"Me?" exclaimed Janice. "What have I got to do with it?"
"Now, there's no use your saying that you don't know why I took up that matter of the new school last month," said Nelson Haley, seriously. "You spoke just as though you were ashamed of me when we talked about it, and I began to wonder if I wasn't a fit subject for heart-searching inquiry," and the teacher burst into laughter again.
But Janice felt that he was more serious than usual, and she hastened to say: "I should really feel proud to know that any word of mine suggested your present course, Mr. Nelson Haley. Why! what a fine thing that would be."
"What a fine thing what would be?" he demanded.
"To think that I could really influence an educated and clever young man like you to do something very much worth while in the world. Nelson, you are flattering me."
"Honest to goodness—it's so," he said, looking at her with a rather wry smile. "And I'm not at all sure that I thank you for it."
"Why not?"
"See what you've got me into?" he complained. "I've got a whole bunch of extra work because of the school building, and in the end the old Elder and his friends may discharge me!"
"But you've brought about the building of a new school, and Poketown ought always to thank you."
"Likely. And they'll build a monument to me to stand at the head of
High Street, eh?" and he laughed.