Part 10 (1/2)
”It looks simple enough, does n't it?” he remarked.
”And I never thought of it. Why, it was enough to make a person superst.i.tious. Isn't nature wonderful!”
As she took up the coffee, too long neglected, Steve got an imaginary taste of it, and finding it neither hot nor cold, he arose and took her cup. Having refilled it and offered her more of the beans, which to his surprise and gratification she accepted, he made another trip to the corral. In a little while he returned and promptly took his place.
”You were saying this morning,” he began, ”that you were going to the county-seat. Were you sure that you could find your way all alone?”
”Oh, yes,” answered Janet. ”I was there before. You see, I took an examination a couple of months ago, when I first came.”
”Oh; that's it. What sort of a certificate did that little--examiner--give you?”
There was something in the sound of this question which conveyed to her that he regarded her standing in an examination largely as a matter of luck. Janet felt an instant approval of this philosophy of the matter.
”Third-cla.s.s,” she answered.
”Well, that's better than fourth-cla.s.s,” he remarked.
”Oh--but there _is_ no fourth-cla.s.s,” exclaimed Janet.
Her eyes widened as she waited to hear what his reply to this might be.
He entirely ignored the matter.
”That examiner is a kind of a c.o.c.ky little rooster, is n't he?” he commented.
”Did you ever have any trouble with him?” inquired Janet.
”Me!” He was evidently surprised that she should think so. ”Why, no.
I don't know him. I just saw him a few times. He is a sort of a dried-up little party. You know I get up to the court-house once in a while to have a brand registered or something like that.”
”He _is_ rather important--for his size,” mused Janet. ”And very particular about his looks.”
”They have a man teacher at a school near my house,” remarked Steve, in no seeming connection.
”I suppose he has a first-cla.s.s certificate,” said Janet. ”Until lately it was easy to get a school in Texas. But the country school boards rate you by your certificate more and more. This time I am going to get first-cla.s.s, or at least second. If I don't I 'll have to go back North.”
”What kind of questions does that fellow ask when he examines people?”
Steve inquired.
”Well--for instance--'Give the source and course of the Orizaba.'”
”Huh!” remarked Steve.
”To tell the truth,” said Janet, ”I would n't have got even third-cla.s.s if it had n't been for the way I pulled through in geography.”
”Are you good in geography?”
”Hardly. I just pa.s.sed. He asked a great many questions about climate, and every time he asked that I wrote that it was salubrious.
You see,” she explained, with a sly little air, ”in the children's geographies the climate of a country is nearly always salubrious. So I took a chance on every country. That brought my average up.”