he accident and that her rival was disabled,
she was conscious just for a moment of a feeling of exultation, as if
Eloise had received her just deserts. She was, however, a kind-hearted,
well-principled woman, and soon cast the feeling aside as unworthy of
her, and tried to believe she was sorry for the girl, who, she heard,
was very young, and had been carried in the darkness and rain to Mrs.
Biggs's house in Howard Crompton's arms.

"I would almost be willing to sprain my ankle for the sake of being
carried in that way," Ruby thought, and then laughed as she tried to
fancy the young man bending beneath the weight of her hundred and
ninety pounds.

It was at this juncture that Mr. Bills came in asking if she would take
Miss Smith's place until she was able to walk. It might be two weeks,
and it might be three, and it might be less, he said. Any way, they
didn't want a cripple in the school-house for Tom Walker to raise Hail
Columby with. Would Ruby Ann swaller her pride and be a substitute?

"It is a good deal to ask me to do after I have been turned out of
office," she said, "but I am not one to harbor resentment. Yes, I'll
take the school till Miss Smith is able. How does she look? I hear she
is very young."

"Well, she's some younger than you, I guess, and looks like a child as
she sits down," Mr. Bills replied. "Why, you are big as two of
her,--yes, three,--and could throw her over the house."

Ruby's face clouded, and Mr. Bills went on: "She is handsome as blazes,
with a mouth which keeps kind of quivering, as if she wanted to cry, or
something, and eyes--well, you've got to see 'em to know what they are
like. They are just eyes which make an old man like me feel,--I don't
know how."

Ruby laughed, but felt a little hurt as she thought of her own small,
light-blue eyes and lighter eyebrows, which had never yet made any man,
young or old, feel "he didn't know how." She knew she was neither young
nor handsome nor attractive, but she had good common sense, and after
Mr. Bills was gone she sat down to review the situation, and resolved to
accept it gracefully and to call upon Eloise. It would be certainly _en
regle_ and Christian-like to do so, she thought, and the next afternoon
she presented herself at Mrs. Biggs's door and asked if Miss Smith were
able to see any one.

Mrs. Biggs belonged to the radical party which favored a change of
teachers. Five years was long enough for one person to teach in the same