There was unwonted animation in the usually stolid faces of the School Board to-night; for the members were roused to a lively appreciation of the situation as it related to Jake Getz. The doctor had taken each and every one of them into his confidence, and had graphically related to them the story of how Tillie had "come by" her certificate, and the tale had elicited their partizanship for Tillie, as for the heroine of a drama. Even Nathaniel Puntz was enjoying the fact that he was to-night on the side of the majority. With Tillie, they were in doubt as to how Jake Getz would receive the news.
"Is they a' applicant?" he inquired on his arrival.
"Why, to be sure," said Nathaniel Puntz. "What fur would it be worth while to waste time meetin' to elect her if they ain't none?"
"Then she's a female, is she?"
"Well, she ain't no male, anyways, nor no Harvard gradyate, neither. If she was, I wouldn't wote fur her!"
"What might her name be?"
"It's some such a French name," answered the doctor, who had carried in the lamp and was lingering a minute. "It would, now, surprise you, Jake, if you heard it oncet."
"Is she such a foreigner yet?" Getz asked suspiciously. "I mistrust 'em when they're foreigners."
"Well," spoke Adam Oberholzer, as the doctor reluctantly went out, "it ain't ten mile from here she was raised."
"Is she a gradyate? We hadn't ought to take none but a Normal. We had enough trouble!"