"'Miss MARGARET.'"
When she had finished Tillie looked up with brimming eyes.
"Doc," she said, "listen!" and she read the letter aloud, speaking slowly and distinctly that he might fully grasp the glory of it all. At the end the sweet voice faltered and broke.
"Oh, Doc!" sobbed Tillie, "isn't it wonderful!"
The shaggy old fellow blinked his eyes rapidly, then suddenly relieved his feelings with an outrageous burst of profanity. With a rapidity bewildering to his hearers, his tone instantly changed again to one of lachrymose solemnity:
"'Gawd moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform!'"
he piously repeated. "AIN'T, now, he does, Tillie! Och!" he exclaimed, "I got a thought! You go right straight over there to that there Board meetin' and circumwent 'em! Before they're got TIME to wote you off your job, you up and throw their old William Penn in their Dutch faces, and tell 'em be blowed to 'em! Tell 'em you don't WANT their blamed old school—and you're goin' to EUROPE, you are! To EUROPE, yet!"
He seized her hand as he spoke and almost pulled her to the store door.
"Do it, Tillie!" cried Fairchilds, stepping after them across the store. "Present your resignation before they have a chance to vote you out! Do it!" he said eagerly.
Tillie looked from one to the other of the two men before her, excitement sparkling in her eyes, her breath coming short and fast.