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diff --git a/26987-h/26987-h.htm b/26987-h/26987-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d77c70 --- /dev/null +++ b/26987-h/26987-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8373 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<title> +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Brown Mouse, by Herbert Quick. +</title> + +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + body {margin-left: 11%; margin-right: 10%;} + a {text-decoration: none;} + h3 {text-align:center; font-weight:normal; font-size: 1.2em;} + .pncolor {color: silver;} + div.ce p {text-align: center; margin: auto 0;} + .caption {font-size:.8em;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + hr.tb {width: 35%; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; clear:both;} + .blockquot {margin-left:5%; margin-right:5%;} + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: x-small; text-align: right; position: absolute; right: 2%; padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration: none; background-color: inherit; border:1px solid #eee;} + hr.major {width: 65%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid black; clear:both;} + hr.silver {width: 100%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver;} + h2 {text-align:center; font-weight:normal; font-size: 1.4em;} +// --> +/* XML end ]]>*/ +</style> + +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Brown Mouse, by Herbert Quick + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Brown Mouse + +Author: Herbert Quick + +Release Date: October 21, 2008 [EBook #26987] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROWN MOUSE *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div class='ce'> +<p style=' font-size:2em; margin-top:1.6em;'>THE</p> +<p style=' font-size:2.2em; margin-bottom:1em;'>BROWN MOUSE</p> +<p><i>By</i></p> +<p style=' font-size:1.2em;'>HERBERT QUICK</p> +<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'><i>Author of</i></p> +<p style=' font-size:0.8em; font-variant:small-caps;'>Aladdin & Company, The Broken Lance</p> +<p style=' font-size:0.8em; margin-bottom:8em; font-variant:small-caps;'>On Board the Good Ship Earth, Etc.</p> +<p>INDIANAPOLIS</p> +<p>THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY</p> +<p style=' margin-bottom:2em;'>PUBLISHERS</p> +</div> + +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div class='ce' style=' font-size:0.8em; margin-top:2em;'> +<p style=' font-variant:small-caps;'>Copyright 1915</p> +<p style=' font-variant:small-caps;'>The Bobbs-Merrill Company</p> +<div style='margin-top:1em'></div> +<p style=' margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em;'><i>Printed in the United States of America</i></p> +<div style='margin-top:1em'></div> +<p>PRESS OF</p> +<p>BRAUNWORTH & CO.</p> +<p>BOOK MANUFACTURERS</p> +<p style=' margin-bottom:2em;'>BROOKLYN, N. Y.</p> +</div> + +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div class='ce'> +<p style=' font-size:1.4em; margin-bottom:1em;'>Contents</p> +</div> + +<table border='0' width='500' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>I</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Maiden’s “Humph”</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#I_A_MAIDEN_S__HUMPH'>1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>II</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Reversed Unanimity</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#II_REVERSED_UNANIMITY'>24</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>III</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>What Is a Brown Mouse</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#III_WHAT_IS_A_BROWN_MOUSE'>38</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IV</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The First Day of School</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IV_THE_FIRST_DAY_OF_SCHOOL'>48</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>V</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Promotion of Jennie</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#V_THE_PROMOTION_OF_JENNIE'>55</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VI</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Jim Talks the Weather Cold</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VI_JIM_TALKS_THE_WEATHER_COLD'>65</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VII</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The New Wine</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VII_THE_NEW_WINE'>75</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VIII</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>And the Old Bottles</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VIII_AND_THE_OLD_BOTTLES'>89</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IX</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Jennie Arranges a Christmas Party</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IX_JENNIE_ARRANGES_A_CHRISTMAS_PARTY'>99</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>X</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>How Jim Was Lined Up</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#X_HOW_JIM_WAS_LINED_UP'>111</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XI</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Mouse Escapes</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XI_THE_MOUSE_ESCAPES'>122</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XII</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Facing Trial</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XII_FACING_TRIAL'>132</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIII</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Fame or Notoriety</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIII_FAME_OR_NOTORIETY'>147</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIV</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Colonel Takes the Field</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIV_THE_COLONEL_TAKES_THE_FIELD'>164</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XV</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Minor Casts Half a Vote</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XV_A_MINOR_CASTS_HALF_A_VOTE'>188</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVI</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Glorious Fourth</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVI_THE_GLORIOUS_FOURTH'>203</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVII</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Trouble Shooter</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVII_A_TROUBLE_SHOOTER'>218</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XVIII</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Jim Goes to Ames</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVIII_JIM_GOES_TO_AMES'>235</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XIX</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Jim’s World Widens</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIX_JIM_S_WORLD_WIDENS'>242</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XX</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Think of It</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XX_THINK_OF_IT'>248</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXI</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A School District Held Up</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXI_A_SCHOOL_DISTRICT_HELD_UP'>258</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXII</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>An Embassy From Dixie</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXII_AN_EMBASSY_FROM_DIXIE'>277</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>XXIII</td> + <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>And So They Lived——</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXIII_AND_SO_THEY_LIVED'>295</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class='silver' /> + +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_1' name='page_1'></a>1</span></div> +<div class='ce'> +<p style=' font-size:1.6em;'>THE BROWN MOUSE</p> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='I_A_MAIDEN_S__HUMPH' id='I_A_MAIDEN_S__HUMPH'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> +<h3>A MAIDEN’S “HUMPH”</h3> +</div> + +<p>A Farm-hand nodded in answer to a question +asked him by Napoleon on the morning +of Waterloo. The nod was false, or the +emperor misunderstood—and Waterloo was +lost. On the nod of a farm-hand rested the +fate of Europe.</p> +<p>This story may not be so important as the +battle of Waterloo—and it may be. I think +that Napoleon was sure to lose to Wellington +sooner or later, and therefore the words “fate +of Europe” in the last paragraph should be +understood as modified by “for a while.” But +this story may change the world permanently. +We will not discuss that, if you please. What +I am endeavoring to make plain is that this +history would never have been written if a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_2' name='page_2'></a>2</span> +farmer’s daughter had not said “Humph!” to +her father’s hired man.</p> +<p>Of course she never said it as it is printed. +People never say “Humph!” in that way. She +just closed her lips tight in the manner of people +who have a great deal to say and prefer +not to say it, and—I dislike to record this of +a young lady who has been “off to school,” but +truthfulness compels—she grunted through +her little nose the ordinary “Humph!” of conversational +commerce, which was accepted at +its face value by the farm-hand as an evidence +of displeasure, disapproval, and even of contempt. +Things then began to happen as they +never would have done if the maiden hadn’t +“Humphed!” and this is a history of those happenings.</p> +<p>As I have said, it may be more important +than Waterloo. <i>Uncle Tom’s Cabin</i> was, and +I hope—I am just beginning, you know—to +make this a much greater book than <i>Uncle +Tom’s Cabin</i>. And it all rests on a “Humph!” +Holmes says,</p> +<table summary='poetry' style='margin:0 auto'><tr><td> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>“Soft is the breath of a maiden’s ‘Yes,’</p> +<p style='margin: 0 0 0 0.0em;'>Not the light gossamer stirs with less.”</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3' name='page_3'></a>3</span></div> +<p>but what bard shall rightly sing the importance +of a maiden’s “Humph!” when I shall have finished +telling what came of what Jennie Woodruff +said to Jim Irwin, her father’s hired man?</p> +<p>Jim brought from his day’s work all the fragrances +of next year’s meadows. He had been +feeding the crops. All things have opposite +poles, and the scents of the farm are no exception +to the rule. Just now, Jim Irwin possessed +in his clothes and person the olfactory pole opposite +to the new-mown hay, the fragrant butter +and the scented breath of the lowing kine—perspiration +and top-dressing.</p> +<p>He was not quite so keenly conscious of this +as was Jennie Woodruff. Had he been so, the +glimmer of her white piqué dress on the bench +under the basswood would not have drawn him +back from the gate. He had come to the house +to ask Colonel Woodruff about the farm work, +and having received instructions to take a +team and join in the road work next day, he +had gone down the walk between the beds of +four o’clocks and petunias to the lane. Turning +to latch the gate, he saw through the dusk +the white dress under the tree and drawn by +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4' name='page_4'></a>4</span> +the greatest attraction known in nature, had re-entered +the Woodruff grounds and strolled +back.</p> +<p>A brief hello betrayed old acquaintance, and +that social equality which still persists in theory +between the work people on the American +farm and the family of the employer. A desultory +murmur of voices ensued. Jim Irwin sat +down on the bench—not too close, be it observed, +to the piqué skirt.... There came +into the voices a note of deeper earnestness, +betokening something quite aside from the rippling +of the course of true love running +smoothly. In the man’s voice was a tone of +protest and pleading....</p> +<p>“I know you are,” said she; “but after all +these years don’t you think you should be at +least preparing to be something more than +that?”</p> +<p>“What can I do?” he pleaded. “I’m tied +hand and foot.... I might have ...”</p> +<p>“You might have,” said she, “but, Jim, +you haven’t ... and I don’t see any prospects....” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5' name='page_5'></a>5</span> +“I have been writing for the farm papers,” +said Jim; “but ...”</p> +<p>“But that doesn’t get you anywhere, you +know.... You’re a great deal more able and +intelligent than Ed —— and see what a fine +position he has in Chicago....”</p> +<p>“There’s mother, you know,” said Jim gently.</p> +<p>“You can’t do anything here,” said Jennie. +“You’ve been a farm-hand for fifteen years +... and you always will be unless you pull +yourself loose. Even a girl can make a place +for herself if she doesn’t marry and leaves the +farm. You’re twenty-eight years old.”</p> +<p>“It’s all wrong!” said Jim gently. “The +farm ought to be the place for the best sort +of career—I love the soil!”</p> +<p>“I’ve been teaching for only two years, and +they say I’ll be nominated for county superintendent +if I’ll take it. Of course I won’t—it +seems silly—but if it were you, now, it would +be a first step to a life that leads to something.”</p> +<p>“Mother and I can live on my wages—and +the garden and chickens and the cow,” said +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span> +Jim. “After I received my teacher’s certificate, +I tried to work out some way of doing +the same thing on a country teacher’s wages. +I couldn’t. It doesn’t seem right.”</p> +<p>Jim rose and after pacing back and forth +sat down again, a little closer to Jennie. Jennie +moved away to the extreme end of the +bench, and the shrinking away of Jim as if he +had been repelled by some sort of negative magnetism +showed either sensitiveness or temper.</p> +<p>“It seems as if it ought to be possible,” said +Jim, “for a man to do work on the farm, or +in the rural schools, that would make him a +livelihood. If he is only a field-hand, it ought +to be possible for him to save money and buy a +farm.”</p> +<p>“Pa’s land is worth two hundred dollars an +acre,” said Jennie. “Six months of your wages +for an acre—even if you lived on nothing.”</p> +<p>“No,” he assented, “it can’t be done. And +the other thing can’t, either. There ought to +be such conditions that a teacher could make a +living.”</p> +<p>“They do,” said Jennie, “if they can live at +home during vacations. <i>I</i> do.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span></p> +<p>“But a man teaching in the country ought +to be able to marry.”</p> +<p>“Marry!” said Jennie, rather unfeelingly, I +think. “<i>You</i> marry!” Then after remaining +silent for nearly a minute, she uttered the +syllable—without the utterance of which this +narrative would not have been written. “<i>You</i> +marry! Humph!”</p> +<p>Jim Irwin rose from the bench tingling with +the insult he found in her tone. They had been +boy-and-girl sweethearts in the old days at the +Woodruff schoolhouse down the road, and before +the fateful time when Jennie went “off to +school” and Jim began to support his mother. +They had even kissed—and on Jim’s side, +lonely as was his life, cut off as it necessarily +was from all companionship save that of his +tiny home and his fellow-workers of the field, +the tender little love-story was the sole romance +of his life. Jennie’s “Humph!” retired +this romance from circulation, he felt. It +showed contempt for the idea of his marrying. +It relegated him to a sexless category with +other defectives, and badged him with the celibacy +of a sort of twentieth-century monk, without +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span> +the honor of the priestly vocation. From +another girl it would have been bad enough, +but from Jennie Woodruff—and especially on +that quiet summer night under the linden—it +was insupportable.</p> +<p>“Good night,” said Jim—simply because he +could not trust himself to say more.</p> +<p>“Good night,” replied Jennie, and sat for a +long time wondering just how deeply she had +unintentionally wounded the feelings of her +father’s field-hand; deciding that if he was +driven from her forever, it would solve the +problem of terminating that old childish love +affair which still persisted in occupying a suite +of rooms all of its own in her memory; and +finally repenting of the unpremeditated thrust +which might easily have hurt too deeply so +sensitive a man as Jim Irwin. But girls are +not usually so made as to feel any very bitter +remorse for their male victims, and so Jennie +slept very well that night.</p> +<p>Great events, I find myself repeating, sometimes +hinge on trivial things. Considered +deeply, all those matters which we are wont to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span> +call great events are only the outward and visible +results of occurrences in the minds and +souls of people. Sir Walter Raleigh thought +of laying his cloak under the feet of Queen +Elizabeth as she passed over a mud-puddle, and +all the rest of his career followed, as the effect +of Sir Walter’s mental attitude. Elias Howe +thought of a machine for sewing, Eli Whitney +of a machine for ginning cotton, George Stephenson +of a tubular boiler for his locomotive engine, +and Cyrus McCormick of a sickle-bar, and +the world was changed by those thoughts, +rather than by the machines themselves. John +D. Rockefeller thought strongly that he would +be rich, and this thought, and not the Standard +Oil Company, changed the commerce and +finance of the world. As a man thinketh so +is he; and as men think so is the world. Jim +Irwin went home thinking of the “Humph!” of +Jennie Woodruff—thinking with hot waves and +cold waves running over his body, and swellings +in his throat. Such thoughts centered upon +his club foot made Lord Byron a great sardonic +poet. That club foot set him apart +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span> +from the world of boys and tortured him into +a fury which lasted until he had lashed society +with the whips of his scorn.</p> +<p>Jim Irwin was not club-footed; far from it. +He was bony and rugged and homely, with a +big mouth, and wide ears, and a form stooped +with labor. He had fine, lambent, gentle eyes +which lighted up his face when he smiled, as +Lincoln’s illuminated his. He was not ugly. +In fact, if that quality which fair ladies—if +they are wise—prize far more than physical +beauty, the quality called charm, can with propriety +be ascribed to a field-hand who has just +finished a day of the rather unfragrant labor +to which I have referred, Jim Irwin possessed +charm. That is why little Jennie Woodruff +had asked him to help with her lessons, rather +oftener than was necessary, in those old days +in the Woodruff schoolhouse when Jennie wore +her hair down her back.