was acted upon instanter by Deputy Bill.

"But I can't, I can't," said Jennie to the courteous deputy sheriff. "I
don't want all this publicity, and I don't want to go into the court
room."

"I hardly see," said Deputy Bill, "how you can avoid it. These people seem
to have business with you, and they can't get into your office."

"But they have no business with me," said Jennie. "It's mere curiosity."

Whereupon Wilbur Smythe, who could see no particular point in restricted
publicity, said, "Madame County Superintendent, this hearing certainly is
public or quasi-public. Your office is a public one, and while the right
to attend this hearing may not possibly be a universal one, it surely is
one belonging to every citizen and taxpayer of the county, and if the
taxpayer, _qua_ taxpayer, then certainly _a fortiori_ to the members of
the Woodruff school and residents of that district."

Jennie quailed. "All right, all right!" said she. "But, shall I have to
sit on the bench!"

"You will find it by far the most convenient place," said Deputy Bill.

Was this the life to which public office had brought her? Was it for this
that she had bartered her independence--for this and the musty office, the
stupid examination papers, and the interminable visiting of schools,
knowing that such supervision as she could give was practically worthless?
Jim had said to her that he had never heard of such a thing as a good
county superintendent of schools, and she had thought him queer. And now,
here was she, called upon to pass on the competency of the man who had
always been her superior in everything that constitutes mental ability;
and to make the thing more a matter for the laughter of the gods, she was
perched on the judicial bench, which Deputy Bill had dusted off for her,
tipping a wink to the assemblage while doing it. He expected to be a
candidate for sheriff, one of these days, and was pleasing the crowd. And
that crowd! To Jennie it was appalling. The school board under the lead of
Wilbur Smythe took seats inside the railing which on court days divided
the audience from the lawyers and litigants. Jim Irwin, who had never been
in a court room before, herded with the crowd, obeying the attraction of
sympathy, but to Jennie, seated on the bench, he, like other persons in
the auditorium, was a mere blurry outline with a knob of a head on its
top.

She couldn't call the gathering to order. She had no idea as to the proper
proced