re, volunteered that he had expressed a wish to
Colonel Prescott (Oh, Ephraim, you too have got a title with your new
honors!), to Colonel Prescott and others, that Miss Wetherell might take
the place. The middle term opened on the morrow, and Miss Bruce, of the
Worthington Free Library, had been induced to teach until a successor
could be appointed, although it was most inconvenient for Miss Bruce.

Could Miss Wetherell start in at once, provided the committee agreed?
Cynthia replied that she would like nothing better. There would be an
examination before Mr. Errol, the Brampton Superintendent of Schools.
In short, owing to the pressing nature of the occasion, the judge would
take the liberty of calling the committee together immediately. Would
Mr. Satterlee and Miss Wetherell make themselves at home in the parlor?

It very frequently happens that one member of a committee is the brain,
and the other members form the body of it. It was so in this case. Ezra
Graves typified all of prudence there was about it, which, it must be
admitted, was a great deal. He it was who had weighed in the balance
the fifteen applicants and found them wanting. Another member of the
committee was that comfortable Mr. Dodd, with the tuft of yellow beard,
the hardware dealer whom we have seen at the baseball game. Mr. Dodd
was not a person who had opinions unless they were presented to him
from certain sources, and then he had been known to cling to them
tenaciously. It is sufficient to add that, when Cynthia Wetherell's name
was mentioned to him, he remembered the girl to whom Bob Worthington
had paid such marked attentions on the grand stand. He knew literally
nothing else about Cynthia. Judge Graves, apparently, knew all about
her; this was sufficient, at that time, for Mr. Dodd; he was sick and
tired of the whole affair, and if, by the grace of heaven, an
applicant had been sent who conformed with Judge Graves's multitude of
requirements, he was devoutly thankful. The other member, Mr. Hill, was
a feed and lumber dealer, and not a very good one, for he was always in
difficulties; certain scholarly attainments were attributed to him,
and therefore he had been put on the committee. They met in Mr. Dodd's
little office back of the store, and in five minutes Cynthia was a
schoolmistress, subject to examination by Mr. Errol.

Just a word about Mr. Errol. He was a retired lawyer, with some means,
who took an interest in town affairs to occupy