</p> +<p>But in spite of this homely charm of personality, +Jim Irwin was set off from his fellows +of the Woodruff neighborhood in a manner +quite as segregative as was Byron by his +deformity. He was different. In local parlance, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span> +he was an off ox. He was as odd as +Dick’s hatband. He ran in a gang by himself, +like Deacon Avery’s celebrated bull. He failed +to matriculate in the boy banditti which played +cards in the haymows on rainy days, told +stereotyped stories that smelled to heaven, +raided melon patches and orchards, swore horribly +like Sir Toby Belch, and played pool in +the village saloon. He had always liked to +read, and had piles of literature in his attic +room which was good, because it was cheap. +Very few people know that cheap literature is +very likely to be good, because it is old and unprotected +by copyright. He had Emerson, +Thoreau, a John B. Alden edition of Chambers’ +<i>Encyclopedia of English Literature</i>, some +Franklin Square editions of standard poets in +paper covers, and a few Ruskins and Carlyles—all +read to rags. He talked the book English +of these authors, mispronouncing many of +the hard words, because he had never heard +them pronounced by any one except himself, +and had no standards of comparison. You find +this sort of thing in the utterances of self-educated +recluses. And he had piles of reports of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span> +the secretary of agriculture, college bulletins +from Ames, and publications of the various bureaus +of the Department of Agriculture at +Washington. In fact, he had a good library of +publications which can be obtained gratis, or +very cheaply—and he knew their contents. He +had a personal philosophy, which while it had +cost him the world in which his fellows lived, +had given him one of his own, in which he +moved as lonely as a cloud, and as untouched of +the life about him.</p> +<p>He seemed superior to the neighbor boys, +and felt so; but this feeling was curiously mingled +with a sense of degradation. By every +test of common life, he was a failure. His +family history was a badge of failure. People +despised a man who was so incontestably +smarter than they, and yet could do no better +with himself than to work in the fields alongside +the tramps and transients and hoboes who +drifted back and forth as the casual market for +labor and the lure of the cities swept them. +Save for his mother and their cow and garden +and flock of fowls and their wretched little +rented house, he was a tramp himself. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13' name='page_13'></a>13</span></p> +<p>His father had been no better. He had come +into the neighborhood from nobody knows +where, selling fruit trees, with a wife and baby +in his old buggy—and had died suddenly, leaving +the baby and widow, and nothing else save +the horse and buggy. That horse and buggy +were still on the Irwin books represented by +Spot the cow—so persistent are the assets of +cautious poverty. Mrs. Irwin had labored +in kitchen and sewing room until Jim had +been able to assume the breadwinner’s burden—which +he did about the time he finished the +curriculum of the Woodruff District school. +He was an off ox and odd as Dick’s hatband, +largely because his duties to his mother and +his love of reading kept him from joining the +gangs whereof I have spoken. His duties, his +mother, and his father’s status as an outcast +were to him the equivalent of the Byronic club +foot, because they took away his citizenship in +Boyville, and drove him in upon himself, and, +at first, upon his school books which he mastered +so easily and quickly as to become the +star pupil of the Woodruff District school, and +later upon Emerson, Thoreau, Ruskin and the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14' name='page_14'></a>14</span> +poets, and the agricultural reports and +bulletins.</p> +<p>All this degraded—or exalted—him to the +position of an intellectual farm-hand, with a +sense of superiority and a feeling of degradation. +It made Jennie Woodruff’s “Humph!” +potent to keep him awake that night, and send +him to the road work with Colonel Woodruff’s +team next morning with hot eyes and a hotter +heart.</p> +<p>What was he anyhow? And what could he +ever be? What was the use of his studies in +farming practise, if he was always to be an +underling whose sole duty was to carry out the +crude ideas of his employers? And what +chance was there for a farm-hand to become a +farm owner, or even a farm renter, especially +if he had a mother to support out of the +twenty-five or thirty dollars of his monthly +wages? None.</p> +<p>A man might rise in the spirit, but how +about rising in the world?</p> +<p>Colonel Woodruff’s gray percherons seemed +to feel the unrest of their driver, for they +fretted and actually executed a clumsy prance +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span> +as Jim Irwin pulled them up at the end of the +turnpike across Bronson’s Slew—the said slew +being a peat-marsh which annually offered the +men of the Woodruff District the opportunity +to hold the male equivalent of a sewing circle +while working out their road taxes, with much +conversational gain, and no great damage to +the road.</p> +<p>In fact, Columbus Brown, the pathmaster, +prided himself on the Bronson Slew Turnpike +as his greatest triumph in road engineering. +The work consisted in hauling, dragging and +carrying gravel out on the low fill which carried +the road across the marsh, and then watching +it slowly settle until the next summer.</p> +<p>“Haul gravel from the east gravel bed, Jim,” +called Columbus Brown from the lowest spot +in the middle of the turnpike. “Take Newt +here to help load.”</p> +<p>Jim smiled his habitual slow, gentle smile at +Newton Bronson, his helper. Newton was seventeen, +undersized, tobacco-stained, profane +and proud of the fact that he had once beaten +his way from Des Moines to Faribault on +freight trains. A source of anxiety to his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span> +father, and the subject of many predictions +that he would come to no good end, Newton +was out on the road work because he was likely +to be of little use on the farm. Clearly, Newton +was on the downward road in a double +sense—and yet, Jim Irwin rather liked him.</p> +<p>“The fellers have put up a job on you, Jim,” +volunteered Newton, as they began filling the +wagon with gravel.</p> +<p>“What sort of job?” asked Jim.</p> +<p>“They’re nominating you for teacher,” replied +Newton.</p> +<p>“Since when has the position of teacher been +an elective office?” asked Jim.</p> +<p>“Sure, it ain’t elective,” answered Newton. +“But they say that with as many brains as +you’ve got sloshing around loose in the neighborhood, +you’re a candidate that can break the +deadlock in the school board.”</p> +<p>Jim shoveled on silently for a while, and by +example urged Newton to earn the money +credited to his father’s assessment for the day’s +work.</p> +<p>“Aw, what’s the use of diggin’ into it like +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span> +this?” protested Newton, who was developing +an unwonted perspiration. “None of the others +are heatin’ themselves up.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you get any fun out of doing a good +day’s work?” asked Jim.</p> +<p>“Fun!” exclaimed Newton. “You’re crazy!”</p> +<p>A slide of earth from the top of the pit +threatened to bury Newton in gravel, sand and +good top soil. A sweet-clover plant growing +rankly beside the pit, and thinking itself perfectly +safe, came down with it, its dark green +foliage anchored by the long roots which penetrated +to a depth below the gravel pit’s bottom. +Jim Irwin pulled it loose from its anchorage, +and after looking attentively at the roots, laid +the whole plant on the bank for safety.</p> +<p>“What do you want of that weed?” asked +Newton.</p> +<p>Jim picked it up and showed him the nodules +on its roots—little white knobs, smaller than +pinheads.</p> +<p>“Know what they are, Newt?”</p> +<p>“Just white specks on the roots,” replied +Newton. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span></p> +<p>“The most wonderful specks in the world,” +said Jim. “Ever hear of the use of nitrates to +enrich the soil?”</p> +<p>“Ain’t that the stuff the old man used on the +lawn last spring?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jim, “your father used some on +his lawn. We don’t put it on our fields in +Iowa—not yet; but if it weren’t for those white +specks on the clover-roots, we should be obliged +to do so—as they do back east.”</p> +<p>“How do them white specks keep us from +needin’ nitrates?”</p> +<p>“It’s a long story,” said Jim. “You see, before +there were any plants big enough to be +visible—if there had been any one to see them—the +world was full of little plants so small +that there may be billions of them in one of +these little white specks. They knew how to +take the nitrates from the air——”</p> +<p>“Air!” ejaculated Newton. “Nitrates in the +air! You’re crazy!”</p> +<p>“No,” said Jim. “There are tons of nitrogen +in the air that press down on your head—but +the big plants can’t get it through their +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span> +leaves, or their roots. They never had to learn, +because when the little plants—bacteria—found +that the big plants had roots with sap in them, +they located on those roots and tapped them +for the sap they needed. They began to get +their board and lodgings off the big plants. +And in payment for their hotel bills, the little +plants took nitrogen out of the air for both +themselves and their hosts.”</p> +<p>“What d’ye mean by ‘hosts’?”</p> +<p>“Their hotel-keepers—the big plants. And +now the plants that have the hotel roots for +the bacteria furnish nitrogen not only for +themselves but for the crops that follow. Corn +can’t get nitrogen out of the air; but clover +can—and that’s why we ought to plow down +clover before a crop of corn.”</p> +<p>“Gee!” said Newt. “If you could get to +teach our school, I’d go again.”</p> +<p>“It would interfere with your pool playing.”</p> +<p>“What business is that o’ yours?” interrogated +Newt defiantly.</p> +<p>“Well, get busy with that shovel,” suggested +Jim, who had been working steadily, driving +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20' name='page_20'></a>20</span> +out upon the fill occasionally to unload. On his +return from dumping the next load, Newton +seemed, in a superior way, quite amiably disposed +toward his workfellow—rather the habitual +thing in the neighborhood.</p> +<p>“I’ll work my old man to vote for you for +the job,” said he.</p> +<p>“What job?” asked Jim.</p> +<p>“Teacher for our school,” answered Newt.</p> +<p>“Those school directors,” replied Jim, “have +become so bullheaded that they’ll never vote for +any one except the applicants they’ve been voting +for.”</p> +<p>“The old man says he will have Prue Foster +again, or he’ll give the school a darned long +vacation, unless Peterson and Bonner join on +some one else. That would beat Prue, of +course.”</p> +<p>“And Con Bonner won’t vote for any one +but Maggie Gilmartin,” added Jim.</p> +<p>“And,” supplied Newton, “Haakon Peterson +says he’ll stick to Herman Paulson until the +Hot Springs freeze over.”</p> +<p>“And there you are,” said Jim. “You tell +your father for me that I think he’s a mere +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span> +mule—and that the whole district thinks the +same.”</p> +<p>“All right,” said Newt. “I’ll tell him that +while I’m working him to vote for you.”</p> +<p>Jim smiled grimly. Such a position might +have been his years ago, if he could have left +his mother or earned enough in it to keep both +alive. He had remained a peasant because the +American rural teacher is placed economically +lower than the peasant. He gave Newton’s +chatter no consideration. But when, in the +afternoon, he hitched his team with others to +the big road grader, and the gang became concentrated +within talking distance, he found +that the project of heckling and chaffing him +about his eminent fitness for a scholastic position +was to be the real entertainment of the +occasion.</p> +<p>“Jim’s the candidate to bust the deadlock,” +said Columbus Brown, with a wink. “Just like +Garfield in that Republican convention he was +nominated in—eh, Con?”</p> +<p>“Con” was Cornelius Bonner, an Irishman, +one of the deadlocked school board, and the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span> +captain of the road grader. He winked back +at the pathmaster.</p> +<p>“Jim’s the gray-eyed man o’ destiny,” he replied, +“if he can get two votes in that board.”</p> +<p>“You’d vote for me, wouldn’t you, Con?” +asked Jim.</p> +<p>“I’ll try annything wance,” replied Bonner.</p> +<p>“Try voting with Ezra Bronson once, for +Prue Foster,” suggested Jim. “She’s done +good work here.”</p> +<p>“Opinions differ,” said Bonner, “an’ when +you try annything just for wance, it shouldn’t +be an irrevocable shtip, me bye.”</p> +<p>“You’re a reasonable board of public servants,” +said Jim ironically. “I’d like to tell the +whole board what I think of them.”</p> +<p>“Come down to-night,” said Bonner jeeringly. +“We’re going to have a board meeting +at the schoolhouse and ballot a few more times. +Come down, and be the Garfield of the convintion. +We’ve lacked brains on the board, that’s +clear. They ain’t a man on the board that iver +studied algebra, ’r that knows more about +farmin’ than their impl’yers. Come down to +the schoolhouse, and we’ll have a field-hand addriss +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span> +the school board—and begosh, I’ll move +yer illiction mesilf! Come, now, Jimmy, me +bye, be game. It’ll vary the program, anny-how.”</p> +<p>The entire gang grinned. Jim flushed, and +then reconquered his calmness of spirit.</p> +<p>“All right, Con,” said he. “I’ll come and tell +you a few things—and you can do as you like +about making the motion.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='II_REVERSED_UNANIMITY' id='II_REVERSED_UNANIMITY'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> +<h3>REVERSED UNANIMITY</h3> +</div> + +<p>The great blade of the grading machine, +running diagonally across the road and +pulling the earth toward its median line, had +made several trips, and much persiflage about +Jim Irwin’s forthcoming appearance before +the board had been addressed to Jim and exchanged +by others for his benefit.</p> +<p>To Newton Bronson was given the task of +leveling and distributing the earth rolled into +the road by the grader—a labor which in the +interests of fitting a muzzle on his big mongrel +dog he deserted whenever the machine moved +away from him. No dog would have seemed +less deserving of a muzzle, for he was a +friendly animal, always wagging his tail, pressing +his nose into people’s palms, licking their +clothing and otherwise making a nuisance of +himself. That there was some mystery about +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span> +the muzzle was evident from Newton’s pains +to make a secret of it. Its wires were curled +into a ring directly over the dog’s nose, and +into this ring Newton had fitted a cork, +through which he had thrust a large needle +which protruded, an inch-long bayonet, in +front of Ponto’s nose. As the grader swept +back, horses straining, harness creaking and +a billow of dark earth rolling before the knife, +Ponto, fully equipped with this stinger, raced +madly alongside, a friend to every man, but +not unlike some people, one whose friendship +was of all things to be most dreaded.</p> +<p>As the grader moved along one side of +the highway, a high-powered automobile approached +on the other. It was attempting to +rush the swale for the hill opposite, and +making rather bad weather of the newly repaired +road. A pile of loose soil that Newton +had allowed to lie just across the path made +a certain maintenance of speed desirable. The +knavish Newton planted himself in the path +of the laboring car, and waved its driver a +command to halt. The car came to a standstill +with its front wheels in the edge of the loose +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span> +earth, and the chauffeur fuming at the possibility +of stalling—a contingency upon which +Newton had confidently reckoned.</p> +<p>“What d’ye want?” he demanded. “What +d’ye mean by stopping me in this kind of +place?”</p> +<p>“I want to ask you,” said Newton with mock +politeness, “if you have the correct time.”</p> +<p>The chauffeur sought words appropriate to +his feelings. Ponto and his muzzle saved him +the trouble. A pretty pointer leaped from the +car, and attracted by the evident friendliness +of Ponto’s greeting, pricked up its ears, and +sought, in a spirit of canine brotherhood, to +touch noses with him. The needle in Ponto’s +muzzle did its work to the agony and horror +of the pointer, which leaped back with a yelp, +and turned tail. Ponto, in an effort to apologize, +followed, and finding itself bayonetted at +every contact with this demon dog, the pointer +definitely took flight, howling, leaving Ponto +in a state of wonder and humiliation at the +sudden end of what had promised to be a very +friendly acquaintance. I have known instances +not entirely dissimilar among human beings. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27' name='page_27'></a>27</span> +The pointer’s master watched its strange +flight, and swore. His eye turned to the boy +who had caused all this, and he alighted pale +with anger.</p> +<p>“I’ve got time,” said he, remembering Newton’s +impudent question, “to give you what +you deserve.”</p> +<p>Newton grinned and dodged, but the bank +of loose earth was his undoing, and while he +stumbled, the chauffeur caught and held him +by the collar. And as he held the boy, the operation +of flogging him in the presence of the +grading gang grew less to his taste. Again +Ponto intervened, for as the chauffeur stood +holding Newton, the dog, evidently regarding +the stranger as his master’s friend, thrust his +nose into the chauffeur’s palm—the needle necessarily +preceding the nose. The chauffeur +behaved much as his pointer had done, saving +and excepting that the pointer did not +swear.</p> +<p>It was funny—even the pain involved could +not make it otherwise than funny. The grading +gang laughed to a man. Newton grinned +even while in the fell clutch of circumstance. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28' name='page_28'></a>28</span> +Ponto tried to smell the chauffeur’s trousers, +and what had been a laugh became a roar, +quite general save for the fact that the chauffeur +did not join in it.</p> +<p>Caution and mercy departed from the chauffeur’s +mood; and he drew back his fist to strike +the boy—and found it caught by the hard hand +of Jim Irwin.</p> +<p>“You’re too angry to punish this boy,” said +Jim gently,—“even if you had the right to +punish him at all!”</p> +<p>“Oh, cut it out,” said a fat man in the rear +of the car, who had hitherto manifested no interest +in anything save Ponto. “Get in, and +let’s be on our way!”</p> +<p>The chauffeur, however, recognized in a man +of mature years and full size, and a creature +with no mysterious needle in his nose, a relief +from his embarrassment. Unhesitatingly, he +released Newton, and blindly, furiously and futilely, +he delivered a blow meant for Jim’s jaw, +but which really miscarried by a foot. In reply, +Jim countered with an awkward swinging +uppercut, which was superior to the chauffeur’s +blow in one respect only—it landed fairly on the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span> +point of the jaw. The chauffeur staggered and +slowly toppled over into the soft earth which +had caused so much of the rumpus. Newton +Bronson slipped behind a hedge, and took his +infernally equipped dog with him. The grader +gang formed a ring about the combatants and +waited. Colonel Woodruff, driving toward +home in his runabout, held up by the traffic +blockade, asked what was going on here, and +the chauffeur, rising groggily, picked up his +goggles, climbed into the car; and the meeting +dissolved, leaving Jim Irwin greatly embarrassed +by the fact that for the first time in his +life, he had struck a man in combat.</p> +<p>“Good work, Jim,” said Cornelius Bonner. +“I didn’t think ’twas in ye!”</p> +<p>“It’s beastly,” said Jim, reddening. “I didn’t +know, either.”