“Very well, Mr. Archer,” was the astonishing reply, “if you are still in authority when that time arrives, I shall do as you request.”
When the three were again in their buggy and on their way down the valley road, the irate man exclaimed: “Such impudence! If I’m in authority by the middle of December, she’ll leave. Huh, she’ll leave all right! Who else in these here parts has brains enough to be governing board of a public school?”
Mrs. Archer, being a wise wife, smoothed his ruffled feelings by remarking: “Nobody, of course. You’re the brainiest man anywhere this side of Genoa.” Then she added, with a sigh, “I’ll have to give up reading that paper to-morrow, and you’ll have to drive over and tell ’em I was took sick or something. If I was you, I’d stop in at the bank while you’re in Genoa, and clinch the matter about dismissin’ that upstart of a Miss Bayley.”
“That’s just what I’ll do!” Mr. Archer agreed, as he drove into his barnyard.
They had forgotten that on the next day the teacher and Dixie Martin were also going to Genoa.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
DIXIE GOES SHOPPING
Dixie was awake on the eventful Saturday morning as soon as the first bird-note was heard underneath the wide-spreading eaves. Quietly she slipped from bed, hoping not to awaken the little curly-headed sleeper at her side, but, just as she was buttoning up her best gingham dress, Carol opened dazed blue eyes and looked about.
“Why, Dixie Martin, what for are you up so early?” was the puzzled query, but almost instantly the little girl remembered, and at once she began to climb out of bed.
“Oh, I know,” she prattled, “this is the day that you go to Genoa with Miss Bayley, and I am to be ‘little mother’ to Baby Jim and Ken.”
In another moment the arms of the older girl were about her, and the flushed cheeks were being kissed as Dixie exclaimed, “Carol, it’s so nice of you not to mind my going and leaving you at home, but some day, I’m just sure, it will be your turn to go and see the shops, and—and everything.”