bout sixteen,
whom he introduced as Archelaus Libby. She could not help a smile at this
odd name, and the young man himself seemed to be conscious of its
absurdity. He blushed, held out his hand and withdrew it again, dropped
his hat and caught it awkwardly between his knees. Myra (who had made the
sign of the cross as Hester entered) stood and regarded him with a cold,
contemptuous interest. Her uncle presented the poor fellow with a
proprietary wave of the hand, as though he had been a dumb animal recently
purchased.

"I telegraphed to Liskeard on my own responsibility. The Managers may
take me to task; but I felt it to be imperative that you should have a
male teacher to support you, and at once. At all costs we must prevent a
repetition of such scenes as yesterday's."

Doubtless he had done Hester a service, and she tried to express her
thanks, but did not succeed very well. To begin with, her spirit being
roused, she desired no help; and to judge by Mr. Archelaus Libby's looks,
the help he could give promised to be ineffective. She did not say this,
of course; and he gazed at her so wistfully that she reproached herself
for thinking it.

Mr. Sam had no such scruples. "I telegraphed to Liskeard," he repeated.
"There was no time for a personal interview." (He paused, with a
deprecating wave of the hand, as who shall say, "And this is what they
sent.") "If," he continued, "you find him unequal to maintaining
discipline, we--ha--must take other steps. In other respects I find him
satisfactory. He tells me he is of the Baptist persuasion, a believer in
Total Immersion."

Hester saw Myra's mouth twitching. She herself broke into merry laughter.

"I hope it won't be necessary to go that length," she answered.
"We will do our best, at any rate." She held out her hand again, and
Archelaus Libby grasped it warmly.

On the whole, Archelaus Libby's best proved to be better than she had
expected. The boys made a butt of him from the beginning, but could get
no real advantage over one who laughed with them at his own discomfitures.
He belonged to those meek ones who (it is promised) shall inherit the
earth; and indeed, as the possessor of a two-guinea microscope--bought, as
he explained to Hester, with his first earnings--he believed himself to
inherit it already. This microscope, and the wonders he showed them under
it, earned no little respect from the children. Also he had, without
being aware of i