</p> +<p>Colonel Woodruff looked at his hired man +sharply, gave him some instructions for the +next day and drove on. The road gang dispersed +for the afternoon. Newton Bronson +carefully secreted the magic muzzle, and +chuckled at what had been perhaps the most +picturesquely successful bit of deviltry in his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span> +varied record. Jim Irwin put out his team, got +his supper and went to the meeting of the school +board.</p> +<p>The deadlocked members of the board had +been so long at loggerheads that their relations +had swayed back to something like amity. Jim +had scarcely entered when Con Bonner addressed +the chair.</p> +<p>“Mr. Prisidint,” said he, “we have wid us +t’night, a young man who nades no introduction +to an audience in this place, Mr. Jim Irwin. +He thinks we’re bullheaded mules, and +that all the schools are bad. At the proper +time I shall move that we hire him f’r teacher; +and pinding that motion, I move that he be +given the floor. Ye’ve all heared of Mr. Irwin’s +ability as a white hope, and I know he’ll +be listened to wid respect!”</p> +<p>Much laughter from the board and the spectators, +as Jim arose. He looked upon it as ridicule +of himself, while Con Bonner regarded it +as a tribute to his successful speech.</p> +<p>“Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Board,” +said Jim, “I’m not going to tell you anything +that you don’t know about yourselves. You +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span> +are simply making a farce of the matter of +hiring a teacher for this school. It is not as +if any of you had a theory that the teaching +methods of one of these teachers would be any +better than or much different from those of +the others. You know, and I know, that whichever +is finally engaged, or even if your silly +deadlock is broken by employing a new candidate, +the school will be the same old story. It +will still be the school it was when I came into +it a little ragged boy”—here Jim’s voice grew a +little husky—“and when I left it, a bigger boy, +but still as ragged as ever.”</p> +<p>There was a slight sensation in the audience, +as if, as Con Bonner said about the knockdown, +they hadn’t thought Jim Irwin could +do it.</p> +<p>“Well,” said Con, “you’ve done well to hold +your own.”</p> +<p>“In all the years I attended this school,” Jim +went on, “I never did a bit of work in school +which was economically useful. It was all dry +stuff copied from the city schools. No other +pupil ever did any real work of the sort farmers’ +boys and girls should do. We copied city +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span> +schools—and the schools we copied are poor +schools. We made bad copies of them, too. If +any of you three men were making a fight for +what Roosevelt’s Country Life Commission +called a ‘new kind of rural school,’ I’d say fight. +But you aren’t. You’re just making individual +fights for your favorite teachers.”</p> +<p>Jim Irwin made a somewhat lengthy speech +after the awkwardness wore off, so long that +his audience was nodding and yawning by the +time he reached his peroration, in which he abjured +Bronson, Bonner and Peterson to study +his plan of a new kind of rural school,—in +which the work of the school should be correlated +with the life of the home and the farm—a +school which would be in the highest degree +cultural by being consciously useful and +obviously practical. The sharp spats of applause +from the useless hands of Newton Bronson +gave the final touch of absurdity to a situation +which Jim had felt to be ridiculous all +through. Had it not been for Jennie Woodruff’s +“Humph!” stinging him to do something +outside the round of duties into which he had +fallen, had it not been for the absurd notion +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span> +that perhaps, after they had heard his speech, +they would place him in charge of the school, +and that he might be able to do something +really important in it, he would not have been +there. As he sat down, he felt himself a silly +clodhopper, filled with the east wind of his own +conceit, out of touch with the real world of +men. He knew himself a dreamer. The nodding +board of directors, the secretary, actually +snoring, and the bored audience restored the +field-hand to a sense of his proper place.</p> +<p>“We have had the privilege of list’nin’,” said +Con Bonner, rising, “to a great speech, Mr. +Prisidint. We should be proud to have a borned +orator like this in the agricultural pop’lation +of the district. A reg’lar William Jennin’s +Bryan. I don’t understand what he was trying +to tell us, but sometimes I’ve had the same +difficulty with the spaches of the Boy Orator +of the Platte. Makin’ a good spache is one +thing, and teaching a good school is another, +but in order to bring this matter before the +board, I nominate Mr. James E. Irwin, the Boy +Orator of the Woodruff District, and the new +white hope, f’r the job of teacher of this school, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span> +and I move that when he shall have received +a majority of the votes of this board, the secretary +and prisidint be insthructed to enter +into a contract with him f’r the comin’ year.”</p> +<p>The seconding of motions on a board of +three has its objectionable features, since it +seems to commit a majority of the body to the +motion in advance. The president, therefore, +followed usage, when he said—“If there’s no +objection, it will be so ordered. The chair +hears no objection—and it is so ordered. Prepare +the ballots for a vote on the election of +teacher, Mr. Secretary. Each votes his preference +for teacher. A majority elects.”</p> +<p>For months, the ballots had come out of the +box—an empty crayon-box—Herman Paulson, +one; Prudence Foster, one; Margaret Gilmartin, +one; and every one present expected the +same result now. There was no surprise, however, +in view of the nomination of Jim Irwin +by the blarneying Bonner when the secretary +smoothed out the first ballot, and read: “James +E. Irwin, one.” Clearly this was the Bonner +vote; but when the next slip came forth, “James +E. Irwin, two,” the Board of Directors of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span> +Woodruff Independent District were stunned +at the slowly dawning knowledge that they had +made an election! Before they had rallied, the +secretary drew from the box the third and last +ballot, and read, “James E. Irwin, three.”</p> +<p>President Bronson choked as he announced +the result—choked and stammered, and made +very hard weather of it, but he went through +with the motion, as we all run in our grooves.</p> +<p>“The ballot having shown the unanimous +election of James E. Irwin, I declare him +elected.”</p> +<p>He dropped into his chair, while the secretary, +a very methodical man, drew from his +portfolio a contract duly drawn up save for the +signatures of the officers of the district, and +the name and signature of the teacher-elect. +This he calmly filled out, and passed over to the +president, pointing to the dotted line. Mr. +Bronson would have signed his own death-warrant +at that moment, not to mention a +perfectly legal document, and signed with +Peterson and Bonner looking on stonily. The +secretary signed and shoved the contract over +to Jim Irwin. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span></p> +<p>“Sign there,” he said.</p> +<p>Jim looked it over, saw the other signatures, +and felt an impulse to dodge the whole thing. +He could not feel that the action of the board +was serious. He thought of the platform he +had laid down for himself, and was daunted. +He thought of the days in the open field, and +of the untroubled evenings with his books, and +he shrank from the work. Then he thought of +Jennie Woodruff’s “Humph!”—and he signed!</p> +<p>“Move we adjourn,” said Peterson.</p> +<p>“No ’bjection ’t’s so ordered!” said Mr. +Bronson.</p> +<p>The secretary and Jim went out, while the +directors waited.</p> +<p>“What the Billy—” began Bonner, and finished +lamely! “What for did you vote for the +dub, Ez?”</p> +<p>“I voted for him,” replied Bronson, “because +he fought for my boy this afternoon. I didn’t +want it stuck into him too hard. I wanted him +to have <i>one</i> vote.”</p> +<p>“An’ I wanted him to have wan vote, too,” +said Bonner. “I thought mesilf the only dang +fool on the board—an’ he made a spache that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span> +airned wan vote—but f’r the love of hivin, that +dub f’r a teacher! What come over you, +Haakon—you voted f’r him, too!”</p> +<p>“Ay vanted him to have one wote, too,” said +Peterson.</p> +<p>And in this wise, Jim became the teacher in +the Woodruff District—all on account of Jennie +Woodruff’s “Humph!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='III_WHAT_IS_A_BROWN_MOUSE' id='III_WHAT_IS_A_BROWN_MOUSE'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> +<h3>WHAT IS A BROWN MOUSE</h3> +</div> + +<p>Immediately upon the accidental election +of Jim Irwin to the position of teacher of +the Woodruff school, he developed habits somewhat +like a ghost’s or a bandit’s. That is, he +walked of nights and on rainy days.</p> +<p>On fine days, he worked in Colonel Woodruff’s +fields as of yore. Had he been appointed to a +position attached to a salary of fifty thousand +dollars a year, he might have spent six months +on a preliminary vacation in learning something +about his new duties. But Jim’s salary +was to be three hundred and sixty dollars for +nine months’ work in the Woodruff school, and +he was to find himself—and his mother. Therefore, +he had to indulge in his loose habits of +night walking and roaming about after hours +only, or on holidays and in foul weather. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39' name='page_39'></a>39</span></p> +<p>The Simms family, being from the mountings +of Tennessee, were rather startled one night, +when Jim Irwin, homely, stooped and errandless, +silently appeared in their family circle +about the front door. They had lived where it +was the custom to give a whoop from the big +road before one passed through the palin’s and +up to the house. Otherwise, how was one to +know whether the visitor was friend or foe?</p> +<p>From force of habit, Old Man Simms started +for his gun-rack at Jim’s appearance, but the +Lincolnian smile and the low slow speech, so +much like his own in some respects, ended that +part of the matter. Besides, Old Man Simms +remembered that none of the Hobdays, whose +hostilities somewhat stood in the way of the +return of the Simmses to their native hills, +could possibly be expected to appear thus in +Iowa.</p> +<p>“Stranger,” said Mr. Simms, after greetings +had been exchanged, “you’re right welcome, +but in my kentry you’d find it dangersome to +walk in thisaway.”</p> +<p>“How so?” queried Jim Irwin.</p> +<p>“You’d more’n likely git shot up some,” replied +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40' name='page_40'></a>40</span> +Mr. Simms, “onless you whooped from +the big road.”</p> +<p>“I didn’t know that,” replied Jim. “I’m +ignorant of the customs of other countries. +Would you rather I’d whoop from the big +road—nobody else will.”</p> +<p>“I reckon,” replied Mr. Simms, “that we-all +will have to accommodate ourse’ves to the +ways hyeh.”</p> +<p>Evidently Jim was the Simms’ first caller +since they had settled on the little brushy tract +whose hills and trees reminded them of their +mountains. Low hills, to be sure, with only +a footing of rocks where the creek had cut +through, and not many trees, but down in the +creek bed, with the oaks, elms and box-elders +arching overhead, the Simmses could imagine +themselves beside some run falling into the +French Broad, or the Holston. The creek bed +was a withdrawing room in which to retire +from the eternal black soil and level corn-fields +of Iowa. What if the soil was so poor, +in comparison with those black uplands, that +the owner of the old wood-lot could find no +renter? It was better than the soil in the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span> +mountains, and suited the lonesome Simmses +much more than a better farm would have +done. They were not of the Iowa people anyhow, +not understood, not their equals—they +were pore, and expected to stay pore—while +the Iowa people all seemed to be either well-to-do, +or expecting to become so. It was much +more agreeable to the Simmses to retire to the +back wood-lot farm with the creek bed running +through it.</p> +<p>Jim Irwin asked Old Man Simms about the +fishing in the creek, and whether there was any +duck shooting spring and fall.</p> +<p>“We git right smart of these little panfish,” +said Mr. Simms, “an’ Calista done shot two +butterball ducks about ‘tater-plantin’ time.”</p> +<p>Calista blushed—but this stranger, so much +like themselves, could not see the rosy suffusion. +The allusion gave him a chance to look about +him at the family. There was a boy of sixteen, +a girl—the duck-shooting Calista—younger +than Raymond—a girl of eleven, named Virginia, +but called Jinnie—and a smaller lad +who rejoiced in the name of McGeehee, but was +mercifully called Buddy. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span></p> +<p>Calista squirmed for something to say. +“Raymond runs a line o’ traps when the fur’s +prime,” she volunteered.</p> +<p>Then came a long talk on traps and trapping, +shooting, hunting and the joys of the mountings—during +which Jim noted the ignorance +and poverty of the Simmses. The clothing of +the girls was not decent according to local +standards; for while Calista wore a skirt hurriedly +slipped on, Jim was quite sure—and not +without evidence to support his views—that +she had been wearing when he arrived the +same regimentals now displayed by Jinnie—a +pair of ragged blue overalls. Evidently the +Simmses were wearing what they had and not +what they desired. The father was faded, +patched, gray and earthy, and the boys looked +better than the rest solely because we expect +boys to be torn and patched. Mrs. Simms was +invisible except as a gray blur beyond the rain-barrel, +in the midst of which her pipe glowed +with a regular ebb and flow of embers.</p> +<p>On the next rainy day Jim called again and +secured the services of Raymond to help him +select seed corn. He was going to teach the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43' name='page_43'></a>43</span> +school next winter, and he wanted to have a +seed-corn frolic the first day, instead of waiting +until the last—and you had to get seed corn +while it was on the stalk, if you got the best. +No Simms could refuse a favor to the fellow +who was so much like themselves, and who +was so greatly interested in trapping, hunting +and the Tennessee mountains—so Raymond +went with Jim, and with Newt Bronson and +five more they selected Colonel Woodruff’s seed +corn for the next year, under the colonel’s +personal superintendence.</p> +<p>In the evening they looked the grain over +on the Woodruff lawn, and the colonel talked +about corn and corn selection. They had supper +at half past six, and Jennie waited on them—having +assisted her mother in the cooking. +It was quite a festival. Jim Irwin was the +least conspicuous person in the gathering, but +the colonel, who was a seasoned politician, observed +that the farm-hand had become a fisher +of men, and was angling for the souls of these +boys, and their interest in the school. Jim was +careful not to flush the covey, but every boy +received from the next winter’s teacher some +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44' name='page_44'></a>44</span> +confidential hint as to plans, and some suggestion +that Jim was relying on the aid and comfort +of that particular boy. Newt Bronson, +especially, was leaned on as a strong staff and +a very present help in time of trouble. As +for Raymond Simms, it was clearly best to +leave him alone. All this talk of corn selection +and related things was new to him, and he +drank it in thirstily. He had an inestimable +advantage over Newt in that he was starved, +while Newt was surfeited with “advantages” +for which he had no use.</p> +<p>“Jennie,” said Colonel Woodruff, after the +party had broken up, “I’m losing the best hand +I ever had, and I’ve been sorry.”</p> +<p>“I’m glad he’s leaving you,” said Jennie. “He +ought to do something except work in the field +for wages.”</p> +<p>“I’ve had no idea he could make good as a +teacher—and what is there in it if he does?”</p> +<p>“What has he lost if he doesn’t?” rejoined +Jennie. “And why can’t he make good?”</p> +<p>“The school board’s against him, for one +thing,” replied the colonel. “They’ll fire him if +they get a chance. They’re the laughing-stock +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45' name='page_45'></a>45</span> +of the country for hiring him by mistake, and +they’re irritated. But after seeing him perform +to-night, I wonder if he can’t make good.”</p> +<p>“If he could <i>feel</i> like anything but an underling +he’d succeed,” said Jennie.</p> +<p>“That’s his heredity,” stated the colonel, +whose live-stock operations were based on +heredity. “Jim’s a scrub, I suppose; but he +acts as if he might turn out to be a Brown +Mouse.”</p> +<p>“What do you mean, pa,” scoffed Jennie—“a +Brown Mouse!”</p> +<p>“A fellow in Edinburgh,” said the colonel, +“crossed the Japanese waltzing mouse with the +common white mouse. Jim’s pedling father +was a waltzing mouse, no good except to jump +from one spot to another for no good reason. +Jim’s mother is an albino of a woman, with all +the color washed out in one way or another. Jim +ought to be a mongrel, and I’ve always considered +him one. But the Edinburgh fellow +every once in a while got out of his variously-colored, +waltzing and albino hybrids, a brown +mouse. It wasn’t a common house mouse, +either, but a wild mouse unlike any he had +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46' name='page_46'></a>46</span> +ever seen. It ran away, and bit and +gnawed, and raised hob. It was what we breeders +call a Mendelian segregation of genetic +factors that had been in the waltzers and albinos +all the time—their original wild ancestor +of the woods and fields. If Jim turns out to be +a Brown Mouse, he may be a bigger man than +any of us. Anyhow, I’m for him.”</p> +<p>“He’ll have to be a big man to make anything +out of the job of a country school-teacher,” said +Jennie.</p> +<p>“Any job’s as big as the man who holds it +down,” said her father.</p> +<p>Next day, Jim received a letter from Jennie.</p> +<hr class='tb' /> + +<p>“Dear Jim,” it ran. “Father says you are +sure to have a hard time—the school board’s +against you, and all that. But he added, ‘I’m +for Jim, anyhow!’ I thought you’d like to know +this. Also he said, ‘Any job’s as big as the man +who holds it down,’ And I believe this also, +<i>and I’m for you, too!</i> You are doing wonders +even before the school starts in getting the +pupils interested in a lot of things, which, while +they don’t belong to school work, will make +them friends of yours. I don’t see how this +will help you much, but it’s a fine thing, and +shows your interest in them. Don’t be too +original. The wheel runs easiest in the beaten +track. Yours. Jennie.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47' name='page_47'></a>47</span></p> +<p>Jennie’s caution made no impression on Jim—but +he put the letter away, and every evening +took it out and read the italicized words, <i>“I’m +for you, too!”</i> The colonel’s dictum, “Any job’s +as big as the man who holds it down,” was +an Emersonian truism to Jim. It reduced all +jobs to an equality, and it meant equality in +intellectual and spiritual development. It +didn’t mean, for instance, that any job was as +good as another in making it possible for a +man to marry—and Jennie Woodruff’s +“Humph!” returned to kill and drag off her +“I’m for you, too!