' Gurrage, bass soloist in the Baptist choir, and--by the removal of
the late deceased incumbent--also treasurer of the board of education of
the New Eden schools--"

"All of which has what to do with the young lady from Philadelphia?"
York inquired, blandly.

"Well, listen. Here's where tendin' to other folks's business comes in.
A good-lookin' but inexperienced young lady comes out here from
Philadelphia to find a claim left her by her deceased father. Out she
goes to see said claim, payin' me good money for my best car--to ride in
state over her grand province--of sand. And there wasn't much change but
a pearl-handle knife an' a button-hook in her purse when she pays for
the use of the car, even when I cut down half a buck on the regular
hire. Her kind don't know rightly how to save money till they 'ain't
none to save. But the look in her eyes when she come steamin' in from
that jaunt was more 'n I could stand. York, she ain't the first
Easterner to be fooled by the promise of the West. Not the real West,
you understand, but the sham face o' things put up back East. An' here
she be in our midst. Every day she goes by after the mail gets in,
looking like one of them blue pigeons with all the colors of a opal on
their necks, and every day she goes back with her face white around the
mouth. She's walkin' on red-hot plowshares and never squealin'." Ponk
paused, while York sat combing his fingers through his hair in silence.

"You know I'm some force on the school board, if I don't know much. I
ain't there to teach anybody anything, but to see that such ignoramuses
as me ain't put up to teach children. Now we are shy one teacher in the
high-school by the sudden resignation of the mathematics professor to
take on underwritin' of life insurance in the city. Do you suppose she'd
do it? Would it help any if we offered the place to Miss Swaim? It might
help to keep her in this town."

"Ponk, your heart's all right," York said, warmly. "It would help, I'm
sure, if the lady is to stay here, for she is without means. She might
or might not be willing to consider this opening. I can't forecast
women. But, Ponk, could she teach mathematics? You know she was probably
fashionably finished--never educated--in some higher school. If it were
embroidery, or something like that, it might be all right."

"Oh, you trust me to judge a few things, even if I'm not up on the
gentle art of foreclosin' mortgages and such. I know that girl cou