East Donegal I'm passin' near to
the farms of both of them directers, and I'll make it suit to stop off
and press 'em fur my money. They're both of 'em near as close as Jake
Getz! They don't like it fur me to press 'em to pay right aways. So
after while I'll say that if they wote ag'in' Jake and Nathaniel, and
each of 'em gets one of the other two directers to wote with him to
leave Teacher keep his job, I'll throw 'em the doctor's bill off! Adam
Oberholzer he owes me about twelve dollars, and Joseph Kettering he
owes me ten. I guess it ain't worth twelve dollars to Adam and ten to
Joseph to run Teacher off William Penn!"

"And do you suppose that they will be able to influence the other
two--John Coppenhaver and Pete Underwocht?"

"When all them dollars depends on it, I don't suppose nothin'--I know.
I'll put it this here way: 'If Teacher ain't chased off, I'll throw you
my doctor's bill off. If he is, you'll pay me up, and pretty damned
quick, too!'"

"But, Doc," faltered Tillie, "won't it be bribery?"

"Och, Tillie, a body mustn't feel so conscientious about such little
things like them. That's bein' too serious."

"Did you tell the teacher you were going to do this?" she uneasily
asked.

"Well, I guess I ain't such a blamed fool! I guess I know that much,
that he wouldn't of saw it the way _I_ see it. I tole him I was goin'
to bully them directers to keep him in his job--but he don't know how
I'm doin' it."

"I'm glad he doesn't know," sighed Tillie.

"Yes, he darsent know till it's all over oncet."

The joy and relief she felt at the doctor's scheme, which she was quite
sure would work out successfully, gave her a self-confidence in the
ordeal before her that sharpened her wits almost to brilliancy. She
sailed through this examination, which otherwise she would have dreaded
unspeakably, with an aplomb that made her a stranger to herself. Even
that bugbear of the examination labeled by the superintendent, "General
Information," and regarded with suspicion by the applicants as a snare
and a delusion, did not confound Tillie in her sudden and new-found
courage; though the questions under this head brought forth from the
applicants such astonishing statements as that Henry VIII was chiefly
noted for being "a great widower"; and that the Mother of the Gracchi
was "probably Mrs. Gracchi."

In her unwonted elation, Tillie even waxed a bit witty, and in the quiz
on "Methods of Discipline," she gave an answer