"Behold in me," he went on, "the entire faculty of the Spencer High
School. I am instructor in Latin, Greek, mathematics, science, history,
English and dramatics; also civics and economics."
"You don't mean really?" I asked.
"Really and truly, for sartain sure," he repeated. "The last faculty got
drafted and left the school in a bad way. I heard about it down at the
post-office this afternoon and went over and applied for the job. The
hardened warriors that compose the school board fell for me to a man. I
recited one line of Latin and they applauded to the echo; I recited a
line of gibberish and told them it was Greek, and they wept with delight
at the purity of my accent. Then they cautiously inquired if I was
qualified to teach any other branches and I told them that I also
included in my repertoire cooking, dressmaking and millinery. This last
remark was intended to be facetious, but those solemn old birds took it
seriously and forthwith broke into loud hosannas. I was somewhat
mystified at the outbreak until I gathered from bits of conversation that
the extravagant township of Spencer had intended to hire two high school
teachers this year, as the last incumbent's accomplishments had been
rather brief and fleeting, but what was the use, as one pious old hairpin
by the name of Butts delicately put it, what was the use of paying two
teachers when one feller could do the hull thing himself? Then he shook
me feelingly by the hand and said he knowed I was a bargain the minute he
laid eyes on me. O Tempora, O Mores! Papers were brought and shoved into
my yielding hands, the writ duly executed, and I passed out of the door a
fully fledged 'perfessor' with a six-months' contract. Smile on me,
please, I'm a bargain!" And he danced a hornpipe in the middle of the
floor until the dishes rattled in the cupboard.
I stared at him speechless. He teach high school? And the things he
mentioned as being able to teach! History, French, mathematics, physics,
literature, philosophy, Latin, Greek! Quite a well-rounded sheep herder,
this! The mystery about him deepened. It was clear now that he was a
college graduate. Again I revised my estimate as to his age, and decided
he must be about twenty-three or four. Why would he be willing to teach a
farce of a high school like the one in Spencer?
Then in the midst of my puzzling it came over me that I did not want him
to leave us, and that I would miss him terribly. Of course, he would go
to live in Spencer.
"Are you going to board with any of the school board?" I asked jealously,
that being what the last "faculty" had done.
"Board with the Board?" he repeated. "Neat expression, that. Not that I
know of. I haven't been requested to vacate my present quarters yet, or
do I understand that you are even now serving notice?"
A thrill of joy shot through me. Maybe he would still live in the little
cabin on our farm.
"I thought of course you would rather live near the school," I said.
"It's six miles from here. Why don't you?"
"'I would dwell with thee, merry grasshopper,'" he quoted. "That is, if I
am kindly permitted to do so."
And so we settled it. He is to ride with Sandhelo in the cart every day
as far as my school, then drive on to Spencer, and stop for me on the way
home. What fun it is going to be!
Yours, _summa cum felicitate_,
Katherine.
P. S. Sandhelo sends three large and loving hee-haws.