind....” More slowly this time, and concentrating on making her words reach the back of some huge, imaginary hall, Peggy once more spoke the tongue twister. “Much better. Much better,” Miss Linden approved. “Now, John, will you please read ‘round and round the rugged rock the ragged rascals ran,’ and try to read it as if it had a meaning, as if those ragged rascals were at the end of their endurance, as if you were one of them, almost. Make the words clear, project them, and at the same time give me a note of urgency and a feeling of near-exhaustion.” John, a handsome boy whom Peggy had already judged vain and stupid and who, she suspected, had gone into acting on the strength of his appearance, struggled with the assignment. Peggy tried to maintain an interest in what he was doing, but her mind was on her coming lunch meeting with Randy Brewster. What on earth was she going to suggest? Why had she volunteered to undertake the search for a theater with such confidence? It had been bothering her since she had awakened this morning, and the more she thought about it, the less likely it seemed that she would come up with an idea worth pursuing. Still, there must be some angle that Randy and Mal hadn’t thought of, some idea that would occur to her, with her reporter’s training, that had escaped them. That all sounded very good, she commented to herself, but what was the angle? Miss Linden’s tongue twisters were child’s play compared to this puzzle. Before her turn came to read again, it was time for the elocution class to end and time to go, empty-headed, to meet Randy. Peggy had never in her life felt so stupid, nor so embarrassed, for having made the boast last night that she could find what they had missed. Amy, sensing the reason for Peggy’s gloomy silence, didn’t question her about it. Without a word, the two girls moved through the crowded corridor to the elevators, rode downstairs, and stationed themselves at the front door. Finally Peggy spoke. “Oh, Amy, I hope he doesn’t think I’m a complete fool! I like him so much, and I’ve made him take this special trip to bring me his list of theaters, and if I don’t come up with an idea that makes sense, I won’t blame him for thinking I’m a dope!”