for a last appeal.

"Mrs. Martin," he said in a lower voice, "I ought to tell you that the
Reverend Mr. Peaseley strongly doubts the competency of that young man."

"Didn't Mr. Barstow make a selection at your request?" asked Mrs.
Martin, with a faint little nervous cough.

"Yes--but"--

"Then his competency only concerns ME--and I don't see what Mr. Peaseley
has to say about it."

Could he believe his senses? There was a decided flush in the woman's
pale face, and the first note of independence and asperity in her voice.

That night, in the privacy of his conjugal chamber, Mr. Sperry relieved
his mind to another of the enigmatical sex,--the stout Southwestern
partner of his joys and troubles. But the result was equally
unsatisfactory. "Well, Abner," said the lady, "I never could see, for
all your men's praises of Mrs. Martin, what that feller can see in HER
to like!"

CHAPTER III.

Mrs. Martin was early at the schoolhouse the next morning, yet not so
early but that she discovered that the new assistant had been there
before her. This was shown in some rearrangement of the school seats and
benches. They were placed so as to form a horseshoe before her desk, and
at the further extremity of this semicircle was a chair evidently for
himself. She was a little nettled at his premature action, although
admitting the utility of the change, but she was still more annoyed
at his absence at such a moment. It was nearly the school hour when
he appeared, to her surprise, marshaling a file of some of the smaller
children whom he had evidently picked up en route, and who were, to her
greater surprise, apparently on the best of terms with him. "Thought
I'd better rake 'em in, introduce myself to 'em, and get 'em to know me
before school begins. Excuse me," he went on hastily, "but I've a lot
more coming up, and I'd better make myself square with them OUTSIDE."
But Mrs. Martin had apparently developed a certain degree of stiffness
since their evening's interview.

"It seems to me quite as important, Mr. Twing," she said drily, "that
you should first learn some of your own duties, which I came here early
to teach you."

"Not at all," he said cheerfully. "Today I take my seat, as I've
arranged it, you see, over there with them, and watch 'em go through the
motions. One rehearsal's enough for ME. At the same time, I can chip in
if necessary." And before she could reply he was out of the schoolhouse
again, hailing the new