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='IV_THE_FIRST_DAY_OF_SCHOOL' id='IV_THE_FIRST_DAY_OF_SCHOOL'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48' name='page_48'></a>48</span> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> +<h3>THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL</h3> +</div> + +<p>I suppose every reader will say that genius +consists very largely in seeing Opportunity +in the set of circumstances or thoughts or impressions +that constitute Opportunity, and +making the best of them.</p> +<p>Jim Irwin would have said so, anyhow. He +was full of his Emerson’s <i>Representative Men</i>, +and his Carlyle’s <i>French Revolution</i>, and the +other old-fashioned, excellent good literature +which did not cost over twenty-five cents a +volume; and he had pored long and with many +thrills over the pages of Matthews’ <i>Getting on +in the World</i>—which is the best book of purely +conventional helpfulness in the language. And +his view of efficiency was that it is the capacity +to see opportunity where others overlook it, +and make the most of it.</p> +<p>All through his life he had had his own plans +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49' name='page_49'></a>49</span> +for becoming great. He was to be a general, +hurling back the foes of his country; he was +to be the nation’s master in literature; a successful +drawing on his slate had filled him +with ambition, confidently entertained, of becoming +a Rubens—and the story of Benjamin +West in his school reader fanned this spark +to a flame; science, too, had at times been his +chosen field; and when he had built a mousetrap +which actually caught mice, he saw himself +a millionaire inventor. As for being president, +that was a commonplace in his dreams. +And all the time, he was barefooted, ill-clad +and dreamed his dreams to the accompaniment +of the growl of the plow cutting the roots +under the brown furrow-slice, or the wooshing +of the milk in the pail. At twenty-eight, he +considered these dreams over.</p> +<p>As for this new employment, he saw no great +opportunity in it. Of any spark of genius he +was to show in it, of anything he was to suffer +in it, of those pains and penalties wherewith +the world pays its geniuses, Jim Irwin anticipated +nothing. He went into the small, mean, +ill-paid task as a part of the day’s work, with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50' name='page_50'></a>50</span> +no knowledge of the stirring of the nation for +a different sort of rural school, and no suspicion +that there lay in it any highway to success +in life. He was not a college man or even +a high-school man. All his other dreams had +found rude awakening in the fact that he had +not been able to secure the schooling which +geniuses need in these days. He was unfitted +for the work geniuses do. All he was to be +was a rural teacher, accidentally elected by a +stupid school board, and with a hard tussle +before him to stay on the job for the term of +his contract. He could have accepted positions +quite as good years ago, save for the fact that +they would have taken him away from his +mother, their cheap little home, their garden +and their fowls. He rather wondered why +he had allowed Jennie’s sneer to sting him +into the course of action which put him in this +new relation to his neighbors.</p> +<p>But, true to his belief in honest thorough +work, like a general preparing for battle, he +examined his field of operations. His manner +of doing this seemed to prove to Colonel Woodruff, +who watched it with keen interest as something +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51' name='page_51'></a>51</span> +new in the world, that Jim Irwin was +possibly a Brown Mouse. But the colonel knew +only a part of Jim’s performances. He saw +Jim clothed in slickers, walking through rainstorms +to the houses in the Woodruff District, +as greedy for every moment of rain as a haymaker +for shine; and he knew that Jim made +a great many evening calls.</p> +<p>But he did not know that Jim was making +what our sociologists call a survey. For that +matter, neither did Jim; for books on sociology +cost more than twenty-five cents a volume, and +Jim had never seen one. However, it was a +survey. To be sure, he had long known everybody +in the district, save the Simmses—and he +was now a friend of all that exotic race; but +there is knowing and knowing. He now had +note-books full of facts about people and their +farms. He knew how many acres each family +possessed, and what sort of farming each husband +was doing—live stock, grain or mixed. +He knew about the mortgages, and the debts. +He knew whether the family atmosphere was +happy and contented, or the reverse. He knew +which boys and girls were wayward and insubordinate. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52' name='page_52'></a>52</span> +He made a record of the advancement +in their studies of all the children, and +what they liked to read. He knew their favorite +amusements. He talked with their mothers +and sisters—not about the school, to any extent, +but on the weather, the horses, the automobiles, +the silo-filling machinery and the +profits of farming.</p> +<p>I suppose that no person who has undertaken +the management of the young people of any +school in all the history of education, ever did +so much work of this sort before his school +opened. Really, though Jennie Woodruff did +not see how such doings related to school +work, Jim Irwin’s school was running full blast +in the homes of the district and the minds of +many pupils, weeks and weeks before that day +when he called them to order on the Monday +specified in his contract as the first day of +school.</p> +<p>Con Bonner, who came to see the opening, +voiced the sentiments of the older people when +he condemned the school as disorderly. To be +sure, there were more pupils enrolled than +had ever entered on a first day in the whole +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53' name='page_53'></a>53</span> +history of the school, and it was hard to accommodate +them all. But the director’s criticism +was leveled against the free-and-easy air +of the children. Most of them had brought +seed corn and a good-sized corn show was on +view. There was much argument as to the +merits of the various entries. Instead of a +language lesson from the text-book, Jim had +given them an exercise based on an examination +of the ears of corn.</p> +<p>The number exercises of the little chaps had +been worked out with ears and kernels of corn. +One class in arithmetic calculated the percentage +of inferior kernels at tip and butt to the +full-sized grains in the middle of the ear.</p> +<p>All the time, Jim Irwin, awkward and +uncouth, clad in his none-too-good Sunday suit +and trying to hide behind his Lincolnian smile +the fact that he was pretty badly frightened +and much embarrassed, passed among them, +getting them enrolled, setting them to work, +wasting much time and laboring like a heavy-laden +barge in a seaway.</p> +<p>“That feller’ll never do,” said Bonner to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54' name='page_54'></a>54</span> +Bronson next day. “Looks like a tramp in the +schoolroom.”</p> +<p>“Wearin’ his best, I guess,” said Bronson.</p> +<p>“Half the kids call him ‘Jim,’” said Bonner.</p> +<p>“That’s all right with me,” replied Bronson.</p> +<p>“The room was as noisy as a caucus,” was +Bonner’s next indictment, “and the flure was +all over corn like a hog-pin.”</p> +<p>“Oh! I don’t suppose he can get away with +it,” assented Bronson disgustedly, “but that +boy of mine is as tickled as a colt with the +whole thing. Says he’s goin’ reg’lar this +winter.”</p> +<p>“That’s because Jim don’t keep no order,” +said Bonner. “He lets Newt do as he dam +pleases.”</p> +<p>“First time he’s ever pleased to do anything +but deviltry,” protested Bronson. “Oh, I suppose +Jim’ll fall down, and we’ll have to fire +him—but I wish we could git a <i>good</i> teacher +that would git hold of Newt the way he +seems to!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='V_THE_PROMOTION_OF_JENNIE' id='V_THE_PROMOTION_OF_JENNIE'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55' name='page_55'></a>55</span> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> +<h3>THE PROMOTION OF JENNIE</h3> +</div> + +<p>If Jennie Woodruff was the cause of Jim +Irwin’s sudden irruption into the educational +field by her scoffing “Humph!” at the idea +of a farm-hand’s ever being able to marry, she +also gave him the opportunity to knock down +the driver of the big motor-car, and perceptibly +elevate himself in the opinion of the neighborhood, +while filling his own heart with something +like shame.</p> +<p>The fat man who had said “Cut it out” to his +driver, was Mr. Charles Dilly, a business man +in the village at the extreme opposite corner +of the county. His choice of the Woodruff District +as a place for motoring had a secret explanation. +I am under no obligation to preserve +the secret. He came to see Colonel Woodruff +and Jennie. Mr. Dilly was a candidate for +county treasurer, and wished to be nominated +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56' name='page_56'></a>56</span> +at the approaching county convention. In his +part of the county lived the county superintendent—a +candidate for renomination. He +was just a plain garden or field county superintendent +of schools, no better and no worse than +the general political run of them, but he had +local pride enlisted in his cause, and was a +good politician.</p> +<p>Mr. Dilly was in the Woodruff District to +build a backfire against this conflagration of +the county superintendent. He expected to use +Jennie Woodruff to light it withal. That is, +while denying that he wished to make any deal +or trade—every candidate in every convention +always says that—he wished to say to Miss +Woodruff and her father, that if Miss Woodruff +would permit her name to be used for the +office of county superintendent of schools, a +goodly group of delegates could be selected in +the other corner of the county who would be +glad to reciprocate any favors Mr. Charles J. +Dilly might receive in the way of votes for +county treasurer with ballots for Miss Jennie +Woodruff for superintendent of schools.</p> +<p>Mr. Dilly never inquired as to Miss Woodruff’s +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57' name='page_57'></a>57</span> +abilities as an educator. That would +have been eccentric. Miss Woodruff never +asked herself if she knew anything about rural +education which especially fitted her for the +task; for was she not a popular and successful +teacher—and was not that enough? Mr. Dilly +merely asked himself if Miss Woodruff’s name +could command strength enough to eliminate +the embarrassing candidate in his part of the +county and leave the field to himself. Miss +Woodruff asked herself whether the work +would not give her a pleasanter life than did +teaching, a better salary, and more chances +to settle herself in life. So are the officials +chosen who supervise and control the education +of the farm children of America.</p> +<p>This secret mission to effect a political trade +accounted for Mr. Dilly’s desire that his driver +should “cut out” the controversy with Newton +Bronson, and the personal encounter with Jim +Irwin—and it may account for Jim’s easy victory +in his first and only physical encounter. +An office seeker could scarcely afford to let his +friend or employee lick a member of a farmers’ +road gang. It certainly explains the fact that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58' name='page_58'></a>58</span> +when Jim Irwin started home from putting +out his team the day after his first call on the +Simms family, Jennie was waiting at the gate +to be congratulated on her nomination.</p> +<p>“I congratulate you,” said Jim.</p> +<p>“Thanks,” said Jennie, extending her hand.</p> +<p>“I hope you’re elected,” Jim went on, holding +the hand; “but there’s no doubt of that.”</p> +<p>“They say not,” replied Jennie; “but father +says I must go about and let the people see +me. He believes in working just as if we didn’t +have a big majority for the ticket.”</p> +<p>“A woman has an advantage of a man in +such a contest,” said Jim; “she can work just +as hard as he can, and at the same time profit +by the fact that it’s supposed she can’t.”</p> +<p>“I need all the advantage I possess,” said +Jennie, “and all the votes. Say a word for me +when on your pastoral rounds.”</p> +<p>“All right,” said Jim, “what shall I say you’ll +do for the schools?”</p> +<p>“Why,” said Jennie, rather perplexed, “I’ll +be fair in my examinations of teachers, try to +keep the unfit teachers out of the schools, visit +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59' name='page_59'></a>59</span> +schools as often as I can, and—why, what does +any good superintendent do?”</p> +<p>“I never heard of a good county superintendent,” +said Jim.</p> +<p>“Never heard of one—why, Jim Irwin!”</p> +<p>“I don’t believe there is any such thing,” +persisted Jim, “and if you do no more than you +say, you’ll be off the same piece as the rest. +Your system won’t give us any better schools +than we have—of the old sort—and we need a +new kind.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Jim, Jim! Dreaming as of yore! Why +can’t you be practical! What do you mean by +a new kind of rural school?”</p> +<p>“A truly-rural rural school,” said Jim.</p> +<p>“I can’t pronounce it,” smiled Jennie, “to say +nothing of understanding it. What would your +tralalooral rural school do?”</p> +<p>“It would be correlated with rural life,” said +Jim.</p> +<p>“How?”</p> +<p>“It would get education out of the things the +farmers and farmers’ wives are interested in +as a part of their lives.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60' name='page_60'></a>60</span></p> +<p>“What, for instance?”</p> +<p>“Dairying, for instance, in this district; and +soil management; and corn-growing; and farm +manual training for boys; and sewing, cooking +and housekeeping for the girls—and caring for +babies!”</p> +<p>Jennie looked serious, after smothering a +laugh.</p> +<p>“Jim,” said she, “you’re going to have a hard +enough time to succeed in the Woodruff school, +if you confine yourself to methods that have +been tested, and found good.”</p> +<p>“But the old methods,” urged Jim, “have +been tested and found bad. Shall I keep to +them?”</p> +<p>“They have made the American people what +they are,” said Jennie. “Don’t be unpatriotic, +Jim.”</p> +<p>“They have educated our farm children for +the cities,” said Jim. “This county is losing +population—and it’s the best county in the +world.”</p> +<p>“Pessimism never wins,” said Jennie.</p> +<p>“Neither does blindness,” answered Jim. “It +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61' name='page_61'></a>61</span> +is losing the farms their dwellers, and swelling +the cities with a proletariat.”</p> +<p>For some time, now, Jim had ceased to hold +Jennie’s hand; and their sweetheart days had +never seemed farther away.</p> +<p>“Jim,” said Jennie, “I may be elected to a +position in which I shall be obliged to pass on +your acts as teacher—in an official way, I mean. +I hope they will be justifiable.”</p> +<p>Jim smiled his slowest and saddest smile.</p> +<p>“If they’re not, I’ll not ask you to condone +them,” said he. “But first, they must be justifiable +to me, Jennie.”</p> +<p>“Good night,” said Jennie curtly, and left +him.</p> +<p>Jennie, I am obliged to admit, gave scant +attention to the new career upon which her old +sweetheart seemed to be entering. She was +in politics, and was playing the game as became +the daughter of a local politician. The +reader must not by this term get the impression +that Colonel Woodruff was a man of the +grafting tricky sort of which we are prone to +think when the term is used. The West has +been ruled by just such men as he, and the West +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62' name='page_62'></a>62</span> +has done rather well, all things considered. +Colonel Albert Woodruff went south with the +army as a corporal in 1861, and came back a +lieutenant. His title of colonel was conferred +by appointment as a member of the staff of +the governor, long years ago, when he was +county auditor. He was not a rich man, as I +may have suggested, but a well-to-do farmer, +whose wife did her own work much of the +time, not because the colonel could not afford +to hire “help,” but for the reason that “hired +girls” were hard to get.</p> +<p>The colonel, having seen the glory of the +coming of the Lord in the triumph of his side +in the great war, was inclined to think that all +reform had ceased, and was a political stand-patter—a +very honest and sincere one. Moreover, +he was influential enough so that when +Mr. Cummins or Mr. Dolliver came into the +county on political errands, Colonel Woodruff +had always been called into conference. He +was of the old New England type, believed +very much in heredity, very much in the theory +that whatever is is right, in so far as it has +secured money or power. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63' name='page_63'></a>63</span></p> +<p>He had hated General Weaver and his forces; +and had sometimes wondered how a man of +Horace Boies’ opinions had succeeded in being +so good a governor. He broke with Governor +Larrabee when that excellent man had turned +against the great men who had developed Iowa +by building the railroads. He was always in +the county convention, and preferred to serve +on the committee on credentials, and leave to +others the more showy work of membership in +the committee on resolutions. He believed in +education, provided it did not unsettle things. +He had a good deal of Latin and some Greek, +and lived on a farm rather than in a fine +house in the county seat because of his lack +of financial ability. As a matter of fact, he +had been too strictly scrupulous to do the +things—such as dealing in lands belonging to +eastern speculators who were not advised as +to their values, speculating in county warrants, +buying up tax titles with county money, and +the like—by which his fellow-politicians who +held office in the early years of the county had +founded their fortunes. A very respectable, +honest, American tory was the colonel, fond of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64' name='page_64'></a>64</span> +his political sway, and rather soured by the +fact that it was passing from him. He had +now broken with Cummins and Dolliver as he +had done years ago with Weaver and later with +Larrabee—and this breach was very important +to him, whether they were greatly concerned +about it or not.</p> +<p>Such being her family history, Jennie was +something of a politician herself. She was in +no way surprised when approached by party +managers on the subject of accepting the nomination +for county superintendent of schools. +Colonel Woodruff could deliver some delegates +to his daughter, though he rather shied at the +proposal at first, but on thinking it over, +warmed somewhat to the notion of having a +Woodruff on the county pay-roll once more.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='VI_JIM_TALKS_THE_WEATHER_COLD' id='VI_JIM_TALKS_THE_WEATHER_COLD'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65' name='page_65'></a>65</span> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> +<h3>JIM TALKS THE WEATHER COLD</h3> +</div> + +<p>“Going to the rally, James?”</p> +<p>Jim had finished his supper, and yearned +for a long evening in his attic den with his +cheap literature. But as the district schoolmaster +he was to some extent responsible for +the protection of the school property, and felt +some sense of duty as to exhibiting an interest +in public affairs.