Some of the girls now joined the spectators, while Harold drew out a little stand, and he, Chester, and Herbert seated themselves about it with paper and pencils before them, assuming a very business-like air.
Frank had stepped out to the hall. In a minute or two he returned and walked up to the others, hat in hand.
Bowing low, but awkwardly, "You're the school committee I understand, gents?" he remarked inquiringly.
"Yes," said Harold, "and we want a teacher for the school at Sharon.
Have you come to apply for the situation?"
"Yes, sir; I heered tell ye was wantin' a superior kind o' male man to take the school fer the winter, and bein' as I was out o' a job, I thought I mout as well try my hand at that as enny thin' else."
"Take a seat and let us inquire into your qualifications," said Herbert, waving his hand in the direction of a vacant chair. "But first tell us your name and where you are from."
"My name, sir, is Peter Bones, and I come from the town o' Hardtack in the next county; jest beyant the hill yander. I've a good eddication o' me own, too, though I never rubbed my back agin a college," remarked the applicant, sitting down and tilting his chair back on its hind legs, retaining his balance by holding on to the one occupied by Herbert. "I kin spell the spellin' book right straight through, sir, from kiver to kiver."
"But spelling is not the only branch to be taught in the Sharon school," said Chester. "What else do you know."
"The three r's, sir; reading, 'ritin,' and 'rithmetic."
"You are acquainted with mathematics!"