Other editions of book A Peep Behind the Scenes

In this coming-of-age story of Christian morality, O.F. Walton takes us to a travelling performance troupe in the mid-19th century - to a young girl named Rosalie. The tale is a simple yet profound narrative of Rosalie's journey to discovering faith and her Lord amidst a world filled with perils and byways. Her skills at stage performance attract and impress crowds but also draw envy and resentment from those who believe that - through the mere chance of talent - Rosalie's life is perfect.

A Peep Behind the Scenes CHAPTER I ROSALIE Rain, rain, rain! How mercilessly it fell on the Fair-field that Sunday afternoon! Every moment the pools increased and the mud became thicker. How dismal the fair looked then! On Saturday evening it had been brilliantly lighted with rows of flaring naphtha-lights; and the grand shows, in the most aristocratic part of the field, had been illuminated with crosses, stars, anchors, and all manner of devices. But there were no lights now; there was nothing to cast a halo round the dirty, weather-stained tents and the dingy caravans. Yet, in spite of this, and in spite of the rain, a crowd of Sunday idlers lingered about the fair, looking with great interest at the half-covered whirligigs and bicycles, peeping curiously into the deserted shows, and making many schemes for further enjoyment on the morrow, when the fair was once more to be in its glory. Inside the caravans the show-people were crouching over their fires and grumbling at the weather, murmuring at having to pay so much for the ground on which their shows were erected, at a time when they would be likely to make so little profit.