wirled his lean thumbs. He went so far as to say that
he admired a young woman who scorned to live in idleness, who wished to
impart the learning with which she had been endowed. Fifteen applicants
were under consideration for the position, and the prudential committee
had so far been unable to declare that any of them were completely
qualified. (It was well named, that prudential committee?) Mr. Graves,
furthermore, volunteered that he had expressed a wish to Colonel Prescott
(Oh, Ephraim, you too have got a title with your new honors!), to Colonel
Prescott and others, that Miss Wetherell might take the place. The middle
term opened on the morrow, and Miss Bruce, of the Worthington Free
Library, had been induced to teach until a successor could be appointed,
although it was most inconvenient for Miss Bruce.

Could Miss Wetherell start in at once, provided the committee agreed?
Cynthia replied that she would like nothing better. There would be an
examination before Mr. Errol, the Brampton Superintendent of Schools. In
short, owing to the pressing nature of the occasion, the judge would take
the liberty of calling the committee together immediately. Would Mr.
Satterlee and Miss Wetherell make themselves at home in the parlor?

It very frequently happens that one member of a committee is the brain,
and the other members form the body of it. It was so in this case. Ezra
Graves typified all of prudence there was about it, which, it must be
admitted, was a great deal. He it was who had weighed in the balance the
fifteen applicants and found them wanting. Another member of the
committee was that comfortable Mr. Dodd, with the tuft of yellow beard,
the hardware dealer whom we have seen at the baseball game. Mr. Dodd was
not a person who had opinions unless they were presented to him from
certain sources, and then he had been known to cling to them tenaciously.
It is sufficient to add that, when Cynthia Wetherell's name was mentioned
to him, he remembered the girl to whom Bob Worthington had paid such
marked attentions on the grand stand. He knew literally nothing else
about Cynthia. Judge Graves, apparently, knew all about her; this was
sufficient, at that time, for Mr. Dodd; he was sick and tired of the
whole affair, and if, by the grace of heaven, an applicant had been sent
who conformed with Judge Graves's multitude of requirements, he was
devoutly thankful. The other member, Mr. Hill, was a feed and lumber
dealer, and not