neither," her father added. "I tole Aunty Em like I tole you the other
day, I ain't leavin' you keep comp'ny. I raised you, now you have the
right to work and help along a little. It's little enough a girl can
earn anyways."

Tillie made no comment. Her silence was of course understood by her
father to mean submission; while her stepmother felt in her heart a
contempt for a meekness that would bear, without a word of protest, the
loss of a steady friend so well-fixed and so altogether desirable as
Absalom Puntz.

In Absalom's two visits Tillie had been sufficiently impressed with the
steadiness of purpose and obstinacy of the young man's character to
feel appalled at the fearful task of resisting his dogged determination
to marry her. So confident he evidently was of ultimately winning her
that at times Tillie found herself quite sharing his confidence in the
success of his courting, which her father's interdict she knew would
not interfere with in the least. She always shuddered at the thought of
being Absalom's wife; and a feeling she could not always fling off, as
of some impending doom, at times buried all the high hopes which for
the past seven years had been the very breath of her life.

Tillie had one especially strong reason for rejoicing in the prospect
of going to the village for the winter. The Harvard graduate, if
elected, would no doubt board at the hotel, or necessarily near by, and
she could get him to lend her books and perhaps to give her some help
with her studies.

The village of New Canaan and all the township were curious to see this
stranger. The school directors had felt that they were conceding a good
deal in consenting to consider the application of sueh an unknown
quantity, when they could, at forty dollars a month, easily secure the
services of a Millersville Normal. But the stress that had been brought
to bear upon them by the county superintendent, whose son had been a
classmate of the candidate, had been rather too strong to be resisted;
and so the "Harvard gradyate man" was coming.

That afternoon Tillie had walked over in a pouring rain to William Penn
to carry "gums" and umbrellas to her four younger brothers and sisters,
and she had realized, with deep exultation, while listening to Ezra
Herr's teaching, that she was already far better equipped than was Ezra
to do the work he was doing,--and HE was a Millersville Normal!

It happened that Ezra was receiving a visit from a committ