squeeze. "I don't like it either, but neither do I like Yorkburg's not
having a high school. Don't look so uneasy. Nobody is going to bite.
Have you seen Mr. Milligan? A frog couldn't look more like a frog.
He'll pop presently, he's so pleased about something. There--they're
going to begin."

She leaned back in her chair, and as Mr. Chinn rose in his seat and
rapped on the table the crowd in the passage pressed closer to the
door. All who could came inside, but no longer was there standing-
room, and the air that might have come through the open windows was
kept back by the men who had climbed up in them and were swinging
their feet below.

The gavel again sounded. "The meeting will come to order!"

Mr. Chinn, in his long frock-coat and white string tie, stood a moment
surveying with mournful eye the crowded room, and in his voice as he
repeated "The meeting will come to order!" was the assurance that all
flesh is as grass, and though in a field it may flourish it will finally
be cut down.

But not yet could the meeting come to order. As Mr. Simson, the clerk,
stood up and began to call the roll there was the shuffle of many feet
in the hall and the men near the door parted to make way for late but
determined arrivals.

"Mrs. McDougal and every blessed member of her family!"

Under her breath Mary Cary laughed, then beckoned, and in pressed
Mrs. McDougal and made her way toward the platform, undismayed by