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 his time. He had a very
delicate wife, whom he had been obliged to send South at the beginning of
the winter. There she had for a while improved, but had been taken ill
again, and two days before Cynthia's appointment he had been summoned to
her bedside by a telegram. Cynthia could go into the school, and her
examination would take place when Mr. Errol returned.

All this was explained by the judge when, half an hour after he had left
them, he returned to the best parlor. Miss Wetherell would, then, be
prepared to take the school the following morning. Whereupon the judge