The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes Page A

That's what was important in a play.
    Mr. Buckle was coming in now, walking toward the front row. Jane stooped low, with her knees bent beneath her. In front her coat nearly reached the ground. From the way she looked from the front, few would guess that she was the middle bear. Of course her feet showed. They were encased in the brown costume. But she might be a brownie or even a squirrel.
    "Hello, Mr. Buckle," said Jane. "I'm in a hurry..."
    "Where are you going, middle Moffat?" he asked. "Aren't you the prima donna?"

    "No. Just the middle bear."
    "Well, that's fine. The middle Moffat is the middle bear."
    "Yes. Or I was until I lost my head."
    "Oh, my," said Mr. Buckle. "This then is not your head?" he asked, pointing to her tam.
    "Yes, but not my bear head. I don't mean bare head. Bear head!
B-e-a-r.
That kind of head."
    "Mystifying. Very mystifying," said Mr. Buckle, settling himself slowly in a seat in the front row.
    "You'll see later," said Jane, running down the aisle.
    She ran all the way home. But the house was dark. Mama had already left. And she must have gone around the other way or Jane would have passed her. Jane raced back to the Town Hall. There! Now! The lights were dim. The entertainment had begun. Jane tried to open the side door. Chief Mulligan was guarding this entrance. He did not want to let her in at first. He thought she was just a person. But when she showed him her costume, he opened the door just wide enough for her. The bear costume was as good as a password.
    The toe dancer was doing the splits. Jane tiptoed up the three steps and went backstage, wondering what would happen now. The show always goes on. There was some comfort in that thought. Somehow, someone would fix her head. Or possibly while she was gone her middle bear head had been found. She hoped she would not have to act with her head bare.
    Miss Chichester snatched her.
    "Oh, there you are, Jane! Hop into your costume, dear."
    "I'm in it," said Jane. "But I can't find my middle bear head."
    "Heavens!" said Miss Chichester, grasping her own head. "What else will go wrong?"
    Jane looked at her in surprise. What else
had
gone wrong? Had others lost worse than their heads?
    "Where's the janitor?" Miss Chichester asked. "Maybe he let his grandchildren borrow it."
    Jane knew he hadn't, but she couldn't tell Miss Chichester for she had already flown off. And then Janey had an idea.
    "I know what," she said to Joey. "Pin me together." And she pulled the neck part of her costume up over her head. Joey pinned it with two safety pins, and he cut two holes for her eyes. This costume was not comfortable now. Pulling it up and pinning it this way lifted Jane's arms so she had trouble making them hang down the way she thought a bear's should. However, at any rate, she now had a bear head of sorts.
    "Do I look like a bear?" she asked Rufus.
    "You look like a brown ghost," Rufus replied.
    "Don't you worry," said Sylvie, coming up. "You look like a very nice little animal."
    "But I'm supposed to be a bear, not a nice little animal," said Jane.
    "Well," said Sylvie, "people will know you are supposed to be a bear because Rufus and Joey both have their bear heads on."
    So Jane resigned herself to not being a perfect bear. She tried to comfort herself with the thought that she would still be in disguise. She hoped her acting would be so good it would counterbalance her bad head. "Somebody has been eating my porridge," she practiced.
    Miss Chichester appeared. "The janitor said no," she said. She thoughtfully surveyed Jane a moment. "Hm-m-m, a makeshift," she observed. "Well, it's better than nothing," she agreed with Jane. But she decided to switch the order of the program around in order to give everybody one last chance to find the middle bear's real head. She sent Miss Beale out onto the stage. Everybody hoped that while Miss Beale was singing "In an Old-Fashioned Garden," the head would appear. But it didn't.
    "Keep a little in the background," said