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.
Once—and this has to do with another Christmas—the Fisk O’Hara Company laid off in New Orleans, and went one night to see “The Lion and the Mouse,” at the theatre they would occupy the following week. On the way out, Dorothy noticed a purse in one of the back rows. She took it to the box office, to the manager, who knew them. He said: “If nobody calls for it, it will be yours.”
Nobody did call for it, and the next week he gave it to her. It contained $21.00, a sum which they could have used very handily, but instead they went out and spent it on a gold watch to send to Lillian, for Christmas.
