There was unwonted animation in the usually stolid faces of the School Board to-night; for the members were roused to a lively appreciation of the situation as it related to Jake Getz.  The doctor had taken each and every one of them into his confidence, and had graphically related to them the story of how Tillie had “come by” her certificate, and the tale had elicited their partizanship for Tillie, as for the heroine of a drama.  Even Nathaniel Puntz was enjoying the fact that he was to-night on the side of the majority.  With Tillie, they were in doubt as to how Jake Getz would receive the news.

“Is they a’ applicant?” he inquired on his arrival.

“Why, to be sure,” said Nathaniel Puntz.  “What fur would it be worth while to waste time meetin’ to elect her if they ain’t none?”

“Then she’s a female, is she?”

“Well, she ain’t no male, anyways, nor no Harvard gradyate, neither.  If she was, I wouldn’t wote fur her!”

“What might her name be?”

“It’s some such a French name,” answered the doctor, who had carried in the lamp and was lingering a minute.  “It would, now, surprise you, Jake, if you heard it oncet.”

“Is she such a foreigner yet?” Getz asked suspiciously.  “I mistrust ’em when they’re foreigners.”

“Well,” spoke Adam Oberholzer, as the doctor reluctantly went out, “it ain’t ten mile from here she was raised.”

“Is she a gradyate?  We hadn’t ought to take none but a Normal.  We had enough trouble!”

“No, she ain’t a Normal, but she’s got her certificate off the superintendent.”

“Has any of yous saw her?”

“Och, yes, she’s familiar with us,” replied Joseph Kettering, the Amishman, who was president of the Board.

“Why ain’t she familiar with me, then?” Getz inquired, looking bewildered, as the president opened the ink-bottle that stood on the table about which they sat, and distributed slips of paper.

“Well, that’s some different again, too,” facetiously answered Joseph Kettering.

“Won’t she be here to-night to leave us see her oncet?”

“She won’t, but her pop will,” answered Nathaniel Puntz; and Mr. Getz vaguely realized in the expressions about him that something unusual was in the air.

“What do we want with her pop?” he asked.

“We want his wote!” answered Adam Oberholzer—­which sally brought forth hilarious laughter.

“What you mean?” demanded Getz, impatient of all this mystery.

“It’s the daughter of one of this here Board that we’re wotin’ fur!”

Mr. Getz’s eyes moved about the table.  “Why, none of yous ain’t got a growed-up daughter that’s been to school long enough to get a certificate.”

“It seems there’s ways of gettin’ a certificate without goin’ to school.  Some girls can learn theirselves at home without even a teacher, and workin’ all the time at farm-work, still, and even livin’ out!” said Mr. Puntz.  “I say a girl with inDUStry like that would make any feller a good wife.”