"But, Doc," faltered Tillie, "won"t it be bribery?"

"Och, Tillie, a body mustn"t feel so conscientious about such little things like them. That"s bein" too serious."

"Did you tell the teacher you were going to do this?" she uneasily asked.

"Well, I guess I ain"t such a blamed fool! I guess I know that much, that he wouldn"t of saw it the way _I_ see it. I tole him I was goin"

to bully them directers to keep him in his job--but he don"t know how I"m doin" it."

"I"m glad he doesn"t know," sighed Tillie.

"Yes, he da.r.s.ent know till it"s all over oncet."

The joy and relief she felt at the doctor"s scheme, which she was quite sure would work out successfully, gave her a self-confidence in the ordeal before her that sharpened her wits almost to brilliancy. She sailed through this examination, which otherwise she would have dreaded unspeakably, with an aplomb that made her a stranger to herself. Even that bugbear of the examination labeled by the superintendent, "General Information," and regarded with suspicion by the applicants as a snare and a delusion, did not confound Tillie in her sudden and new-found courage; though the questions under this head brought forth from the applicants such astonishing statements as that Henry VIII was chiefly noted for being "a great widower"; and that the Mother of the Gracchi was "probably Mrs. Gracchi."

In her unwonted elation, Tillie even waxed a bit witty, and in the quiz on "Methods of Discipline," she gave an answer which no doubt led the superintendent to mark her high.

"What method would you pursue with a boy in your school who was addicted to swearing?" she was asked.

"I suppose I should make him swear off!" said Tillie, with actual flippancy.

A neat young woman of the cla.s.s, sitting directly in front of the superintendent, and wearing spectacles and very straight, tight hair, cast a shocked and reproachful look upon Tillie, and turning to the examiner, said primly, "_I_ would organize an anti-swearing society in the school, and reward the boys who were not profane by making them members of it, expelling those who used any profane language."

"And make every normal boy turn blasphemer in derision, I"m afraid,"

was the superintendent"s ironical comment.

When, at four o"clock that afternoon, she drove back with the doctor through the winter twilight, bearing her precious certificate in her bosom, the brightness of her face seemed to reflect the brilliancy of the red sunset glow on snow-covered fields, frozen creek, and farm-house windows.

"Bully fur you, Matilda!" the doctor kept repeating at intervals. "Now won"t Miss Margaret be tickled, though! I tell you what, wirtue like hern gits its rewards even in this here life. She"ll certainly be set up to think she"s made a teacher out of you unbeknownst! And mebbe it won"t tickle her wonderful to think how she"s beat Jake Getz!" he chuckled.

"Of course you"re writin" to her to-night, Tillie, ain"t you?" he asked. "I"d write her off a letter myself if writin" come handier to me."

"Of course I shall let her know at once," Tillie replied; and in her voice, for the first time in the doctor"s acquaintance with her, there was a touch of gentle complacency.

"I"ll get your letter out the tree-holler to-morrow morning, then, when I go a-past--and I can stamp it and mail it fur you till noon. Then she"ll get it till Monday morning yet! By gum, won"t she, now, be tickled!"

"Isn"t it all beautiful!" Tillie breathed ecstatically. "I"ve got my certificate and the teacher won"t be put out! What did Adam Oberholzer and Joseph Kettering say, Doc?"

"I"ve got them fixed all right! Just you wait, Tillie!" he said mysteriously. "Mebbe us we ain"t goin" to have the laugh on your pop and old Nathaniel Puntz! You"ll see! Wait till your pop comes home and says what"s happened at Board meetin" to-night! Golly! Won"t he be hoppin" mad!"

"What is going to happen, Doc?"

"You wait and see! I ain"t tellin" even you, Tillie. I"m savin" it fur a surprise party fur all of yous!"

"Father won"t speak to me about it, you know. He won"t mention Teacher"s name to me."

"Then won"t you find out off of him about the Board meetin"?" the doctor asked in disappointment. "Must you wait till you see me again oncet?"

"He will tell mother. I can get her to tell me," Tillie said.

