was volubly narrating the particulars
of the accident, so far as she knew them, and referring constantly to
her own sprained ankle of twenty years ago, and the impossibility of
Miss Smith's being able to walk for some time.

With his usual impetuousness Jack took the initiative, and said to Mr.
Bills: "Your school can certainly wait; it must wait. A week or two can
make no difference. At the end of that time, if she cannot walk, she can
be taken to and from the school-house every day. To lose the school will
go hard with her, and she's so young."

Jack was quite eloquent, and Mr. Bills looked at him curiously,
wondering who this smart young fellow was, pleading for the new
school-teacher. He knew Howard, who, after Jack was through, said he
hoped Mr. Bills would wait; it would be a pity to disappoint the girl
when she had come so far.

"Perhaps a week or two will make no difference," Mr. Bills said, "though
the young ones are getting pretty wild, and their mothers anxious to
have them out of the way, but I guess we'll manage it somehow."

He knew he should manage it when he saw Eloise. She could not tell him
of the need there was of money in her grandmother's home, or the still
greater need if she took the trip to California which she feared she
must take. She only looked her anxiety, and Mr. Bills, whose heart Mrs.
Biggs said was "big as a barn," warmed toward her, while mentally he
began to doubt her ability to "fill the bill," as he put it, she looked
so young and so small.

"I'll let her off easy, if I have to," he thought, and he said,
"Folks'll want school to begin as advertised. You can't go, but there's
Ruby Ann Patrick. She'll be glad to supply. She's kep' the school five
years runnin'. She wanted it when we hired you. She's out of a job, and
will be glad to take it till you can walk. I'll see her to-day. You look
young to manage unruly boys, and there's a pile of 'em in Deestrick No.
5 want lickin' half the time. Ruby Ann can lick 'em. She's five feet
nine. You ain't more'n five."

Eloise did not tell him how tall she was. In fact, she didn't know. She
must look very diminutive in Mr. Bills's eyes, she thought, and hastened
to say, "I taught boys and young men older than I am in the normal at
Mayville, and never had any trouble. I had only to speak to or look at
them."

"I b'lieve you, I b'lieve you," Mr. Bills said. "I should mind you
myself every time if you looked at me, but boys ain't alike. There