ure. She sat there while the people gathered, stood about whispering
and talking under their breaths, and finally became silent, all their eyes
fixed on her, as she wished that the office of county superintendent had
been abolished in the days of her parents' infancy.

"May it please the court," said Wilbur Smythe, standing before the bar.
"Or, Madame County Superintendent, I should say ..."

A titter ran through the room, and a flush of temper tinted Jennie's face.
They were laughing at her! She wouldn't be a spectacle any longer! So she
rose, and handed down her first and last decision from the bench--a rather
good one, I think.

"Mr. Smythe," said she, "I feel very ill at ease up here, and I'm going to
get down among the people. It's the only way I have of getting the
truth."

She descended from the bench, shook hands with everybody near her, and sat
down by the attorney's table.

"Now," said she, "this is no formal proceeding and we will dispense with
red tape. If we don't, I shall get all tangled up in it. Where's Mr.
Irwin? Please come in here, Jim. Now, I know there's some feeling in these
things--there always seems to be; but I have none. So I'll just hear why
Mr. Bronson, Mr. Peterson and Mr. Bonner think that Mr. James E. Irwin
isn't competent to hold a certificate."

Jennie was able to smile at them now, and everybody felt more at ease,
save Jim Irwin, the members of the board and Wilbur Smythe. That
individual arose, and talked down at Jennie.

"I appear for the proponents here," said he, "and I desire to suggest
certain principles of procedure which I take it belong indisputably to the
conduct of this hearing."

"Have you a lawyer?" asked the county superintendent of the respondent.

"A what?" exclaimed Jim. "Nobody here has a lawyer!"

"Well, what do you call Wilbur Smythe?" queried Newton Bronson from the
midst of the crowd.

"He ain't lawyer enough to hurt!" said the thing which the dramatists call
A Voice.

There was a little tempest of laughter at Wilbur Smythe's expense, which
was quelled by Jennie's rapping on the table. She was beginning to feel
the mouth of the situation.

"I have no way of retaining a lawyer," said Jim, on whom the truth had
gradually dawned. "If a lawyer is necessary, I am without protection--but
it never occurred to me ..."

"There is nothing in the school laws, as I remember them," said Jennie,
"giving the parties any right to be represented by counsel. If ther