hairman, and among them
was the tall, stooping man with spectacles. He did not shout, but Judge
Graves saw him and made up his mind that this was the man to speak. The
chairman raised his hand and rapped with his gavel, and at length he had
obtained silence.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "I am going to recognize Mr. Hill of the
prudential committee, and ask him to step up on the platform."

There fell another silence, as absolute as the first, when Mr. Hill
walked down the aisle and climbed the steps. Indeed, people were
stupefied, for the feed dealer was a man who had never opened his mouth
in town-meeting; who had never taken an initiative of any kind; who had
allowed other men to take advantage of him, and had never resented it.
And now he was going to speak. Would he defend the prudential committee,
or would he declare for the teacher? Either course, in Mr. Hill's case,
required courage, and he had never been credited with any. If Mr. Hill
was going to speak at all, he was going to straddle.

He reached the platform, bowed irresolutely to the chairman, and then
stood awkwardly with one knee bent, peering at his audience over his
glasses. He began without any address whatever.

"I want to say," he began in a low voice, "that I had no intention of
coming to this meeting. And I am going to confess--I am going to confess
that I was afraid to come." He raised his voice a little defiantly a the
words, and paused. One could almost hear the people breathing. "I was
afraid to come for fear that I should do the very thing I am going to do
now. And yet I was impelled to come. I want to say that my conscience has
not been clear since, as a member of the prudential committee, I gave my
consent to the dismissal of Miss Wetherell. I know that I was influenced
by personal and selfish considerations which should have had no weight.
And after listening to Miss Penniman I take this opportunity to declare,
of my own free will, that I will add my vote to that of Judge Graves to
reinstate Miss Wetherell."

Mr. Hill bowed slightly, and was about to descend the steps when the
chairman, throwing parliamentary dignity to the winds, arose and seized
the feed dealer's hand. And the people in the hall almost as one man
sprang to their feet and cheered, and some--Ephraim Prescott among
these--even waved their hats and shouted Mr. Hill's name. A New England
audience does not frequently forget itself, but there were few present
who did no