Page:George Weston--The apple-tree girl.djvu/67

 teacher never stayed at the Mills for more than a year," she thought. "I'll go right over to Mr. Chapman's and see if there's a vacancy now."

But before going to see the school superintendent she put on her longest dress, and did her hair up old, and looked so prim and old-fashioned that all she needed was a bonnet and you would have thought that she had stepped right out of one of those old daguerrotypes, the kind with the oval pictures and the mats with the old-rose plush.

Mr. Chapman beamed when he saw his brightest graduate, and would have joked with her, but Charlotte was afraid to beam or joke back for fear he might think her too young or too giddy. So she sat sedately on the edge of her chair and sedately stated her errand. And how her heart jumped when she learned that there was indeed a vacancy at Marlin Mills, and how it jumped again when Mr. Chapman promised her the position!