</p> +<p>“I guess I’ll have to go, mother,” he replied +regretfully. “I want to see Mr. Woodruff about +borrowing his Babcock milk tester, and I’ll go +that way. I guess I’ll go on to the meeting.”</p> +<p>He kissed his mother when he went—a habit +from which he never deviated, and another of +those personal peculiarities which had marked +him as different from the other boys of the +neighborhood. His mother urged his overcoat +upon him in vain—for Jim’s overcoat was distinctly +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66' name='page_66'></a>66</span> +a bad one, while his best suit, now worn +every day as a concession to his scholastic +position, still looked passably well after several +weeks of schoolroom duty. She pressed him +to wear a muffler about his neck, but he declined +that also. He didn’t need it, he said; +but he was thinking of the incongruity of a +muffler with no overcoat. It seemed more +logical to assume that the weather was milder +than it really was, on that sharp October evening, +and appear at his best, albeit rather aware +of the cold. Jennie was at home, and he was +likely to see and be seen of her.</p> +<p>“You can borrow that tester,” said the +colonel, “and the cows that go with it, if you +can use ’em. They ain’t earning their keep +here. But how does the milk tester fit into +the curriculum of the school? A decoration?”</p> +<p>“We want to make a few tests of the cows +in the neighborhood,” answered Jim. “Just +another of my fool notions.”</p> +<p>“All right,” said the colonel. “Take it along. +Going to the speakin’?”</p> +<p>“Certainly, he’s going,” said Jennie, entering. +“This is my meeting, Jim.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67' name='page_67'></a>67</span></p> +<p>“Surely, I’m going,” assented Jim. “And I +think I’ll run along.”</p> +<p>“I wish we had room for you in the car,” +said the colonel. “But I’m going around by +Bronson’s to pick up the speaker, and I’ll have +a chuck-up load.”</p> +<p>“Not so much of a load as you think,” said +Jennie. “I’m going with Jim. The walk will +do me good.”</p> +<p>Any candidate warms to her voting population +just before election; but Jennie had a +special kindness for Jim. He was no longer +a farm-hand. The fact that he was coming +to be a center of disturbance in the district, +and that she quite failed to understand how +his eccentric behavior could be harmonized +with those principles of teaching which she +had imbibed at the state normal school in +itself lifted him nearer to equality with her. +A public nuisance is really more respectable +than a nonentity.</p> +<p>She gave Jim a thrill as she passed through +the gate that he opened for her. White moonlight +on her white furs suggested purity, exaltation, +the essence of womanhood—things far +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68' name='page_68'></a>68</span> +finer in the woman of twenty-seven than the +glamour thrown over him by the schoolgirl +of sixteen.</p> +<p>Jim gave her no thrill; for he looked gaunt +and angular in his skimpy, ready-made suit, too +short in legs and sleeves, and too thin for the +season. Yet, as they walked along, Jim grew +upon her. He strode on with immense strides, +made slow to accommodate her shorter steps, +and embarrassing her by his entire absence of +effort to keep step. For all that, he lifted his +face to the stars, and he kept silence, save for +certain fragments of his thoughts, in dropping +which he assumed that she, like himself, was +filled with the grandeur of the sparkling sky, its +vast moon, plowing like an astronomical liner +through the cloudlets of a wool-pack. He +pointed out the great open spaces in the Milky +Way, wondering at their emptiness, and at the +fact that no telescope can find stars in them.</p> +<p>They stopped and looked. Jim laid his hard +hands on the shoulders of her white fur collarette.</p> +<p>“What’s the use of political meetings,” said +Jim, “when you and I can stand here and think +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69' name='page_69'></a>69</span> +our way out, even beyond the limits of our +Universe?”</p> +<p>“A wonderful journey,” said she, not quite +understanding his mood, but very respectful to +it.</p> +<p>“And together,” said Jim. “I’d like to go on +a long, long journey with you to-night, Jennie, +to make up for the years since we went anywhere +together.”</p> +<p>“And we shouldn’t have come together +to-night,” said Jennie, getting back to earth, +“if I hadn’t exercised my leap-year privilege.”</p> +<p>She slipped her arm in his, and they went +on in a rather intimate way.</p> +<p>“I’m not to blame, Jennie,” said he. “You +know that at any time I’d have given anything—anything—”</p> +<p>“And even now,” said Jennie, taking +advantage of his depleted stock of words, “while +we roam beyond the Milky Way, we aren’t +getting any votes for me for county superintendent.”</p> +<p>Jim said nothing. He was quite, quite +reestablished on the earth.</p> +<p>“Don’t you want me to be elected, Jim?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70' name='page_70'></a>70</span></p> +<p>Jim seemed to ponder this for some time—a +period of taking the matter under advisement +which caused Jennie to drop his arm and busy +herself with her skirts.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jim, at last; “of course I do.”</p> +<p>Nothing more was said until they reached +the schoolhouse door.</p> +<p>“Well,” said Jennie rather indignantly, “I’m +glad there are plenty of voters who are more +enthusiastic about me than you seem to be!”</p> +<p>More interesting to a keen observer than +the speeches, were the unusual things in the +room itself. To be sure, there were on the +blackboards exercises and outlines, of lessons +in language, history, mathematics, geography +and the like. But these were not the usual +things taken from text-books. The problems in +arithmetic were calculations as to the feeding +value of various rations for live stock, records +of laying hens and computation as to the excess +of value in eggs produced over the cost of feed. +Pinned to the wall were market reports on all +sorts of farm products, and especially numerous +were the statistics on the prices of cream and +butter. There were files of farm papers piled +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71' name='page_71'></a>71</span> +about, and racks of agricultural bulletins. In +one corner of the room was a typewriting machine, +and in another a sewing machine. Parts +of an old telephone were scattered about on +the teacher’s desk. A model of a piggery stood +on a shelf, done in cardboard. Instead of the +usual collection of text-books in the desk, there +were hectograph copies of exercises, reading +lessons, arithmetical tables and essays on +various matters relating to agriculture, all of +which were accounted for by two or three +hand-made hectographs—a very fair sort of +printing plant—lying on a table. The members +of the school board were there, looking on +these evidences of innovation with wonder and +more or less disfavor. Things were disorderly. +The text-books recently adopted by the board +against some popular protest had evidently +been pitched, neck and crop, out of the school +by the man whom Bonner had termed a dub. +It was a sort of contempt for the powers +that be.</p> +<p>Colonel Woodruff was in the chair. After +the speechifying was over, and the stereotyped, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72' name='page_72'></a>72</span> +though rather illogical, appeal had been made +for voters of the one party to cast the straight +ticket, and for those of the other faction to +scratch, the colonel rose to adjourn the meeting.</p> +<p>Newton Bronson, safely concealed behind +taller people, called out, “Jim Irwin! speech!”</p> +<p>There was a giggle, a slight sensation, and +many voices joined in the call for the new +schoolmaster.</p> +<p>Colonel Woodruff felt the unwisdom of +ignoring the demand. Probably he relied upon +Jim’s discretion and expected a declination.</p> +<p>Jim arose, seedy and lank, and the voices +ceased, save for another suppressed titter.</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” said Jim, “whether this call +upon me is a joke or not. If it is, it isn’t a +practical one, for I can’t talk. I don’t care +much about parties or politics. I don’t know +whether I’m a Democrat, a Republican or a +Populist.”</p> +<p>This caused a real sensation. The nerve of +the fellow! Really, it must in justice be said, +Jim was losing himself in a desire to tell his +true feelings. He forgot all about Jennie and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73' name='page_73'></a>73</span> +her candidacy—about everything except his +real, true feelings. This proves that he was no +politician.</p> +<p>“I don’t see much in this county campaign +that interests me,” he went on—and Jennie +Woodruff reddened, while her seasoned father +covered his mouth with his hand to conceal a +smile. “The politicians come out into the farming +districts every campaign and get us hayseeds +for anything they want. They always +have got us. They’ve got us again! They +give us clodhoppers the glad hand, a cheap +cigar, and a cheaper smile after election;—and +that’s all. I know it, you all know it, they +know it. I don’t blame them so very much. +The trouble is we don’t ask them to do anything +better. I want a new kind of rural school; +but I don’t see any prospect, no matter how +this election goes, for any change in them. We +in the Woodruff District will have to work out +our own salvation. Our political ring never’ll +do anything but the old things. They don’t +want to, and they haven’t sense enough to do +it if they did. That’s all—and I don’t suppose +I should have said as much as I have!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74' name='page_74'></a>74</span></p> +<p>There was stark silence for a moment when he +sat down, and then as many cheers for Jim as +for the principal speaker of the evening, cheers +mingled with titters and catcalls. Jim felt a +good deal as he had done when he knocked +down Mr. Billy’s chauffeur—rather degraded +and humiliated, as if he had made an ass of +himself. And as he walked out of the door, +the future county superintendent passed by +him in high displeasure, and walked home with +some one else.</p> +<p>Jim found the weather much colder than it +had been while coming. He really needed an +Eskimo’s fur suit.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='VII_THE_NEW_WINE' id='VII_THE_NEW_WINE'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75' name='page_75'></a>75</span> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> +<h3>THE NEW WINE</h3> +</div> + +<p>In the little strip of forest which divided the +sown from the Iowa sown wandered two +boys in earnest converse. They seemed to be +Boy Trappers, and from their backloads of +steel-traps one of them might have been Frank +Merriwell, and the other Dead-Shot Dick. +However, though it was only mid-December, +and the fur of all wild varmints was at its +primest, they were bringing their traps into the +settlements, instead of taking them afield. +“The settlements” were represented by the +ruinous dwelling of the Simmses, and the boy +who resembled Frank Merriwell was Raymond +Simms. The other, who was much more barbarously +accoutered, whose overalls were +fringed, who wore a cartridge belt about his +person, and carried hatchet, revolver, and a +long knife with a deerfoot handle, and who so +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76' name='page_76'></a>76</span> +studiously looked like Dead-Shot Dick, was our +old friend of the road gang, Newton Bronson. +On the right, on the left, a few rods would +have brought the boys out upon the levels of +rich corn-fields, and in sight of the long rows +of cottonwoods, willows, box-elders and soft +maples along the straight roads, and of the huge +red barns, each of which possessed a numerous +progeny of outbuildings, among which the +dwelling held a dubious headship. But here, +they could be the Boy Trappers—a thin fringe +of bushes and trees made of the little valley a +forest to the imagination of the boys. Newton +put down his load, and sat upon a stump to +rest.</p> +<p>Raymond Simms was dimly conscious of a +change in Newton since the day when they +met and helped select Colonel Woodruff’s next +year’s seed corn. Newton’s mother had a +mother’s confidence that Newton was now a +good boy, who had been led astray by other +boys, but had reformed. Jim Irwin had a +distinct feeling of optimism. Newton had quit +tobacco and beer, casually stating to Jim that +he was “in training.” Since Jim had shown +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77' name='page_77'></a>77</span> +his ability to administer a knockout to that +angry chauffeur, he seemed to this hobbledehoy +peculiarly a proper person for athletic confidences. +Newton’s mind seemed gradually +filling up with interests that displaced the +psychological complex out of which oozed the +bad stories and filthy allusion. Jim attributed +much of this to the clear mountain atmosphere +which surrounded Raymond Simms, the +ignorant barbarian driven out of his native +hills by a feud. Raymond was of the open +spaces, and refused to hear fetid things that +seemed out of place in them. There was a +dignity which impressed Newton, in the blank +gaze with which Raymond greeted Newton’s +sallies that were wont to set the village pool +room in a roar; but how could you have a fuss +with a feller who knew all about trapping, who +had seen a man shot, who had shot a bear, who +had killed wild turkeys, who had trapped a +hundred dollars’ worth of furs in one winter, +who knew the proper “sets” for all fur-bearing +animals, and whom you liked, and who liked +you?</p> +<p>As the reason for Newton’s improvement in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78' name='page_78'></a>78</span> +manner of living, Raymond, out of his own +experience, would have had no hesitation in +naming the school and the schoolmaster.</p> +<p>“I wouldn’t go back on a friend,” said Newton, +seated on the stump with his traps on the +ground at his feet, “the way you’re going back +on me.”</p> +<p>“You got no call to talk thataway,” replied +the mountain boy. “How’m I goin’ back on +you?”</p> +<p>“We was goin’ to trap all winter,” +asseverated Newton, “and next winter we were +goin’ up in the north woods together.”</p> +<p>“You know,” said Raymond somberly, “that +we cain’t run any trap line and do whut we +got to do to he’p Mr. Jim.”</p> +<p>Newton sat mute as one having no rejoinder.</p> +<p>“Mr. Jim,” went on Raymond, “needs all the +he’p every kid in this settlement kin give him. +He’s the best friend I ever had. I’m a pore +ignerant boy, an’ he teaches me how to do +things that will make me something.”</p> +<p>“Darn it all!” said Newton.</p> +<p>“You know,” said Raymond, “that you’d +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79' name='page_79'></a>79</span> +think mahgty small of me, if I’d desert Mr. Jim +Irwin.”</p> +<p>“Well, then,” replied Newton, seizing his +traps and throwing them across his shoulder, +“come on with the traps, and shut up! What’ll +we do when the school board gets Jennie Woodruff +to revoke his certificate and make him quit +teachin’, hey?”</p> +<p>“Nobody’ll eveh do that,” said Raymond. “I’d +set in the schoolhouse do’ with my rifle and +shoot anybody that’d come to th’ow Mr. Jim +outen the school.”</p> +<p>“Not in this country,” said Newton. “This +ain’t a gun country.”</p> +<p>“But it orto be either a justice kentry, or a +gun kentry,” replied the mountain boy. “It +stands to reason it must be one ’r the otheh, +Newton.”</p> +<p>“No, it don’t, neither,” said Newton dogmatically.</p> +<p>“Why should they th’ow Mr. Jim outen the +school?” inquired Raymond. “Ain’t he teachin’ +us right?”</p> +<p>Newton explained for the tenth time that his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80' name='page_80'></a>80</span> +father, Mr. Con Bonner and Mr. Haakon Peterson +had not meant to hire Jim Irwin at all, but +each had voted for him so that he might have +one vote. They were all against him from the +first, but they had not known how to get rid +of him. Now, however, Jim had done so many +things that no teacher was supposed to do, and +had left undone so many things that teachers +were bound by custom to perform, that Newton’s +father and Mr. Bonner and Mr. Peterson +had made up up their minds that they would call +upon him to resign, and if he wouldn’t, they +would “turn him out” in some way. And the +best way if they could do it, would be to induce +County Superintendent Woodruff, who didn’t +like Jim since the speech he made at the political +meeting, to revoke his certificate.</p> +<p>“What wrong’s he done committed?” asked +Raymond. “I don’t know what teachers air +supposed to do in this kentry, but Mr. Jim +seems to be the only shore-enough teacher I +ever see!”</p> +<p>“He don’t teach out of the books the school +board adopted,” replied Newton. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81' name='page_81'></a>81</span></p> +<p>“But he makes up better lessons,” urged Raymond. +“An’ all the things we do in school, +he’ps us make a livin’.”</p> +<p>“He begins at eight in the mornin’,” said +Newton, “an’ he has some of us there till half +past five, and comes back in the evening. And +every Saturday, some of the kids are doin’ +something at the schoolhouse.”</p> +<p>“They don’t pay him for overtime, do they?” +queried Raymond. “Well, then, they orto, +instid of turnin’ him out!”</p> +<p>“Well, they’ll turn him out!” prophesied +Newton. “I’m havin’ more fun in school than +I ever—an’ that’s why I’m with you on this +quittin’ trapping—but they’ll get Jim, all +right!”</p> +<p>“I’m having something betteh’n fun,” replied +Raymond. “My pap has never understood this +kentry, an’ we-all has had bad times hyeh; but +Mr. Jim an’ I have studied out how I can make +a betteh livin’ next year—and pap says we kin +go on the way Mr. Jim says. I’ll work for +Colonel Woodruff a part of the time, an’ pap +kin make corn in the biggest field. It seems +we didn’t do our work right last year—an’ in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82' name='page_82'></a>82</span> +a couple of years, with the increase of the +hawgs, an’ the land we kin get under plow....”</p> +<p>Raymond was off on his pet dream of becoming +something better than the oldest of the +Simms tribe of outcasts, and Newton was subconsciously +impressed by the fact that never +for a moment did Raymond’s plans fail to include +the elevation with him of Calista and +Jinnie and Buddy and Pap and Mam. It was +taken for granted that the Simmses sank or +swam together, whether their antagonists were +poverty and ignorance, or their ancient foes, +the Hobdays. Newton drew closer to Raymond’s +side.</p> +<p>It was still an hour before nine—when the +rural school traditionally “takes up”—when +the boys had stored their traps in a shed at the +Bronson home, and walked on to the schoolhouse. +That rather scabby and weathered +edifice was already humming with industry of +a sort. In spite of the hostility of the school +board, and the aloofness of the patrons of the +school, the pupils were clearly interested in +Jim Irwin’s system of rural education. Never +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83' name='page_83'></a>83</span> +had the attendance been so large or regular; +and one of the reasons for sessions before nine +and after four was the inability of the teacher +to attend to the needs of his charges in the +five and a half hours called “school hours.”