"All right. Somepin"s going to happen too good to wait! Now look-ahere, Tillie, is your pop to be tole about your certificate?"

"I won"t tell him until I must. I don"t know how he"d take it. He might not let me get a school to teach. Of course, when once I"ve got a school, he will have to be told. And then," she quietly added, "I shall teach, whether he forbids it or not."

"To be sure!" heartily a.s.sented the doctor. "And leave him go roll hisself, ain"t! I"ll keep a lookout fur you and tell you the first wacancy I hear of."

"What would I do--what should I have done in all these years, Doc--if it hadn"t been for you!" smiled Tillie, with an affectionate pressure of his rough hand; and the doctor"s face shone with pleasure to hear her.

"You have been a good friend to me, Doc."

"Och, that"s all right, Tillie. As I sayed, wirtue has its reward even in this here life. My wirtuous acts in standin" by you has gave me as much satisfaction as I"ve ever had out of anything! But now, Tillie, about tellin" your pop. I don"t suspicion he"d take it anyways ugly. A body"d think he"d be proud! And he hadn"t none of the expense of givin"

you your nice education!"

"I can"t be sure how he WOULD take it, Doc, so I would rather not tell him until I must."

"All right. Just what you say. But I dare tell missus, ain"t?"

"If she won"t tell the girls, Doc. It would get back to father, I"m afraid, if so many knew it."

"I "ll tell her not to tell. She "ll be as pleased and proud as if it was Manda or Rebecca!"

"Poor Aunty Em! She is so good to me, and I"m afraid I"ve disappointed her!" Tillie humbly said; but somehow the sadness that should have expressed itself in the voice of one under suspension from meeting, when speaking of her sin, was quite lacking.

When, at length, they reached the Getz farm, Mr. Getz met them at the gate, his face harsh with displeasure at Tillie"s long and unpermitted absence from home.

"h.e.l.lo, Jake!" said the doctor, pleasantly, as her father lifted her down from the high buggy. "I guess missus tole you how I heard Tillie fainted away in a swoond day before yesterday, so this morning I come over to see her oncet--Aunty Em she was some oneasy. And I seen she would mebbe have another such a swoond if she didn"t get a long day out in the air. It"s done her wonderful much good--wonderful!"

"She hadn"t no need to stay all day!" growled Mr. Getz. "Mom had all Tillie"s work to do, and her own too, and she didn"t get it through all."

"Well, better LET the work than have Tillie havin" any more of them dangerous swoonds. Them"s dangerous, I tell you, Jake! Sometimes folks never comes to, yet!"

Mr. Getz looked at Tillie apprehensively. "You better go in and get your hot supper, Tillie," he said, not ungently.

Before this forbearance of her father, Tillie had a feeling of shame in the doctor"s subterfuges, as she bade her loyal friend good night and turned to go indoors.

"You"ll be over to Board meetin" to-night, ain"t?" the doctor said to Mr. Getz as he picked up the reins.

"To be sure! Me and Nathaniel Puntz has a statement to make to the Board that"ll chase that tony dude teacher off his job so quick he won"t have time to pack his trunk!"

"Is that so?" the doctor said in feigned surprise. "Well, he certainly is some tony--that I must give him, Jake. Well, good night to yous! Be careful of Tillie"s health!"

Getz went into the house and the doctor, chuckling to himself, drove away.

Tillie was in bed, but sleep was far from her eyes, when, late that night, she heard her father return from the Board meeting. Long she lay in her bed, listening with tense nerves to his suppressed tones as he talked to his wife in the room across the hall, but she could not hear what he said. Not even his tone of voice was sufficiently enlightening as to how affairs had gone.

In her wakefulness the night was agonizingly long; for though she was hopeful of the success of the doctor"s plot, she knew that possibly there might have been some fatal hitch.

At the breakfast-table, next morning, her father looked almost sick, and Tillie"s heart throbbed with unfilial joy in the significance of this. His manner to her was curt and his face betrayed sullen anger; he talked but little, and did not once refer to the Board meeting in her presence.

It was not until ten o"clock, when he had gone with some of the children to the Evangelical church, that she found her longed-for opportunity to question her stepmother.