Hope Valley's Children and the Founders Day Play

A mere three to four weeks after she had moved to Hope Valley, back when it was still called Coal Valley Elizabeth Thatcher now Thornton had learned that she only had a week to prepare her class to put on the towns founders day play. Elizabeth had never directed a play before and she was nervous that she would mess it up.

While Elizabeth was in the middle of having an outburst about the time frame she had to prepare her class to perform the play, Jack just at that exact moment had come over to Elizabeth to help her calm down as he said to her;

"just take a deep breath, Elizabeth you can do this, no need to worry" Jack says

"Are you sure, I never directed a play before. I went to teacher collage not drama school, Jack" Elizabeth responds

"I know, but you are smart. You will figure everything out, and I am sure the children will help you as well" Jack replies

"Thank you Jack for the support it means so much. I will try my best with helping the children with their parts in the play" Elizabeth responded.

After Jack calms her down Elizabeth starts setting up her morning lessons. As she is working on this a few of the mothers of her students offer to help her with Jobs related to the founders day play like costumes, learning the songs and music by playing the piano, getting up the backdrop etc…, which Elizabeth was thankful for as she was already overwhelmed with having to direct the play, and it would be her first time doing something like this.

Pretty soon the children arrived for the start of the school day. As the day progressed the pastor come in dragging a trunk full of charred costumes, which one of the mothers Kat Montgomery who had volunteered to help out with the music for the play was very upset about the condition of that she not even bother to ask about the backdrop which she automatically concluded had been stored in the church that had been burned down once she saw the charred costumes in the storage trunk.

Over the next few days as Elizabeth was directing her class for rehearsals during the school day she concluded she was getting the hang of it pretty quickly. She was also praising her class for all the hard work they were putting into their parts. One morning, when she had entered the saloon to prepare for class she saw a newly painted backdrop hanging up for the play that was to take place in three days. She was surprised and was wondering where it had come from since it was out of the blue kind of surprise and unexpected. When the kids arrived they too were surprised to see the backdrop as well as Mrs. Montgomery. Since she knew of no one who could paint like the person before who had painted the old backdrop, but she was glad as well as Elizabeth was that they had a backdrop for the play.

Pretty soon the day of the founders day play had arrived. Elizabeth with the help of a few of the mothers were finishing setting up chairs for the towns residences so they could enjoy the program the children of hope valley would be performing in just an hour or two. Slowly one by one the students arrived to get ready to perform the founder's day play for their family, friends, and the rest of the town of Hope Valley which is known formally as Coal Valley. After they had gotten ready, and the rest of the town had found seats the play started. Elizabeth stood backstage to single each student when it was their time to enter the stage to perform their assigned role in the play. As the play went on, the rest of the town was enjoying it a lot. Pretty soon the play was over and everyone went home after an entertaining night.

After the Play

On Monday two days after the play had taken place some of the older students were busy rolling up the new backdrop to be stored for the next time when one of them noticed a little detail that had been painted and saw who it resembled. They called Elizabeth over to see for herself when she had heard and wondered what the commotion was about. She was startled at what she saw and a tad upset. She had somehow felt that she wanted Jack to know so she marched over to the Jail to tell him. As soon as she entered the jail she said to Jack;

"Jack do you know that there is a tiny painting of a likeness of us hiding in the background on the backdrop from the founders day play, and a few of my students just saw and lite the fuse because of the action the tiny people are doing in the painting" Elizabeth explains

"Really, how did that get there and exactly what action are we doing in this painting" Jack responds

" I don't know how it got there but, I…I…can't really say, but we are…K…I…SS…I…N…G" Elizabeth says as she stumbles over saying it since she finds it hard to say since they had just started a relationship with each other and were still getting to know one another.

" Kissing are you sure. Well that is indeed inappropriate" Jack replies

"yes, I am sure Jack. I don't know what else to say" Elizabeth replies

After her conversation with Jack about the painted figures of them Elizabeth marches back to the saloon to go on with the rest of the school day. She is glad she had gotten through directing her first ever play, and she thought she had done a great job but was now ready for the school days to get back to the normal schedule she had established since moving to Hope Valley back when still called Coal Valley just a few week before and starting her own life away from her family. She thought the play was a success as did the rest of the town, and she was happy they thought so. She is now thankful she had made the right decision to move to the town to teach the children who she was learning to love and enjoy teaching.