</p> +<p>This, however, was not the sole reason. It +was the new sort of work which commanded +the attention of Raymond and Newton as they +entered. This morning, Jim had arranged in +various sorts of dishes specimens of grain and +grass seeds. By each was a card bearing the +name of the farm from which one of the older +boys or girls had brought it. “Wheat, Scotch +Fife, from the farm of Columbus Smith.” +“Timothy, or Herd’s Grass, from the farm of +A. B. Talcott.” “Alsike Clover, from the farm +of B. B. Hamm.” Each lot was in a small cloth +bag which had been made by one of the little +girls as a sewing exercise; and each card had +been written as a lesson in penmanship by one +of the younger pupils, and contained, in addition +to the data above mentioned, heads under +which to enter the number of grains of the +seed examined, the number which grew, the +percentage of viability, the number of alien +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84' name='page_84'></a>84</span> +seeds of weeds and other sorts, the names of +these adulterants, the weight of true and +vitalized, and of foul and alien and dead seeds, +the value per bushel in the local market of the +seeds under test, and the real market values +of the samples, after dead seeds and alien +matter had been subtracted.</p> +<p>“Now get busy, here,” cried Jim Irwin. +“We’re late! Raymond, you’ve a quick eye—you +count seeds—and you, Calista, and Mary +Smith—and mind, next year’s crop may depend +on making no mistakes!”</p> +<p>“Mistakes!” scoffed Mary Smith, a dumpy +girl of fourteen. “We don’t make mistakes +any more, teacher.”</p> +<p>It was a frolic, rather than a task. All had +come with a perfect understanding that this +early attendance was quite illegal, and not to +be required of them—but they came.</p> +<p>“Newt,” suggested Jim, “get busy on the +percentage problems for that second class in +arithmetic.”</p> +<p>“Sure,” said Newt. “Let’s see.... Good +seed is the base, and bad seed and dead seed +the percentage—find the rate....” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85' name='page_85'></a>85</span></p> +<p>“Oh, you know!” said Jim. “Make them +easy and plain and as many as you can get +out—and be sure that you name the farm every +pop!”</p> +<p>“Got you!” answered Newton, and in a fine +frenzy went at the job of creating a text-book +in arithmetic.</p> +<p>“Buddy,” said Jim, patting the youngest +Simms on the head, “you and Virginia can +print the reading lessons this morning, can’t +you?”</p> +<p>“Yes, Mr. Jim,” answered both McGeehee +Simms and his sister cheerily. “Where’s the +copy?”</p> +<p>“Here,” answered the teacher, handing each +a typewritten sheet for use as the original from +which the young mountaineers were to make +hectograph copies, “and mind you make good +copies! Bettina Hansen pretty nearly cried +last night because she had to write them over +so many times on the typewriter before she +got them all right.”</p> +<p>The reading lesson was an article on corn +condensed from a farm paper, and a selection +from <i>Hiawatha</i>—the Indian-corn myth. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86' name='page_86'></a>86</span></p> +<p>“We’ll be careful, Mr. Jim,” said Buddy.</p> +<p>Half past eight, and only half an hour until +school would officially be “called.”</p> +<p>Newton Bronson was writing in aniline ink +for the hectographs, such problems as these:</p> +<p>“If Mr. Ezra Bronson’s seed wheat carries +in each 250 grains, ten cockle grains, fifteen +rye grains, twenty fox-tail seeds, three iron-weed +seeds, two wild oats grains, twenty-seven +wild buckwheat seeds, one wild morning-glory +seed, and eighteen lamb’s quarter seeds, what +percentage of the seeds sown is wheat, and +what foul seed?”</p> +<p>“If in each 250 grains of wheat in Mr. +Bronson’s bins, 30 are cracked, dead or otherwise +not capable of sprouting, what per cent, +of the seed sown will grow?”</p> +<p>“If the foul seed and dead wheat amount to +one-eighth by weight of the mass, what did +Mr. Bronson pay per bushel for the good wheat, +if it cost him $1.10 in the bin, and what per +cent, did he lose by the adulterations and the +poor wheat?”</p> +<p>Jim ran over these rapidly. “Your mathematics +is good, Newton,” said the schoolmaster, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87' name='page_87'></a>87</span> +“but if you expect to pass in penmanship, you’ll +have to take more pains.”</p> +<p>“How about the grammar?” asked Newton. +“The writing is pretty bad, I’ll own up.”</p> +<p>“The grammar is good this morning. You’re +gradually mastering the art of stating a problem +in arithmetic in English—and that’s improvement.”</p> +<p>The hands of Jim Irwin’s dollar watch +gradually approached the position indicating +nine o’clock—at which time the schoolmaster +rapped on his desk and the school came to +order. Then, for a while, it became like other +schools. A glance over the room enabled him +to enter the names of the absentees, and those +tardy. There was a song by the school, the +recitation in concert of <i>Little Brown Hands</i>, +some general remarks and directions by the +teacher, and the primary pupils came forward +for their reading exercises. A few classes began +poring over their text-books, but most of +the pupils had their work passed out to them in +the form of hectograph copies of exercises +prepared in the school itself.</p> +<p>As the little ones finished their recitations, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88' name='page_88'></a>88</span> +they passed to the dishes of wheat, and began +aiding Raymond’s squad in the counting and +classifying of the various seeds. They counted +to five, and they counted the fives. They +laughed in a subdued way, and whispered constantly, +but nobody seemed disturbed.</p> +<p>“Do they help much, Calista?” asked the +teacher, as the oldest Simms girl came to his +desk for more wheat.</p> +<p>“No, seh, not much,” replied Calista, beaming, +“but they don’t hold us back any—and +maybe they do he’p a little.”</p> +<p>“That’s good,” said Jim, “and they enjoy +it, don’t they?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, Mr. Jim,” assented Calista, “and +the way Buddy is learnin’ to count is fine! +They-all will soon know all the addition they +is, and a lot of multiplication. Angie Talcott +knows the kinds of seeds better’n what I do!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='VIII_AND_THE_OLD_BOTTLES' id='VIII_AND_THE_OLD_BOTTLES'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89' name='page_89'></a>89</span> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +<h3>AND THE OLD BOTTLES</h3> +</div> + +<p>The day passed. Four o’clock came. In +order that all might reach home for supper, +there was no staying, except that Newt Bronson +and Raymond Simms remained to sweep +and dust the schoolroom, and prepare kindling +for the next morning’s fire—a work they had +taken upon themselves, so as to enable the +teacher to put on the blackboards such outlines +for the morrow’s class work as might be required. +Jim was writing on the board a list +of words constituting a spelling exercise. They +were not from the text-book, but grew naturally +out of the study of the seed wheat—“cockle,” +“morning-glory,” “convolvulus,” “viable,” “viability,” +“sprouting,” “iron-weed” and the like. +A tap was heard at the door, and Raymond +Simms opened it.</p> +<p>In filed three women—and Jim Irwin knew +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90' name='page_90'></a>90</span> +as he looked at them that he was greeting a +deputation, and felt that it meant a struggle. +For they were the wives of the members of +the school board. He placed for them the three +available chairs, and in the absence of any for +himself remained standing before them, a gaunt +shabby-looking revolutionist at the bar of +settled usage and fixed public opinion.</p> +<p>Mrs. Haakon Peterson was a tall blonde +woman who, when she spoke betrayed her +Scandinavian origin by the northern burr to +her “r’s,” and a slight difficulty with her “j’s,” +her “y’s” and long “a’s.” She was slow-spoken +and dignified, and Jim felt an instinctive respect +for her personality. Mrs. Bronson was +a good motherly woman, noted for her +housekeeping, and for her church activities. +She looked oftener at her son, and his friend +Raymond than at the schoolmaster. Mrs. Bonner +was the most voluble of the three, and was +the only one who shook hands with Jim; but +in spite of her rather offhand manner, Jim +sensed in the little, black-eyed Irishwoman the +real commander of the expedition against +him—for such he knew it to be. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91' name='page_91'></a>91</span></p> +<p>“You may think it strange of us coming +after hours,” said she, “but we wanted to +speak to you, teacher, without the children +here.”</p> +<p>“I wish more of the parents would call,” +said Jim. “At any hour of the day.”</p> +<p>“Or night either, I dare say,” suggested Mrs. +Bonner. “I hear you’ve the scholars here at +all hours, Jim.”</p> +<p>Jim smiled his slow patient smile.</p> +<p>“We do break the union rules, I guess, Mrs. +Bonner,” said he; “there seems to be more to +do than we can get done during school +hours.”</p> +<p>“What right have ye,” struck in Mrs. Bonner, +“to be burning the district’s fuel, and wearing +out the school’s property out of hours like +that—not that it’s anny of my business,” she +interposed, hastily, as if she had been diverted +from her chosen point of attack. “I just +thought of it, that’s all. What we came for, +Mr. Irwin, is to object to the way the teachin’s +being done—corn and wheat, and hogs and the +like, instead of the learnin’ schools was made +to teach.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92' name='page_92'></a>92</span></p> +<p>“Schools were made to prepare children for +life, weren’t they, Mrs. Bonner?”</p> +<p>“To be sure,” went on Mrs. Bonner, “I can +see an’ the whole district can see that it’s +easier for a man that’s been a farm-hand to +teach farm-hand knowledge, than the learnin’ +schools was set up to teach; but if so be he +hasn’t the book education to do the right thing, +we think he should get out and give a real +teacher a chance.”</p> +<p>“What am I neglecting?” asked Jim mildly.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bonner seemed unprepared for the +question, and sat for an instant mute. Mrs. +Peterson interposed her attack while Mrs. Bonner +might be recovering her wind.</p> +<p>“We people that have had a hard time,” she +said in a precise way which seemed to show +that she knew exactly what she wanted, “want +to give our boys and girls a chance to live +easier lives than we lived. We don’t want our +children taught about nothing but work. We +want higher things.”</p> +<p>“Mrs. Peterson,” said Jim earnestly, “we +must have first things first. Making a living +is the first thing—and the highest.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93' name='page_93'></a>93</span></p> +<p>“Haakon and I will look after making a +living for our family,” said she. “We want +our children to learn nice things, and go to +high school, and after a while to the Juniwersity.”</p> +<p>“And I,” declared Jim, “will send out from +this school, if you will let me, pupils better +prepared for higher schools than have ever +gone from it—because they will be trained to +think in terms of action. They will go knowing +that thoughts must always be linked with +things. Aren’t your children happy in school, +Mrs. Peterson?”</p> +<p>“I don’t send them to school to be happy, +Yim,” replied Mrs. Peterson, calling him by +the name most familiarly known to all of them; +“I send them to learn to be higher people than +their father and mother. That’s what America +means!”</p> +<p>“They’ll be higher people—higher than their +parents—higher than their teacher—they’ll be +efficient farmers, and efficient farmers’ wives. +They’ll be happy, because they will know how +to use more brains in farming than any lawyer +or doctor or merchant can possibly use in his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94' name='page_94'></a>94</span> +business. I’m educating them to find an outlet +for genius in farming!”</p> +<p>“It’s a fine thing,” said Mrs. Bonner, coming +to the aid of her fellow soldiers, “to work hard +for a lifetime, an’ raise nothing but a family +of farmers! A fine thing!”</p> +<p>“They will be farmers anyhow,” cried Jim, +“in spite of your efforts—ninety out of every +hundred of them! And of the other ten, nine +will be wage-earners in the cities, and wish to +God they were back on the farm; and the +hundredth one will succeed in the city. Shall +we educate the ninety-and-nine to fail, that the +hundredth, instead of enriching the rural life +with his talents, may steal them away to make +the city stronger? It is already too strong +for us farmers. Shall we drive our best away +to make it stronger?”</p> +<p>The guns of Mrs. Bonner and Mrs. Peterson +were silenced for a moment, and Mrs. Bronson, +after gazing about at the typewriter, the hectograph, +the exhibits of weed seeds, the Babcock +milk tester, and the other unscholastic equipment, +pointed to the list of words, and the +arithmetic problems on the board. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95' name='page_95'></a>95</span></p> +<p>“Do you get them words from the speller?” +she asked.</p> +<p>“No,” said he, “we got them from a lesson on +seed wheat.”</p> +<p>“Did them examples come out of an arithmetic +book?” cross-examined she.</p> +<p>“No,” said Jim, “we used problems we made +ourselves. We were figuring profits and losses +on your cows, Mrs. Bronson!”</p> +<p>“Ezra Bronson,” said Mrs. Bronson loftily, +“don’t need any help in telling what’s a good +cow. He was farming before you was born!”</p> +<p>“Like fun, he don’t need help! He’s going +to dry old Cherry off and fatten her for beef; +and he can make more money on the cream by +beefing about three more of ’em. The Babcock +test shows they’re just boarding on us without +paying their board!”</p> +<p>The delegation of matrons ruffled like a group +of startled hens at this interposition, which +was Newton Bronson’s effective seizing of the +opportunity to issue a progress bulletin in the +research work on the Bronson dairy herd.</p> +<p>“Newton!” said his mother, “don’t interrupt +me when I’m talking to the teacher!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96' name='page_96'></a>96</span></p> +<p>“Well, then,” said Newton, “don’t tell the +teacher that pa knew which cows were good +and which were poor. If any one in this +district wants to know about their cows they’ll +have to come to this shop. And I can tell you +that it’ll pay ’em to come too, if they’re going +to make anything selling cream. Wait until +we get out our reports on the herds, ma!”</p> +<p>The women were rather stampeded by this +onslaught of the irregular troops—especially +Mrs. Bronson. She was placed in the position +of a woman taking a man’s wisdom from her +ne’er-do-well son for the first time in her life. +Like any other mother in this position, she +felt a flutter of pride—but it was strongly +mingled with a motherly desire to spank him. +The deputation rose, with a unanimous feeling +that they had been scored upon.</p> +<p>“Cows!” scoffed Mrs. Peterson. “If we leave +you in this yob, Mr. Irwin, our children will +know nothing but cows and hens and soils and +grains—and where will the culture come in? +How will our boys and girls appear when we +get fixed so we can move to town? We won’t +have no culture at all, Yim!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97' name='page_97'></a>97</span></p> +<p>“Culture!” exclaimed Jim. “Why—why, +after ten years of the sort of school I would +give you if I were a better teacher, and could +have my way, the people of the cities would +be begging to have their children admitted so +that they might obtain real culture—culture +fitting them for life in the twentieth century—”</p> +<p>“Don’t bother to get ready for the city +children, Jim,” said Mrs. Bonner sneeringly, +“you won’t be teaching the Woodruff school +that long.”</p> +<p>All this time, the dark-faced Cracker had +been glooming from a corner, earnestly seeking +to fathom the wrongness he sensed in the +gathering. Now he came forward.</p> +<p>“I reckon I may be making a mistake to say +anything,” said he, “f’r we-all is strangers +hyeh, an’ we’re pore; but I must speak out +for Mr. Jim—I must! Don’t turn him out, +folks, f’r he’s done mo’ f’r us than eveh any +one done in the world!”</p> +<p>“What do you mean?” asked Mrs. Peterson.</p> +<p>“I mean,” said Raymond, “that when Mr. Jim +began talking school to us, we was a pore +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98' name='page_98'></a>98</span> +no-’count lot without any learnin’, with nothin’ +to talk about except our wrongs, an’ our enemies, +and the meanness of the Iowa folks. +You see we didn’t understand you-all. An’ +now, we have hope. We done got hope from +this school. We’re goin’ to make good in the +world. We’re getting education. We’re all +learnin’ to use books. My little sister will be +as good as anybody, if you’ll just let Mr. Jim +alone in this school—as good as any one. An’ +I’ll he’p pap get a farm, and we’ll work and +think at the same time, an’ be happy!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='IX_JENNIE_ARRANGES_A_CHRISTMAS_PARTY' id='IX_JENNIE_ARRANGES_A_CHRISTMAS_PARTY'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99' name='page_99'></a>99</span> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> +<h3>JENNIE ARRANGES A CHRISTMAS PARTY</h3> +</div> + +<p>The great party magnates who made up the +tickets from governor down to the lowest +county office, doubtless regarded the little political +plum shaken off into the apron of Miss +Jennie Woodruff of the Woodruff District, as +the very smallest and least bloomy of all the +plums on the tree; but there is something which +tends to puff one up in the mere fact of having +received the votes of the people for any office, +especially in a region of high average civilization, +covering six hundred or seven hundred +square miles of good American domain. Jennie +was a sensible country girl. Being sensible, +she tried to avoid uppishness. But she did feel +some little sense of increased importance as she +drove her father’s little one-cylinder runabout +over the smooth earth roads, in the crisp December +weather, just before Christmas. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100' name='page_100'></a>100</span></p> +<p>The weather itself was stimulating, and she +was making rapid progress in the management +of the little car which her father had offered +to lend her for use in visiting the one hundred +or more rural schools soon to come under her +supervision. She rather fancied the picture +of herself, clothed in more or less authority and +queening it over her little army of teachers.</p> +<p>Mr. Haakon Peterson was phlegmatically +conscious that she made rather an agreeable +picture, as she stopped her car alongside his +top buggy to talk with him. She had bright +blue eyes, fluffy brown hair, a complexion +whipped pink by the breeze, and she smiled +at him ingratiatingly.</p> +<p>“Don’t you think father is lovely?” said she. +“He is going to let me use the runabout when +I visit the schools.”</p> +<p>“That will be good,” said Haakon. “It will +save you lots of time. I hope you make the +county pay for the gasoline.”</p> +<p>“I haven’t thought about that,” said Jennie. +“Everybody’s been so nice to me—I want to +give as well as receive.”</p> +<p>“Why,” said Haakon, “you will yust begin +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101' name='page_101'></a>101</span> +to receive when your salary begins in Yanuary.”</p> +<p>“Oh, no!” said Jennie. “I’ve received much +more than that now! You don’t know how +proud I feel. So many nice men I never knew +before, and all my old friends like you working +for me in the convention and at the polls, just +as if I amounted to something.”