IV

Sam Clark was president of the school-board.  When Carol told him Fern’s story Sam looked sympathetic and neighborly, and Mrs. Clark sat by cooing, “Oh, isn’t that too bad.”  Carol was interrupted only when Mrs. Clark begged, “Dear, don’t speak so bitter about ‘pious’ people.  There’s lots of sincere practising Christians that are real tolerant.  Like the Champ Perrys.”

“Yes.  I know.  Unfortunately there are enough kindly people in the churches to keep them going.”

When Carol had finished, Mrs. Clark breathed, “Poor girl; I don’t doubt her story a bit,” and Sam rumbled, “Yuh, sure.  Miss Mullins is young and reckless, but everybody in town, except Ma Bogart, knows what Cy is.  But Miss Mullins was a fool to go with him.”

“But not wicked enough to pay for it with disgrace?”

“N-no, but——­” Sam avoided verdicts, clung to the entrancing horrors of the story.  “Ma Bogart cussed her out all morning, did she?  Jumped her neck, eh?  Ma certainly is one hell-cat.”

“Yes, you know how she is; so vicious.”

“Oh no, her best style ain’t her viciousness.  What she pulls in our store is to come in smiling with Christian Fortitude and keep a clerk busy for one hour while she picks out half a dozen fourpenny nails.  I remember one time——­”

“Sam!” Carol was uneasy.  “You’ll fight for Fern, won’t you?  When Mrs. Bogart came to see you did she make definite charges?”

“Well, yes, you might say she did.”

“But the school-board won’t act on them?”

“Guess we’ll more or less have to.”

“But you’ll exonerate Fern?”

“I’ll do what I can for the girl personally, but you know what the board is.  There’s Reverend Zitterel; Sister Bogart about half runs his church, so of course he’ll take her say-so; and Ezra Stowbody, as a banker he has to be all hell for morality and purity.  Might ’s well admit it, Carrie; I’m afraid there’ll be a majority of the board against her.  Not that any of us would believe a word Cy said, not if he swore it on a stack of Bibles, but still, after all this gossip, Miss Mullins wouldn’t hardly be the party to chaperon our basket-ball team when it went out of town to play other high schools, would she!”

“Perhaps not, but couldn’t some one else?”

“Why, that’s one of the things she was hired for.”  Sam sounded stubborn.

“Do you realize that this isn’t just a matter of a job, and hiring and firing; that it’s actually sending a splendid girl out with a beastly stain on her, giving all the other Bogarts in the world a chance at her?  That’s what will happen if you discharge her.”

Sam moved uncomfortably, looked at his wife, scratched his head, sighed, said nothing.

“Won’t you fight for her on the board?  If you lose, won’t you, and whoever agrees with you, make a minority report?”

“No reports made in a case like this.  Our rule is to just decide the thing and announce the final decision, whether it’s unanimous or not.”