at he sayed."

"Well," declared Absalom, "that there ain't in the Bible! He'd better
watch out! If he ain't a Bible Christian, pop and Jake Getz and the
other directors'll soon put him off William Penn!"

"Och, Absalom, go sass your gran'mom!" was the doctor's elegant retort.
"What's ailin' YOU, anyways, that you want to be so spunky about
Teacher? I guess you're mebbe thinkin' he'll cut you out with Tillie,
ain't?"

"I'd like to see him try it oncet!" growled Absalom.

Tillie grew cold with fear that the teacher might hear them; but she
knew there was no use in protesting.

"Are you goin' to keep on at William Penn all winter, Absalom?" Mrs.
Wackernagel asked.

"Just long enough to see if he kin learn 'rithmetic to me. Ezra Herr,
he was too dumm to learn me."

"Mebbe," said the doctor, astutely, "you was too dumm to GET learnt!"

"I AM wonderful dumm in 'rithmetic," Absalom acknowledged shamelessly.
"But pop says this here teacher is smart and kin mebbe learn me. I've
not saw him yet myself."

Much as Tillie disliked being alone with her suitor, she was rather
relieved this evening when the family, en masse, significantly took its
departure to the second floor; for she hoped that with no one but
Absalom to deal with, she could induce him to lower his voice so their
talk would not be audible to the teacher in the room above.

Had she been able but faintly to guess what was to ensue on her being
left alone with him, she would have fled up-stairs with the rest of the
family and left Absalom to keep company with the chairs.

XVII

THE TEACHER MEETS ABSALOM

Only a short time had the sitting-room been abandoned to them when
Tillie was forced to put a check upon her lover's ardor.

"Now, Absalom," she firmly said, moving away from his encircling arm,
"unless you leave me be, I'm not sitting on the settee alongside you at
all. You MUST NOT kiss me or hold my hand--or even touch me. Never
again. I told you so last Sunday night."

"But why?" Absalom asked, genuinely puzzled. "Is it that I kreistle
you, Tillie?"

"N--no," she hesitated. An affirmative reply, she knew, would be
regarded as a cold-blooded insult. In fact, Tillie herself did not
understand her own repugnance to Absalom's caresses.

"You act like as if I made you feel repulsive to me, Tillie," he
complained.

"N--no. I don't want to be touched. That's all."

"Well, I'd like to know what fun you think there is in settin' up with
a gi