Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1907-10-10
CHAPTER |.

heepIuS' vi slsIe Oh uTeSS, ulu not exact
ly suit them; sometimes about the min
lister himself, good, patient Mr.. liver
ton, who vainly imagined that if h,
preached three sermons a week attend
ed the Wednesday evening prayer meet
= Ing, the Thursday evening sewing socie
ty, otficiated at every funeral, visited al
the sick, and gave TO every beggar who
called at his door, besides superintend
Ing the Sunday school. he was earning
his salary of six hundred per year.
Sometimes, and that not rarely, the
quarrel crept into the choir and then
for one whole Sunday, it was all in vain
that Mr.. Tiverton read the psalm and
hymn, casting troubled glances toward
the vacant seats of his refractory singers
There was no one TO respond, unless il
We're good old Mr.. Hodges, who pitched
so high that few could follow him while
Mrs. Captain Simpson-whose daughter,
the organist, had been snubbed at the
last choir meeting by Mr.. Hodges daugh-
ter, the alto singer-rolled up her eyes
at her next neighbor, or famed herself
furiously in token of her disgust.
Latterly, however. there had come up
hoN Idust VI Iudlltl, NilSL
every other cause sank into insignificance.
Now, though the village of Devonshire
could boast but one public school house,
said house being divided into two depart
ments, the upper and lower divisions,
there were in the town several district
schools; and for the last few years a
committee of three had been annually ap-
pointed to examine and decide upon the
merits of the various candidates for
teaching. Strange that over such an Of
fee so fierce a feud should have arisen !;
but when Mr.. Tiverton, Squire Lamb
and Lawyer Whittemore, in the full con-
viction that they were doing right, re-
fused a certificate of scholarship to Laura
Tisdale, niece of Mrs. Judge Tisdale,
and awarded it to one whose earnings in
a factory had procured for her a thor
ough English education. the villagers were
at once set by the ears, the -aristocracy
abusing, and the democracy upholding the
dismayed trio, who, as the breeze blew
harder, quietly resigned their Office, and
Devonshire was without a school COM
mittee.
In this emergency something must be
could only unite on a stranger, it seemed
a matter of special providence that only
two months before young DR.. Holbrook
had rented the pleasant little Office on the
village common, formerly occupied by old
DR.. Carey, now lying in the graveyard
by the side of some whose days he had
prolonged and others whose days he had
surely shortened. Besides being hand
some. and skillful, and quite as familiar
with the poor as the rich, the young doc
tor was descended from the aristocratic
line of Boston Holbrooks, facts which
tended to make him a favorite with both
classes; and, greatly to his surprise, he
found himself unanimously elected to the
office of sole inspector of COM
mon schools in Devonshire.
With no definite idea as to what was
expected of him, except that he was to
find out whether a girl knew her P's
and Q's," and was also to 'cut one or
two of the first candidates." DR.. Hol
brook accepted the Office, and then await
ed rather nervously his initiation. He
was not easy in the society of ladies, un-
less, indeed, the lady stood in need of
his professional services, when he lost
sight of her at once. and thought only of
her disease. His patient once well, how
ever, he became nervously shy and en-
barrassed, retreating as soon as possible
from her presence to the covert of his
friendly Office, where, with his boots upon
the table and his head thrown back in a
most comfortable position, he sat one
April morning in happy oblivion of the
bevy of girls who must, of course, ere
long invade his sanctum
Something for you, sir. The lady will
wait for an answer" said his "chore
boy" passing to his master a little three
note, and nodding toward the
street.
Following the direction indicated, the
doctor saw, drawn up near his door, an
one-horse, square-boxed,
dark green wagon, drawn by a sorrel
horse, sometimes called by the genuine
Yankee yellow" and driven by a white
haired man of a pleasing, patriarchal
appearance, which interested the doctor
far more than did the futter of the blue
ribbon beside him, even though the bon
net that ribbon tied shaded the face of
q young girl. The note was from her,
and, tearing it open, the doctor read in
the prettiest of all pretty, girlish hand
writing:
DIR Holbrook-Sir VIII you be at
leisure to examine me on Monday after
noon, at three o'clock?
"MADALINE A. CLYDE.
'P. S.-For particular reasons / hope |
you can attend to me as early as Mon |
day. NJ. A. c."
DIR. Holbrook knew very little of girls, |
but he thought this note, with it's p. S.,
decidedly girlish. Still he made no com
ment either verbal or mental, 30 fur |
ried was he with knowing that the evil |
be so much dreaded had come upon him |
at last. Turning to the boy, he said, |
Iaconically, Tell her to come"
Most men would have sought for a |
glimpse of the face under the bonnet tied |
with blue, but DIR. Holbrook did not care |
q picayune whether it were ugly or fair, |
though it did strike him that the voice |
was singularly sweet, which, after the |
BOY had delivered his message, said to the
Did man, Now, grandpa, We'll go home. |
know you must be tired"
Slowly Sorrel trotted down the street, |
he blue ribbons futtering in the wind, |
while one little ungloved hand was seen
carefully adjusting about the old mans |
lad done duty for many year. The doc
or saw all this, and the impression left
ipon his mind was that Candidate No. /