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Relieved over not having the draft hanging over the head of his old hound dog, Abner enters singing. Lum notices a little girl outside. The out of town girl pops in log enough to ask for a job, but Lum thinks she ought to wait for another 8 years or so. As Abner turns to straightening up the shelves, grandpap enters to reads the newspaper. It’s a story about a run away ggirl, and… Hey, where did that little girl disappear to?
The news article tells about a 12 year old, brown haired, blue eyed girl named Ellie Conners. She ran away from the orphanage. Lum suspects the girl who was in the store could be the run away. After grandpap leaves, Ellie is found hiding in the feed room, but Lum encourages her to tell her side of the story.
When a phone call from uncle Henry Lunceford comes to alert the gents that he needs help looking for the girl, Lum has to make a decision. Should he do his civic duty, or cover up for Ellie until he can learn more about her?
Note: The state home is referred to as a reformatory. A matter that might cause listeners to raise an eyebrow. Can Ellie be trusted? Is her charm just her way of covering for a sneaky nature?The story takes most of the Summer of 1943 to unfole, so I won’t say more on the matter.
Can you guess who the voice actress is? No? OK, you twisted my arm… I’ll tell you. Lurene Tuttle, also known from the Gildersleeve program, as his niece Marjorie
In later interviews , she claimed the producers of the Great Gildersleeve wanted to have her voice Marjorie younger in the second season. She felt she was pushing the low end of her character range by making Marjorie a teenager.
Born in August 1907, Lurene was only a couple months from being36 when these shows aired, and right between the ages of Chet Lauck and Tuffy Goff. The gents must have applied their own brand of down home charm to get her to voice a character even younger than Marjorie.
