"'Here, teacher! I've got a recruit.'" Page 63.
"Why, Dave," she exclaimed, "where did you come from?"
"Annie--this you?" he said. The two began to laugh. Bart in surprise looked at them.
"This is my sister, Bart," explained Dave. "Ha! ha!"
That beautiful young lady and the big boy who had saved him sister and brother? He might have guessed such a friend as Dave would have such a sister as this nice young lady. She was visiting at Uncle Ferguson's.
"You see, Dave, when I began my visit I did not expect to teach while here; but I met the minister, Mr. Porter, and he said he wished I would start another class for him in his Sunday school and teach it while here, and I could not say no; and went to work, and have been picking up my class. I didn't happen to tell you."
The Rev. Charles Porter, at this time the clergyman at Grace Church, was an old friend of the Fletcher family. Meeting Annie in the streets of Shipton, and knowing what valuable material there was in the young lady, he desired to set her to work at once; and when her stay in town might be over, he could, as he said, "find a teacher, somebody to continue to open the furrow that she had started."
Dave enjoyed the situation.
"I will play that I am superintendent, Annie, and have come to inspect your class, and will sit here while you teach."
"I don't know about allowing you to stay here, sir, unless you become a member of the class and answer my questions, Dave."