The girl, who had been gazing at the bowl of golden poppies on the middle of the table with unconscious abstraction, looked up with a bright smile. Luckily her grandfather's remark gave her a suggestion to enlarge upon. Turning to the little old woman whose sweet blue eyes were watchfully inquiring, the girl said: "Something has happened, or rather it is going to happen." She paused a moment, but her grandfather urged: "Do go on, Jenny. Don't let's stop for no guessin' contest this time. I've got to get out early to the cultivatin'."
Jenny told how the Board of Education had required Miss Dearborn to take a teacher's examination before she had been permitted to continue instructing her one lone pupil.
"Tut! Tut! Wall now, yo' don' tell?" Grandma Sue was much impressed. "Did Miss Dearborn go an' take them teachin' examinations jest so she could keep on helpin' yo' wi' your studies?"
The girl nodded. "She must set a power by you," the old woman concluded. Grandpa Si spoke up. "Huh, how could she help it? I reckon every critter as knows Jenny sets a power by her, but thar must be more to the yarn. I don' see anything, so far, for you to fret about."
"Yes, there is more," Jenny agreed, "Miss Dearborn has had a letter from the Board of Education saying that I must take the high school examinations next month. Think of it, Granny Sue! I've got to go to that big new high school over in Santa Barbara where I don't know a single soul, and take written examinations, when I never have had even one in all my life."
Again the grandfather's faith in his "gal" was expressed. "It's _my_ notion when them examinations are tuk, _your's_ 'll be leadin' all the rest. Thar ain't many gals as sober minded as _yo'_ be, Jenny, not by a long ways."
The girl's merry laughter pealed out and the twinkle in her liquid brown eyes did not suggest sober-mindedness. Rising she skipped around the table kissing affectionately her grandfather's bald spot.
"Here's hoping that you won't be disappointed in your granddaughter. But really she isn't half as wise as you think she is." Then turning toward the smiling old woman, she concluded, "Is she, Mrs. Susan Warner?"
The sweet blue eyes told much more than the reply. "Wall, I reckon yo' won't come out tail-end."