</p> +<p>“And you don’t know how proud I feel,” +said Haakon, “to have in county office a little +girl I used to hold on my lap.”</p> +<p>In early times, when Haakon was a flat-capped +immigrant boy, he had earned the initial +payment on his first eighty acres of prairie +land as a hired man on Colonel Woodruff’s +farm. Now he was a rather richer man than +the colonel, and not a little proud of his ascent +to affluence. He was a mild-spoken, soft-voiced +Scandinavian, quite completely Americanized, +and possessed of that aptitude for local politics +which makes so good a citizen of the Norwegian +and Swede. His influence was always +worth fifty to sixty Scandinavian votes in any +county election. He was a good party man +and conscious of being entitled to his voice +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102' name='page_102'></a>102</span> +in party matters. This seemed to him an opportunity +for exerting a bit of political +influence.</p> +<p>“Yennie,” said he, “this man Yim Irwin +needs to be lined up.”</p> +<p>“Lined up! What do you mean?”</p> +<p>“The way he is doing in the school,” said +Haakon, “is all wrong. If you can’t line him +up, he will make you trouble. We must look +ahead. Everybody has his friends, and Yim +Irwin has his friends. If you have trouble +with him, his friends will be against you when +we want to nominate you for a second term. +The county is getting close. If we go to conwention +without your home delegation it would +weaken you, and if we nominate you, every +piece of trouble like this cuts down your wote. +You ought to line him up and have him do +right.”</p> +<p>“But he is so funny,” said Jennie.</p> +<p>“He likes you,” said Haakon. “You can line +him up.”</p> +<p>Jennie blushed, and to conceal her slight embarrassment, +got out for the purpose of cranking +her machine. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103' name='page_103'></a>103</span></p> +<p>“But if I can not line him up?” said she.</p> +<p>“I tank,” said Haakon, “if you can’t line him +up, you will have a chance to rewoke his certificate +when you take office.”</p> +<p>So Jim Irwin was to be crushed like an insect. +The little local gearing of the big party +machine was to crush him. Jennie dimly sensed +the tragedy of it, but very dimly. Mainly she +thought of Mr. Peterson’s suggestion as to +“lining up” Jim Irwin as so thoroughly sensible +that she gave it a good deal of thought that +day. She could not help feeling a little resentment +at Jim for following his own fads and +fancies so far. We always resent the necessity +of crushing any weak creature which must +needs be wiped out. The idea that there could +be anything fundamentally sane in his overturning +of the old and tried school methods +under which both he and she had been educated, +was absurd to Jennie. To be sure, everybody +had always favored “more practical education,” +and Jim’s farm arithmetic, farm physiology, +farm reading and writing, cow-testing +exercises, seed analysis, corn clubs and the tomato, +poultry and pig clubs he proposed to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104' name='page_104'></a>104</span> +have in operation the next summer, seemed +highly practical; but to Jennie’s mind, the fact +that they introduced dissension in the neighborhood +and promised to make her official life +vexatious, seemed ample proof that Jim’s work +was visionary and impractical. Poor Jennie +was not aware of the fact that new truth always +comes bringing, not peace to mankind, but a +sword.</p> +<p>“Father,” said she that night, “let’s have a +little Christmas party.”</p> +<p>“All right,” said the colonel. “Whom shall +we invite?”</p> +<p>“Don’t laugh,” said she. “I want to invite +Jim Irwin and his mother, and nobody else.”</p> +<p>“All right,” reiterated the colonel. “But +why?”</p> +<p>“Oh,” said Jennie, “I want to see whether I +can talk Jim out of some of his foolishness.”</p> +<p>“You want to line him up, do you?” said the +colonel. “Well, that’s good politics, and incidentally, +you may get some good ideas out of +Jim.”</p> +<p>“Rather unlikely,” said Jennie.</p> +<p>“I don’t know about that,” said the colonel, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105' name='page_105'></a>105</span> +smiling. “I begin to think that Jim’s a Brown +Mouse. I’ve told you about the Brown Mouse, +haven’t I?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jennie. “You’ve told me. But +Professor Darbishire’s brown mice were simply +wild and incorrigible creatures. Just because +it happens to emerge suddenly from the forests +of heredity, it doesn’t prove that the Brown +Mouse is any good.”</p> +<p>“Justin Morgan was a Brown Mouse,” said +the colonel. “And he founded the greatest +breed of horses in the world.”</p> +<p>“You say that,” said Jennie, “because you’re +a lover of the Morgan horse.”</p> +<p>“Napoleon Bonaparte was a Brown Mouse,” +said the colonel. “So was George Washington, +and so was Peter the Great. Whenever a +Brown Mouse appears he changes things in +a little way or a big way.”</p> +<p>“For the better, always?” asked Jennie.</p> +<p>“No,” said the colonel. “The Brown Mouse +may throw back to slant-headed savagery. But +Jim ... sometimes I think Jim is the kind of +Mendelian segregation out of which we get +Franklins and Edisons and their sort. You +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106' name='page_106'></a>106</span> +may get some good ideas out of Jim. Let us +have them here for Christmas, by all means.”</p> +<p>In due time Jennie’s invitation reached Jim +and his mother, like an explosive shell fired +from a distance into their humble dwelling—quite +upsetting things. Twenty-five years constitute +rather a long wait for social recognition, +and Mrs. Irwin had long since regarded +herself as quite outside society. To be sure, +for something like half of this period, she +had been of society if not in it. She had done +the family washings, scrubbings and cleanings, +had made the family clothes and been a woman +of all work, passing from household to household, +in an orbit determined by the exigencies +of threshing, harvesting, illness and child-bearing. +At such times she sat at the family +table and participated in the neighborhood gossip, +in quite the manner of a visiting aunt or +other female relative; but in spite of the democracy +of rural life, there is and always has +been a social difference between a hired woman +and an invited guest. And when Jim, having +absorbed everything which the Woodruff school +could give him in the way of education, found +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107' name='page_107'></a>107</span> +his first job at “making a hand,” Mrs. Irwin, +at her son’s urgent request, ceased going out +to work for a while, until she could get back +her strength. This she had never succeeded +in doing, and for a dozen years or more had +never entered a single one of the houses in +which she had formerly served.</p> +<p>“I can’t go, James,” said she; “I can’t possibly +go.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, you can! Why not?” said Jim. +“Why not?”</p> +<p>“You know I don’t go anywhere,” urged Mrs. +Irwin.</p> +<p>“That’s no reason,” said her son.</p> +<p>“I haven’t a thing to wear,” said Mrs. Irwin.</p> +<p>“Nothing to wear!”</p> +<p>I wonder if any ordinary person can understand +the shock with which Jim Irwin heard +those words from his mother’s lips. He was +approaching thirty, and the association of the +ideas of Mother and Costume was foreign to +his mind. Other women had surfaces different +from hers, to be sure—but his mother was not +as other women. She was just Mother, always +at work in the house or in the garden, always +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108' name='page_108'></a>108</span> +doing for him those inevitable things which +made up her part in life, always clothed in the +browns, grays, gray-blues, neutral stripes and +checks which were cheap and common and +easily made. Clothes! They were in the Irwin +family no more than things by which the +rules of decency were complied with, and the +cold of winter turned back—but as for their +appearance! Jim had never given the thing +a thought further than to wear out his Sunday +best in the schoolroom, to wonder where the +next suit of Sunday best was to come from, +and to buy for his mother the cheap and common +fabrics which she fashioned into the garments +in which alone, it seemed to him, she +would seem like Mother. A boy who lives +until he is nearly thirty in intimate companionship +with Carlyle, Thoreau, Wordsworth, +Shakespeare, Emerson, Professor Henry, Liberty +H. Bailey, Cyril Hopkins, Dean Davenport +and the great obscurities of the experiment stations, +may be excused if his views regarding +clothes are derived in a transcendental manner +from <i>Sartor Resartus</i> and the agricultural college +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109' name='page_109'></a>109</span> +tests as to the relation between Shelter +and Feeding.</p> +<p>“Why, mother,” said he, “I think it would +be pretty hard to explain to the Woodruffs that +you stayed away because of clothes. They have +seen you in the clothes you wear pretty often +for the last thirty years!”</p> +<hr class='tb' /> + +<p>Was a woman ever quite without a costume?</p> +<p>Mrs. Irwin gazed at vacancy for a while, +and went to the old bureau. From the bottom +drawer she took an old, old black alpaca dress—a +dress which Jim had never seen. She +spread it out on her bed in the alcove off the +combined kitchen, parlor and dining-room in +which they lived, and smoothed out the wrinkles. +It was almost whole, save for the places +where her body, once so much fuller than now, +had drawn the threads apart—under the arms, +and at some of the seams—and she handled it +as one deals with something very precious.</p> +<p>“I never thought I’d wear it again,” said she, +“but once. I’ve been saving it for my last +dress. But I guess it won’t hurt to wear it once +for the benefit of the living.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110' name='page_110'></a>110</span></p> +<p>Jim kissed his mother—a rare thing, save +as the caress was called for by the established +custom between them.</p> +<p>“Don’t think of that, mother,” said he, “for +years and years yet!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='X_HOW_JIM_WAS_LINED_UP' id='X_HOW_JIM_WAS_LINED_UP'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111' name='page_111'></a>111</span> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> +<h3>HOW JIM WAS LINED UP</h3> +</div> + +<p>There is no doubt that Jennie Woodruff +was justified in thinking that they were a +queer couple. They weren’t like the Woodruffs, +at all. They were of a different pattern. +To be sure, Jim’s clothes were not especially +noteworthy, being just shiny, and frayed at +cuff and instep, and short of sleeve and leg, +and ill-fitting and cheap. They betrayed poverty, +and the inability of a New York sweatshop +to anticipate the prodigality of Nature in +the matter of length of leg and arm, and +wealth of bones and joints which she had lavished +upon Jim Irwin. But the Woodruff table +had often enjoyed Jim’s presence, and the +standards prevailing there as to clothes were +only those of plain people who eat with their +hired men, buy their clothes at a county seat +town, and live simply and sensibly on the fat +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112' name='page_112'></a>112</span> +of the land. Jim’s queerness lay not so much +in his clothes as in his personality.</p> +<p>On the other hand, Jennie could not help +thinking that Mrs. Irwin’s queerness was to be +found almost solely in her clothes. The black +alpaca looked undeniably respectable, especially +when it was helped out by a curious old +brooch of goldstone, bordered with flowers in +blue and white and red and green—tiny blossoms +of little stones which looked like the +flowers which grow at the snow line on Pike’s +Peak. Jennie felt that it must be a cheap affair, +but it was decorative, and she wondered +where Mrs. Irwin got it. She guessed it must +have a story—a story in which the stooped, +rusty, somber old lady looked like a character +drawn to harmonize with the period just after +the war. For the black alpaca dress looked +more like a costume for a masquerade than a +present-day garment, and Mrs. Irwin was so +oppressed with doubt as to whether she was +presentable, with knowledge that her dress +didn’t fit, and with the difficulty of behaving +naturally—like a convict just discharged from +prison after a ten years’ term—that she took +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113' name='page_113'></a>113</span> +on a stiffness of deportment quite in keeping +with the idea that she was a female Rip Van +Winkle not yet quite awake. But Jennie had +the keenness to see that if Mrs. Irwin could +have had an up-to-date costume she would have +become a rather ordinary and not bad-looking +old lady. What Jennie failed to divine was +that if Jim could have invested a hundred dollars +in the services of tailors, haberdashers, +barbers and other specialists in personal appearance, +and could for this hour or so have +blotted out his record as her father’s field-hand, +he would have seemed to her a distinguished-looking +young man. Not handsome, of course, +but the sort people look after—and follow.</p> +<p>“Come to dinner,” said Mrs. Woodruff, who +at this juncture had a hired girl, but was yoked +to the oar nevertheless when it came to turkey +and the other fixings of a Christmas dinner. +“It’s good enough, what there is of it, and +there’s enough of it such as it is—but the dressing +in the turkey would be better for a little +more sage!”</p> +<p>The bountiful meal piled mountain high for +guest and hired help and family melted away +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114' name='page_114'></a>114</span> +in a manner to delight the hearts of Mrs. +Woodruff and Jennie. The colonel, in stiff +starched shirt, black tie and frock coat, carved +with much empressement, and Jim felt almost +for the first time a sense of the value of manner.</p> +<p>“I had bigger turkeys,” said Mrs. Woodruff +to Mrs. Irwin, “but I thought it would be better +to cook two turkey-hens instead of one +great big gobbler with meat as tough as tripe +and stuffed full of fat.”</p> +<p>“One of the hens would ’a’ been plenty,” replied +Mrs. Irwin. “How much did they +weigh?”</p> +<p>“About fifteen pounds apiece,” was the answer. +“The gobbler would ’a’ weighed thirty, +I guess. He’s pure Mammoth Bronze.”</p> +<p>“I wish,” said Jim, “that we could get a few +breeding birds of the wild bronze turkeys from +Mexico.”</p> +<p>“Why?” asked the colonel.</p> +<p>“They’re the original blood of the domestic +bronze turkeys,” said Jim, “and they’re bigger +and handsomer than the pure-bred bronzes, +even. They’re a better stock than the northern +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115' name='page_115'></a>115</span> +wild turkeys from which our common birds +originated.”</p> +<p>“Where do you learn all these things, Jim?” +asked Mrs. Woodruff. “I declare, I often tell +Woodruff that it’s as good as a lecture to have +Jim Irwin at table. My intelligence has fallen +since you quit working here, Jim.”</p> +<p>There came into Jim’s eyes the gleam of the +man devoted to a Cause—and the dinner tended +to develop into a lecture. Jennie saw a little +more plainly wherein his queerness lay.</p> +<p>“There’s an education in any meal, if we +would just use the things on the table as materials +for study, and follow their trails back +to their starting-points. This turkey takes us +back to the chaparral of Mexico——”</p> +<p>“What’s chaparral?” asked Jennie, as a diversion. +“It’s one of the words I have seen +so often and know perfectly to speak it and +read it—but after all it’s just a word, and +nothing more.”</p> +<p>“Ain’t that the trouble with our education, +Jim?” queried the colonel, cleverly steering +Jim back into the track of his discourse.</p> +<p>“They are not even living words,” answered +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116' name='page_116'></a>116</span> +Jim, “unless we have clothed them in flesh and +blood through some sort of concrete notion. +‘Chaparral’ to Jennie is just the ghost of a +word. Our civilization is full of inefficiency because +we are satisfied to give our children these +ghosts and shucks and husks of words, instead +of the things themselves, that can be seen and +hefted and handled and tested and heard.”</p> +<p>Jennie looked Jim over carefully. His queerness +was taking on a new phase—and she felt +a sense of surprise such as one experiences +when the conjurer causes a rose to grow into +a tree before your very eyes. Jim’s development +was not so rapid, but Jennie’s perception +of it was. She began to feel proud of the fact +that a man who could make his impractical notions +seem so plausible—and who was clearly +fired with some sort of evangelistic fervor—had +kissed her, once or twice, on bringing her +home from the spelling school.</p> +<p>“I think we lose so much time in school,” +Jim went on, “while the children are eating +their dinners.”</p> +<p>“Well, Jim,” said Mrs. Woodruff, “every one +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117' name='page_117'></a>117</span> +but you is down on the human level. The poor +kids have to eat!”</p> +<p>“But think how much good education there +is wrapped up in the school dinner—if we +could only get it out.”</p> +<p>Jennie grew grave. Here was this Brown +Mouse actually introducing the subject of the +school—and he ought to suspect that she was +planning to line him up on this very thing—if +he wasn’t a perfect donkey as well as a +dreamer. And he was calmly wading into the +subject as if she were the ex-farm-hand country +teacher, and he was the county superintendent-elect!</p> +<p>“Eating a dinner like this, mother,” said +the colonel gallantly, “is an education in itself—and +eating some others requires one; but +just how ‘larnin’ is wrapped up in the school +lunch is a new one on me, Jim.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Jim, “in the first place the children +ought to cook their meals as a part of +the school work. Prior to that they ought to +buy the materials. And prior to that they +ought to keep the accounts of the school +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118' name='page_118'></a>118</span> +kitchen. They’d like to do these things, and +it would help prepare them for life on an intelligent +plane, while they prepared the meals.”</p> +<p>“Isn’t that looking rather far ahead?” asked +the county superintendent-elect.</p> +<p>“It’s like a lot of other things we think far +ahead,” urged Jim. “The only reason why +they’re far off is because we think them so. +It’s a thought—and a thought is as near the +moment we think it as it will ever be.”</p> +<p>“I guess that’s so—to a wild-eyed reformer,” +said the colonel. “But go on. Develop your +thought a little. Have some more dressing.”</p> +<p>“Thanks, I believe I will,” said Jim. “And +a little more of the cranberry sauce. No more +turkey, please.”</p> +<p>“I’d like to see the school class that could +prepare this dinner,” said Mrs. Woodruff.</p> +<p>“Why,” said Jim, “you’d be there showing +them how! They’d get credits in their domestic-economy +course for getting the school dinner—and +they’d bring their mothers into it to +help them stand at the head of their classes. +And one detail of girls would cook one week, +and another serve. The setting of the table +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119' name='page_119'></a>119</span> +would come in as a study—flowers, linen and +all that. And when we get a civilized teacher, +table manners!”</p> +<p>“I’d take on that class,” said the hired man, +winking at Selma Carlson, the maid, from +somewhere below the salt. “The way I make +my knife feed my face would be a great help +to the children.”