hard and the pay so poor that there wasn't much competition for it. There was danger that Mattie Louisa Carter wouldn't be satisfied with it, but nothing better was available at present, and at all events it would be a sop to Carter that ought to stop his mouth for a while.

And so the thing was settled. The only difficulty was that he could think of no plausible excuse for discharging Miss Jenkins. It was only at their last meeting that the superintendent had praised her work and declared that the department was better managed than it had ever been before.

As he stood at his window pondering over the matter, who should pass along in the street outside but the object of his reflections herself, making her daily pilgrimage from her school room to the cheap boarding-house round the corner where she lodged. She was not a very attractive picture, it must be confessed. Her features were pinched and sallow, and her plain, threadbare gown had been cut more with a view to economizing material than to following the fashion. Her sleeves were too small by a couple of yards, making her arms appear all elbow, and the skimpy little brown cape she wore clung to her shoulders with a mortified air that was in conspicuous contrast with the overflowing outlines of an upto-date circular. Altogether her appearance struck him as very peculiar, and he mentioned the fact to his wife when he went home that night, accompanying the remark with a very emphatic expression of his opinion regarding “peculiar" people in general.

Mrs. Tyner admitted that the new teacher might be a trifle odd; she had never thought enough about her to notice; but the children seemed to be learning better than they had ever done before, and never gave any trouble about their lessons at home.

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"That's the very thing I object to," replied the honorable chairman of the board, in his most sententious tone. they were doing anything at school they would have to bring their books home and study at night. In my day, teachers used to make us stick to our text-books, and we had to learn what was in them, instead of fooling away our time

drawing all sorts of things on cardboard, and picking bugs and flowers to pieces like Mary and Julia are doing. I send my children to school to study their books and get an education; they can see plenty of weeds and bugs around them everywhere, without wasting money on a teacher to point 'em out to 'em."

Mrs. Tyner agreed there might be something in that. She was sure she had got her education out of books, and it was good enough for anybody; and besides, she had her doubts about these new-fangled ways: she had overheard Mary the other day explaining to her little sister the different parts of a lily they were pulling to pieces, and telling her something about the ovaries, which was a very improper word for girls of their age to be using. Girls had no business to know about such things till they were married, and she wondered what Miss Jenkins could be thinking about to put such thoughts into their heads.

Thus the ball was set in motion, and it went on gathering a fresh coat of mud and dirt at every turn. The honorable chairman of the board took occasion to interview privately everybody that came to his office next day, about the primary teacher. It is true, he had no more specific charge to bring against her than that she was "so peculiar," but the mysterious emphasis that he gave the word as he rolled it out in a confidential undertone, as something too awful to be spoken aloud, made it seem weighty enough to cover any charge, from petty larceny to midnight assassination.

It was not many days before all Hillsboro suddenly awakened to the fact that the new primary teacher was a very peculiar person. The women took up the subject and discussed it at their clubs and church meetings, and their criticisms soon percolated down to the children, who began to find everything that Miss Jenkins did "so funny," and to report all her sayings and doings at home colored with the light of this new discovery. It was not long before somebody called to mind that she never went to church, and then somebody else remarked her peculiar habit of wandering alone in the fields and meadows, gathering wild flowers. Her peculiar manner of dressing also came in for a share of

criticism, and the singular fact was duly noted that she was never seen abroad without that absurd little brown cape over her shoulders, no matter how warm the weather. If the patched and threadbare bodice concealed under that offending habiliment had been laid open to view, this peculiarity would perhaps have been sufficiently accounted for.

Thus, when the time came for the next meeting of the school board, the Hon. Bradley Tyner found his ground thoroughly prepared, and had no difficulty in securing the dismissal of the obnoxious teacher, and the appointment of Col. Carter's daughter in her place. The secretary was directed to notify the unsuspecting victim that her services would not be required after the end of the month, but the duty being a disagreeable one, he put it off as long as possible, and it was not until the last day of the interim allowed, that he transmitted to her the note of dismissal by placing it on her desk in the same envelope with the check for her month's salary. She broke the seal, and perceiving the check, did not take time to examine further, but supposing it was all the letter contained, put it away in her desk and went on with her work as usual.

