e had got
first Jack.

"Square job, and no backin'," said the judge, with a grin. "There's the
stage now--hurry up, fellers!"

The stage drew up with a crash in front of The Nugget, and the
passengers, outside and in, but none looking teacherish, hurried into
the saloon. The boys scarcely knew whether to swear from disappointment
or gratification, when a start from Mose drew their attention again to
the stage. On the top step appeared a small shoe, above which was
visible a small section of stocking far whiter and smaller than is usual
in the mines. In an instant a similar shoe appeared on the lower step,
and the boys saw, successively, the edge of a dress, a waterproof cloak,
a couple of small gloved hands, a bright muffler, and a pleasant face
covered with brown hair, and a bonnet. Then they heard a cheerful voice
say:

"I'm the teacher, gentlemen--can any one show me the schoolhouse?"

The miserable Mose looked ghastly, and tottered. A suspicion of a wink
graced the judge's eye, but he exclaimed in a stern, low tone: "Square
job, an' no backin'," upon which Mose took to his heels and the
Placerville trail.

The judge had been a married man, so he promptly answered:

"I'll take yer thar, mum, ez soon ez I git yer baggage."

"Thank you," said the teacher; "that valise under the seat is all."

The judge extracted a small valise marked "Huldah Brown," offered his
arm, and he and the teacher walked off before the astonished crowd as
naturally as if the appearance of a modest-looking young lady was an
ordinary occurrence at the Flat.

The stage refilled, and rattled away from the dumb and staring crowd,
and the judge returned.

"Well, boys," said he, "yer got to marry _two_ women, now, to stop that
school, an' you'll find this un more particler than the widder. I just
tell yer what it is about that school--it's a-goin' to go on, spite uv
any jackasses that wants it broke up; an' any gentleman that's insulted
ken git satisfaction by--"

"Who wants it broke up, you old fool?" demanded Toledo, a man who had
been named after the city from which he had come, and who had been from
the first one of the fiercest opponents of the school. "I move the
appointment uv a committee of three to wait on the teacher, see if the
school wants anything money can buy, take up subscriptions to git it,
an' lay out any feller that don't come down with the dust when he's went
fur."

[Illustration: TOLEDO AND THE COMMITTEEMEN'S VISIT