Let him wait; ef I reads de signs right he won't hab
ter wait long fer dis job. Let him teach in de primary schools, er in de
country; an' ef he can't do dat, let 'im work awhile. It don't hahm a'
educated man ter work a little; his fo'fathers has worked fer hund'eds
of years, an' we's worked, an' we're heah yet, an' we're free, an' we's
gettin' ou' own houses an' lots an' hosses an' cows--an' ou' educated
young men. But don't let de fus thing we do as a committee be somethin'
we ought ter be 'shamed of as long as we lib. I votes fer Miss Noble,
fus, las', an' all de time!"

When Old Abe sat down the chairman's face bore a troubled look. He
remembered how his baby girl, the first of his children that he could
really call his own, that no master could hold a prior claim upon,
lay dying in the arms of his distracted young wife, and how the thin,
homely, and short-sighted white teacher had come like an angel into his
cabin, and had brought back the little one from the verge of the grave.
The child was a young woman now, and Gillespie had well-founded hopes of
securing the superior young Williams for a son-in-law; and he realized
with something of shame that this later ambition had so dazzled his eyes
for a moment as to obscure the memory of earlier days.

Mr. Cotten, too, had not been unmoved, and there were tears in his eyes
as he recalled how his first wife, Nancy, who had borne with him the
privations of slavery, had passed away, with the teacher's hand in hers,
before she had been able to enjoy the fruits of liberty. For they had
loved one another much, and her death had been to them both a hard and
bitter thing. And, as Old Abe spoke, he could remember, as distinctly
as though they had been spoken but an hour before, the words of comfort
that the teacher had whispered to Nancy in her dying hour and to him in
his bereavement.

"On consideration, Mr. Chairman," he said, with an effort to hide a
suspicious tremor in his voice and to speak with the dignity consistent
with his character as a substantial citizen, "I wish to record my vote
fer Miss Noble."

"The chair," said Gillespie, yielding gracefully to the majority, and
greatly relieved that the responsibility of his candidate's defeat
lay elsewhere, "will make the vote unanimous, and will appoint Brother
Cotten and Brother Johnson a committee to step round the corner to Miss
Noble's and notify her of her election."

The two committeemen put on their hats, and, ac