You must then fasten the four pieces together by gluing cardboard on each side of the joints, and you will have a very good frame, which you can cover with colored paper or ornament with muslin.

This frame will last a very long time if carefully treated.  It should stand upright by itself; but if it is a little unsteady, it is better to hold it upright from the sides.  Of course, this will only make a very small frame, but you can increase the size by using more boxes.

If you have no time to make a frame, arrange your figures close to a door, outside the room in which the audience is seated.

When quite ready, some one must open the door, when the doorway will make a kind of frame to the living picture.

It is always well to have a curtain if you can; a sheet makes an excellent one.  Two children standing upon chairs hold it up on each side, and at a given signal drop it upon the floor, so that, instead of the curtain rising, it drops.  When it has been dropped, the two little people should take the sheet corners in their hands again, so that they have only to jump upon the chairs when it is time to hide the picture.

Of course, these instructions are only for living pictures on a very small scale; much grander arrangements will be needed if the performance is to take place before any but a “home audience.”

As I told you before, comic living pictures are the easiest to perform on account of the dresses being easier to make, but there are other living pictures which are easier still, and which will cause a great deal of fun and merriment.  They are really catches, and are so simple that even very little children can manage them.

You can arrange a program, and make half a dozen copies to hand round to the audience.

The first living picture on the list is “The Fall of Greece” and sounds very grand, indeed; but when the curtain rises (or rather, if it is the sheet curtain, drops), the audience see a lighted candle set rather crookedly in a candlestick and fanned from the background so as to cause the grease to fall.

Here are some other similar comic tableaux which you can easily place before an audience: 

“Meet of the Hounds.”—­A pile of dog biscuits.

“View of the Black Sea.”—­A large capital C blackened with ink.

“The Charge of the Light Brigade.”—­Half a dozen boxes of matches labeled:  “10 cents the lot.”

These are only a few of the many comic living pictures you can perform; but, no doubt, you will be able to think of others for yourselves.

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ACTING PROVERBS

[Illustration]