ie, they were in doubt
as to how Jake Getz would receive the news.

"Is they a' applicant?" he inquired on his arrival.

"Why, to be sure," said Nathaniel Puntz. "What fur would it be worth
while to waste time meetin' to elect her if they ain't none?"

"Then she's a female, is she?"

"Well, she ain't no male, anyways, nor no Harvard gradyate, neither. If
she was, _I_ wouldn't wote fur her!"

"What might her name be?"

"It's some such a French name," answered the doctor, who had carried in
the lamp and was lingering a minute. "It would, now, surprise you,
Jake, if you heard it oncet."

"Is she such a foreigner yet?" Getz asked suspiciously. "I mistrust 'em
when they're foreigners."

"Well," spoke Adam Oberholzer, as the doctor reluctantly went out, "it
ain't ten mile from here she was raised."

"Is she a gradyate? We hadn't ought to take none but a Normal. We had
_enough_ trouble!"

"No, she ain't a Normal, but she's got her certificate off the
superintendent."

"Has any of yous saw her?"

"Och, yes, she's familiar with us," replied Joseph Kettering, the
Amishman, who was president of the Board.

"Why ain't she familiar with me, then?" Getz inquired, looking
bewildered, as the president opened the ink-bottle that stood on the
table about which they sat, and distributed slips of paper.

"Well, that's some different again, too," facetiously answered Joseph
Kettering.

"Won't she be here to-night to leave us see her oncet?"

"She won't, but her pop will," answered Nathaniel Puntz; and Mr. Getz
vaguely realized in the expressions about him that something unusual
was in the air.

"What do we want with her _pop_?" he asked.

"We want his _wote_!" answered Adam Oberholzer--which sally brought
forth hilarious laughter.

"What you mean?" demanded Getz, impatient of all this mystery.

"It's the daughter of one of this here Board that we're wotin' fur!"

Mr. Getz's eyes moved about the table. "Why, none of yous ain't got a
growed-up daughter that's been to school long enough to get a
certificate."

"It seems there's ways of gettin' a certificate without goin' to
school. Some girls can learn theirselves at home without even a
teacher, and workin' all the time at farm-work, still, and even livin'
out!" said Mr. Puntz. "I say a girl with inDUStry like that would make
any feller a good wife."

Getz stared at him in bewilderment.

"The members of this Board," said Mr. Kettering, solemnly, "and the
risin