r whether
Mr. Dodd was in the back of the hall.) "I can find no fault with it. I am
constantly called upon to recommend teachers, and I tell you I should
have no hesitation in sending Cynthia Wetherell to a high school, young
as she is."

"And now, my friends, why was she dismissed? I have heard the facts,
though not from her. Cynthia Wetherell does not know that I have come to
Brampton, unless somebody has told her, and did not know that I was
coming. I have heard the facts, and I find it difficult to believe that
so great a wrong could be attempted against a woman, and if the name of
Cynthia Wetherell had meant no more to me than the letters in it I should
have travelled twice as far as Brampton, old as I am, to do my utmost to
right that wrong. I give you my word of honor that I have never been so
indignant in my life. I do not come here to stir up enmities among you,
and I will mention no more names. I prefer to believe that the prudential
committee of this district has made a mistake, the gravity of which they
must now realize, and that they will reinstate Cynthia Wetherell
to-morrow. And if they should not of their own free will, I have only to
look around this meeting to be convinced that they will be compelled to.
Compelled to, my friends, by the sense of justice and the righteous
indignation of the citizens of Brampton."

Miss Lucretia sat down, her strong face alight with the spirit that was
in her. Not the least of the compelling forces in this world is righteous
anger, and when it is exercised by a man or a woman whose life has been a
continual warfare against the pests of wrong, it is well-nigh
irresistible. While you could count five seconds the audience sat silent,
and then began such tumult and applause as had never been seen in
Brampton--all started, so it is said, by an old soldier in the front row
with his stick. Isaac D. Worthington, sitting alone in the library of his
mansion, heard it, and had no need to send for Mr. Flint to ask what it
was, or who it was had fired the Third Estate. And Mr. Dodd heard it. He
may have been in the hall, but now he sat at home, seeing visions of the
lantern, and he would have fled to the palace had he thought to get any
sympathy from his sovereign. No, Mr. Dodd did not hold the Bastille or
even fight for it. Another and a better man gave up the keys, for heroes
are sometimes hidden away in meek and retiring people who wear spectacles
and have a stoop to their should