In the afternoon, when the school was dismissed and the children were all gone, she sat at her desk and wrote a long letter before going home. When she had folded and directed it, she took the check from the secretary's envelope and for the first time opened the letter that accompanied it. As she read the cruel words, her features became rigid as marble, and sinking down with her head on the lid of the desk, she remained there motionless for hours. When she came to herself, she staggered to her feet, placed the check in the letter she had just written, dropped it into the post office as she passed it on her way home, and then, going to the nearest drug store, called for an ounce of chloroform. The clerk was in the habit of letting her have it to kill the frogs and insects used in her nature studies, so she had no difficulty in getting as much as she needed.

It was dark when she reached the stuffy little boardinghouse where she made her home, and telling the landlady that she had a headache and would not want any supper, she

went straight up to the dingy back room that had resisted her pathetic attempts to brighten it with bouquets of autumn leaves and mats and table-covers of clean, fresh-cut newspapers. The landlady noticed that she looked unusually pale and wan as she passed through the hall, but none ever troubled themselves much about her, and so she was left undisturbed till morning. Then, as she did not come down to breakfast, Mrs. Brock told the maid she had better look in at Miss Jenkins's room when she went upstairs to make the beds and see what was the matter. The maid took her time about it, and finally came down and reported that Miss Jenkins's door was locked and that she could get no answer when she called. Mrs. Brock remarked a little impatiently, that she wondered what made Miss Jenkins always act so peculiarly, and went herself to investigate the matter. She put her eye to the keyhole: she could see nothing, but a strange odor seemed to fill her nostrils. The boarders had collected around by this time, and one of the men pried the door open. A strong scent of chloroform pervaded the air as he did so, and there, lying on the bed with a towel spread over her face and a sheet of crumpled paper clinched in her rigid fingers, lay the poor school teacher, stone dead. They took the paper from her hand, thinking it would explain the ghastly deed, and so it did; it was the letter of dismissal.

But why should that have made her so desperate? They looked around for further light on the mystery, and there, in the little old trunk that contained her meagre wardrobe, so pitifully scant and threadbare that there was not even a decent garment to bury her in, they found, in a pasteboard box, with a lock of hair and a few dried flowers, a small packet of letters that revealed the humble tragedy of the poor school teacher's life. They were written in a cramped, unsteady hand, and told a sorrowful tale of poverty and distress; of a mother dead, of an invalid father and a little boy brother whose sole dependence was the labor of the girl lying there dead. The last one, received only a day or two before, closed with these words:

"I am afraid you are denying yourself too much, dear child. Don't send us all your salary next month, but keep

something for yourself. It is hard for me to feel that I must lie here a helpless cripple on your hands, but it can't be for long, and the thought that you have got a good position at last, that will keep you and Johnny from want, is such a comfort to my heart that I feel I can now go down to my grave in peace. Do your best and try to give satisfaction, for if you should lose your place and I should have to see my children suffering for bread again, I believe it would be more than I could bear. I I pray for you continually, and I feel that God will bless you for all you have done for your poor old father, and that He will protect you and prosper you in your work."

The reading of these letters caused a sudden revulsion of feeling in Hillsboro, and now that it was too late to do any good, sweet Charity spread her white wings over the dead, and began to coo and simper and thank God that she was not as other folk while poor neglected Justice sat in a corner and hid her face. Mrs. Tyner gave one of her handsomest gowns for a burial robe, and the Hon. Bradley gained great applause by heading a subscription list with twenty dollars to help pay the funeral expenses. They bought a fine coffin that cost more than two months' salary of the dead girl would have come to. They lined it with satin and covered it with the choicest flowers, and so sent her back home to her old father.

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The Hon. Bradley Tyner, to use his own expression, fairly wiped out" the Whittaker faction in the convention, and in due time was elected to Congress. He enjoys the reputation, among his admirers, of being a notable philanthropist as well as a statesman. The story of his generous behavior on the occasion of Miss Jenkins's death is often quoted as proof of his charitable disposition, and will no doubt have great weight in securing his reëlection.