New England -- Fiction; New England -- Politics and government -- Fiction
It very frequently happens that one member of a committee is the brain,
and the other members form the body of it. It was so in this case. Ezra
Graves typified all of prudence there was about it, which, it must be
admitted, was a great deal. He it was who had weighed in the balance
the fifteen applicants and found them wanting. Another member of the
committee was that comfortable Mr. Dodd, with the tuft of yellow beard,
the hardware dealer whom we have seen at the baseball game. Mr. Dodd
was not a person who had opinions unless they were presented to him
from certain sources, and then he had been known to cling to them
tenaciously. It is sufficient to add that, when Cynthia Wetherell's name
was mentioned to him, he remembered the girl to whom Bob Worthington
had paid such marked attentions on the grand stand. He knew literally
nothing else about Cynthia. Judge Graves, apparently, knew all about
her; this was sufficient, at that time, for Mr. Dodd; he was sick and
tired of the whole affair, and if, by the grace of heaven, an
applicant had been sent who conformed with Judge Graves's multitude of
requirements, he was devoutly thankful. The other member, Mr. Hill, was
a feed and lumber dealer, and not a very good one, for he was always in
difficulties; certain scholarly attainments were attributed to him,
and therefore he had been put on the committee. They met in Mr. Dodd's
little office back of the store, and in five minutes Cynthia was a
schoolmistress, subject to examination by Mr. Errol.
Just a word about Mr. Errol. He was a retired lawyer, with some means,
who took an interest in town affairs to occupy his time. He had a very
delicate wife, whom he had been obliged to send South at the beginning
of the winter. There she had for a while improved, but had been taken
ill again, and two days before Cynthia's appointment he had been
summoned to her bedside by a telegram. Cynthia could go into the school,
and her examination would take place when Mr. Errol returned.
All this was explained by the judge when, half an hour after he had left
them, he returned to the best parlor. Miss Wetherell would, then, be
prepared to take the school the following morning. Whereupon the judge
shook hands with her, and did not deny that he had been instrumental in
the matter.
“And, Mr. Satterlee, I am so grateful to you,” said Cynthia, when they
were in the street once more.
“My dear Cynthia, I did nothing,” answered the minister, quite
bewildered by the quick turn affairs had taken; “it is your own good
reputation that got you the place.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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