</p> +<p>“And when the food came on the table,” Jim +went on, with a smile at his former fellow-laborer, +who had heard most of this before as +a part of the field conversation, “just think of +the things we could study while eating it. The +literary term for eating a meal is discussing +it—well, the discussion of a meal under proper +guidance is much more educative than a lecture. +This breast-bone, now,” said he, referring +to the remains on his plate. “That’s physiology. +The cranberry-sauce—that’s botany, +and commerce, and soil management—do you +know, Colonel, that the cranberry must have an +acid soil—which would kill alfalfa or clover?”</p> +<p>“Read something of it,” said the colonel, +“but it didn’t interest me much.”</p> +<p>“And the difference between the types of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120' name='page_120'></a>120</span> +fowl on the table—that’s breeding. And the +nutmeg, pepper and cocoanut—that’s geography. +And everything on the table runs back +to geography, and comes to us linked to our +lives by dollars and cents—and they’re mathematics.”</p> +<p>“We must have something more than dollars +and cents in life,” said Jennie. “We must have +culture.”</p> +<p>“Culture,” cried Jim, “is the ability to think +in terms of life—isn’t it?”</p> +<p>“Like Jesse James,” suggested the hired man, +who was a careful student of the life of that +eminent bandit.</p> +<p>There was a storm of laughter at this sally +amidst which Jennie wished she had thought +of something like that. Jim joined in the +laughter at his own expense, but was clearly +suffering from argumentative shock.</p> +<p>“That’s the best answer I’ve had on that +point, Pete,” he said, after the disturbance had +subsided. “But if the James boys and the +Youngers had had the sort of culture I’m for, +they would have been successful stock men and +farmers, instead of train-robbers. Take Raymond +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121' name='page_121'></a>121</span> +Simms, for instance. He had all the +qualifications of a member of the James gang +when he came here. All he needed was a few +exasperated associates of his own sort, and a +convenient railway with undefended trains +running over it. But after a few weeks of real +‘culture’ under a mighty poor teacher, he’s developing +into the most enthusiastic farmer I +know. That’s real culture.”</p> +<p>“It’s snowing like everything,” said Jennie, +who faced the window.</p> +<p>“Don’t cut your dinner short,” said the +colonel to Pete, “but I think you’ll find the +cattle ready to come in out of the storm when +you get good and through.”</p> +<p>“I think I’ll let ’em in now,” said Pete, by +way of excusing himself. “I expect to put in +most of the day from now on getting ready to +quit eating. Save some of everything for +me, Selma,—I’ll be right back!”</p> +<p>“All right, Pete,” said Selma.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XI_THE_MOUSE_ESCAPES' id='XI_THE_MOUSE_ESCAPES'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122' name='page_122'></a>122</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> +<h3>THE MOUSE ESCAPES</h3> +</div> + +<p>Jennie played the piano and sang. They +all joined in some simple Christmas songs. +Mrs. Woodruff and Jim’s mother went into +other parts of the house on research work connected +with their converse on domestic economy. +The colonel withdrew for an inspection +of the live stock on the eve of the threatened +blizzard. And Jim was left alone with Jennie +in the front parlor. After the buzz of conversation, +they seemed to have nothing to say. +Jennie played softly, and looked at nothing, but +scrutinized Jim by means of the eyes which +women have concealed in their back hair. +There was something new in the man—she +sensed that. He was more confident, more persuasive, +more dynamic. She was used to him +only as a static force.</p> +<p>And Jim felt something new, too. He had +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123' name='page_123'></a>123</span> +felt it growing in him ever since he began his +school work, and knew not the cause of it. The +cause, however, would not have been a mystery +to a wise old yogi who might discover the +same sort of change in one of his young novices. +Jim Irwin had been a sort of ascetic since his +boyhood. He had mortified the flesh by hard +labor in the fields, and by flagellations of the +brain to drive off sleep while he pored over his +books in the attic—which was often so hot +after a day of summer’s sun on its low thin +roof, that he was forced to do his reading in +the midmost night. He had looked long on +such women as Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, Isabel, +Cressida, Volumnia, Virginia, Evangeline, +Agnes Wickfleld and Fair Rosamond; but on +women in the flesh he had gazed as upon trees +walking. The aforesaid spiritual director, had +this young ascetic been under one, would have +foreseen the effects on the psychology of a stout +fellow of twenty-eight of freedom from the toil +of the fields, and association with a group of +young human beings of both sexes. To the +novice struggling for emancipation from earthly +thoughts, he would have recommended fasting +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124' name='page_124'></a>124</span> +and prayer, and perhaps, a hair shirt. Just +what his prescription would have been for a +man in Jim’s position is, of course, a question. +He would, no doubt, have considered carefully +his patient’s symptoms. These were very +largely the mental experiences which most boys +pass through in their early twenties, save, perhaps +that, as in a belated season, the transition +from winter to spring was more sudden, and +the contrast more violent. Jim was now thrown +every day into contact with his fellows. He was +no longer a lay monk, but an active member of +a very human group. He was becoming more +of a boy, with the boys, and still more was he +developing into a man with the women. The +budding womanhood of Calista Simms and the +other girls of his school thrilled him as Helen +of Troy or Juliet had never done. This will +not seem very strange to the experienced +reader, but it astonished the unsophisticated +young schoolmaster. The floating hair, the +heaving bosom, the rosebud mouth, the starry +eye, the fragrant breath, the magnetic hand—all +these disturbed the hitherto sedate mind, +and filled the brief hours he was accustomed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125' name='page_125'></a>125</span> +to spend in sleep with strange dreams. And +now, as he gazed at Jennie, he was suddenly +aware of the fact that, after all, whenever +these thoughts and dreams took on individuality, +they were only persistent and intensified +continuations of his old dreams of her. They +had always been dormant in him, since the days +they both studied from the same book. He was +quite sure, now, that he had never forgotten +for a moment, that Jennie was the only girl in +the world for him. And possibly he was right +about this. It is perfectly certain, however, +that for years he had not consciously been in +love with her.</p> +<p>Now, however, he arose as from some inner +compulsion, and went to her side. He wished +that he knew enough of music to turn her +sheets for her, but, alas! the notes were meaningless +to him. Still scanning him by means +of her back hair, Jennie knew that in another +moment Jim would lay his hand on her shoulder, +or otherwise advance to personal nearness, +as he had done the night of his ill-starred +speech at the schoolhouse—and she rose in self-defense. +Self-defense, however, did not seem +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126' name='page_126'></a>126</span> +to require that he be kept at too great a distance; +so she maneuvered him to the sofa, and +seated him beside her. Now was the time to +line him up.</p> +<p>“It seems good to have you with us to-day,” +said she. “We’re such old, old friends.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” repeated Jim, “old friends .... We +are, aren’t we, Jennie?”</p> +<p>“And I feel sure,” Jennie went on, “that this +marks a new era in our friendship.”</p> +<p>“Why?” asked Jim, after considering the +matter.</p> +<p>“Oh! everything is different, now—and getting +more different all the time. My new work, +and your new work, you know.”</p> +<p>“I should like to think,” said Jim, “that we +are beginning over again.”</p> +<p>“Oh, we are, we are, indeed! I am quite sure +of it.”</p> +<p>“And yet,” said Jim, “there is no such thing +as a new beginning. Everything joins itself +to something which went before. There isn’t +any seam.”</p> +<p>“No?” said Jennie interrogatively.</p> +<p>“Our regard for each other,” Jennie noted +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127' name='page_127'></a>127</span> +most pointedly his word “regard”—“must be +the continuation of the old regard.”</p> +<p>“I hardly know what you mean,” said Jennie.</p> +<p>Jim reached over and possessed himself of +her hand. She pulled it from him gently, but +he paid no attention to the little muscular protest, +and examined the hand critically. On the +back of the middle finger he pointed out a scar—a +very tiny scar.</p> +<p>“Do you remember how you got that?” he +asked.</p> +<p>Because Jim clung to the hand, their heads +were very close together as she joined in the +examination.</p> +<p>“Why, I don’t believe I do,” said she.</p> +<p>“I do,” he replied. “We—you and I and +Mary Forsythe were playing mumble-peg, and +you put your hand on the grass just as I threw +the knife—it cut you, and left that scar.”</p> +<p>“I remember, now!” said she. “How such +things come back over the memory. And did +it leave a scar when I pushed you toward the +red-hot stove in the schoolhouse one blizzardy +day, like this, and you peeled the skin off your +wrist where it struck the stove?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128' name='page_128'></a>128</span></p> +<p>“Look at it,” said he, baring his long and +bony wrist. “Right there!”</p> +<p>And they were off on the trail that leads +back to childhood. They had talked long, and +intimately, when the shadows of the early evening +crept into the corners of the room. He +had carried her across the flooded slew again +after the big rain. They had relived a dozen +moving incidents by flood and field. Jennie +recalled the time when the tornado narrowly +missed the schoolhouse, and frightened everybody +in school nearly to death.</p> +<p>“Everybody but you, Jim,” Jennie remembered. +“You looked out of the window and +told the teacher that the twister was going +north of us, and would kill somebody else.”</p> +<p>“Did I?” asked Jim.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jennie, “and when the teacher +asked us to kneel and thank God, you said, +‘Why should we thank God that somebody else +is blowed away?’ She was greatly shocked.”</p> +<p>“I don’t see to this day,” Jim asserted, “what +answer there was to my question.”</p> +<p>In the gathering darkness Jim again took +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129' name='page_129'></a>129</span> +Jennie’s hand, but this time she deprived him +of it.</p> +<p>He was trembling like a leaf. Let it be remembered +in his favor that this was the only +girl’s hand he had ever held.</p> +<p>“You can’t find any more scars on it,” she +said soberly.</p> +<p>“Let me see how much it has changed since +I stuck the knife in it,” begged Jim.</p> +<p>Jennie held it up for inspection.</p> +<p>“It’s longer, and slenderer, and whiter, and +even more beautiful,” said he, “than the little +hand I cut; but it was then the most beautiful +hand in the world to me—and still is.”</p> +<p>“I must light the lamps,” said the county +superintendent-elect, rather flustered, it must +be confessed. “Mama! Where are all the +matches?”</p> +<p>Mrs. Woodruff and Mrs. Irwin came in, and +the lamplight reminded Jim’s mother that the +cow was still to milk, and that the chickens +might need attention. The Woodruff sleigh +came to the door to carry them home; but Jim +desired to breast the storm. He felt that he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130' name='page_130'></a>130</span> +needed the conflict. Mrs. Irwin scolded him +for his foolishness, but he strode off into the +whirling drift, throwing back a good-by for +general consumption, and a pathetic smile to +Jennie.</p> +<p>“He’s as odd as Dick’s hatband,” said Mrs. +Woodruff, “tramping off in a storm like this.”</p> +<p>“Did you line him up?” asked the colonel +of Jennie.</p> +<p>The young lady started and blushed. She +had forgotten all about the politics of the situation.</p> +<p>“I—I’m afraid I didn’t, papa,” she confessed.</p> +<p>“Those brown mice of Professor Darbishire’s,” +said the colonel, “were the devil and +all to control.”</p> +<p>Jennie was thinking of this as she dropped +asleep.</p> +<p>“Hard to control!” she thought. “I wonder. +I wonder, after all, if Jim is not capable of being +easily lined up—when he sees how foolish +I think he is!”</p> +<p>And Jim? He found himself hard to control +that night. So much so that it was after +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131' name='page_131'></a>131</span> +midnight before he had finished work on a +plan for a cooperative creamery.</p> +<p>“The boys can be given work in helping to +operate it,” he wrote on a tablet, “which, in +connection with the labor performed by the +teacher, will greatly reduce the expense of operation. +A skilled butter-maker, with slender +white hands”—but he erased this last clause +and retired.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XII_FACING_TRIAL' id='XII_FACING_TRIAL'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132' name='page_132'></a>132</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> +<h3>FACING TRIAL</h3> +</div> + +<p>A distinct sensation ran through the +Woodruff school, but the schoolmaster and +a group of five big boys and three girls engaged +in a very unclasslike conference in the +back of the room were all unconscious of it. +The geography classes had recited, and the language +work was on. Those too small for these +studies were playing a game under the leadership +of Jinnie Simms, who had been promoted +to the position of weed-seed monitor.</p> +<p>The game was forfeits. Each child had been +encouraged to bring some sort of weed from +the winter fields—preferably one the seed of +which still clung to the dried receptacles—but +anyhow, a weed. Some pupils had brought +merely empty tassels, some bare stalks, and +some seeds which they had winnowed from +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133' name='page_133'></a>133</span> +the grain in their father’s bins; and with them +they played forfeits. They counted out by the +“arey, Ira, ickery an’” method, and somebody +was “It.” Then, in order, they presented to +him a seed, stalk or head of a weed, and if the +one who was It could tell the name of the weed, +the child who brought the specimen became It, +and the name was written on slates or tablets, +and the new It told where the weed or seed was +collected. If any pupil brought in a specimen +the name of which he himself could not correctly +give, he paid a forfeit. If a specimen +was brought in not found in the school cabinet—which +was coming to contain a considerable +collection—it was placed there, and the task +allotted to the best penman in the school to +write its proper label. All this caused excitement, +and not a little buzz—but it ceased when +the county superintendent entered the room.</p> +<p>For it was after the first of January, and +Jennie was visiting the Woodruff school.</p> +<p>The group in the back of the room went on +with its conference, oblivious of the entrance +of Superintendent Jennie. Their work was +rather absorbing, being no more nor less than +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134' name='page_134'></a>134</span> +the compilation of the figures of a cow census +of the district.</p> +<p>“Altogether,” said Mary Talcott, “we have +in the district one hundred and fifty-three +cows.”</p> +<p>“I don’t make it that,” said Raymond Simms. +“I don’t get but a hundred and thirty-eight.”</p> +<p>“The trouble is,” said Newton Bronson, “that +Mary’s counting in the Bailey herd of Shorthorns.”</p> +<p>“Well, they’re cows, ain’t they?” interrogated +Mary.</p> +<p>“Not for this census,” said Raymond.</p> +<p>“Why not?” asked Mary. “They’re the prettiest +cows in the neighborhood.”</p> +<p>“Scotch Shorthorns,” said Newton, “and run +with their calves.”</p> +<p>“Leave them out,” said Jim, “and to-morrow, +I want each one to tell in the language +class, in three hundred words or less, whether +there are enough cows in the district to justify +a cooperative creamery, and give the reason. +You’ll find articles in the farm papers if you +look through the card index. Now, how about +the census in the adjoining districts?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135' name='page_135'></a>135</span></p> +<p>“There are more than two hundred within +four miles on the roads leading west,” said a +boy.</p> +<p>“My father and I counted up about a hundred +beyond us,” said Mary. “But I couldn’t +get the exact number.”</p> +<p>“Why,” said Raymond, “we could find six +hundred dairy cows in this neighborhood, +within an hour’s drive.”</p> +<p>“Six hundred!” scoffed Newton. “You’re +crazy! In an hour’s drive?”</p> +<p>“I mean an hour’s drive each way,” said +Raymond.</p> +<p>“I believe we could,” said Jim. “And after +we find how far we will have to go to get +enough cows, if half of them patronized the +creamery, we’ll work over the savings the business +would make, if we could get the prices +for butter paid the Wisconsin cooperative +creameries, as compared with what the centralizers +pay us, on a basis of the last six months. +Who’s in possession of that correspondence +with the Wisconsin creameries?”</p> +<p>“I have it,” said Raymond. “I’m hectographing +a lot of arithmetic problems from it.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136' name='page_136'></a>136</span></p> +<p>“How do you do, Mr. Irwin!” It was the superintendent +who spoke.</p> +<p>Jim’s brain whirled little prismatic clouds +before his vision, as he rose and shook Jennie’s +extended hand.</p> +<p>“Let me give you a chair,” said he.</p> +<p>“Oh, no, thank you!” she returned. “I’ll just +make myself at home. I know my way about +in this schoolhouse, you know!”</p> +<p>She smiled at the children, and went about +looking at their work—which was not noticeably +disturbed, by reason of the fact that visitors +were much more frequent now than ever +before, and were no rarity. Certainly, Jennie +Woodruff was no novelty, since they had known +her all their lives. Most of the embarrassment +was Jim’s. He rose to the occasion, however, +went through the routine of the closing day, +and dismissed the flock, not omitting making +an engagement with a group of boys for that +evening to come back and work on the formalin +treatment for smut in seed grains, and the +blue-vitriol treatment for seed potatoes.</p> +<p>“We hadn’t time for these things,” said he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137' name='page_137'></a>137</span> +to the county superintendent, “in the regular +class work—and it’s getting time to take them +up if we are to clean out the smut in next year’s +crop.”</p> +<p>They repeated Whittier’s <i>Corn Song</i> in +concert, and school was out.</p> +<p>Alone with her in the old schoolhouse, Jim +confronted Jennie in the flesh. She felt a sense +of his agitation, but if she had known the +power of it, she would have been astonished. +Since that Christmas afternoon when she had +undertaken to follow Mr. Peterson’s advice and +line Yim Irwin up, Jim had gone through an +inward transformation. He had passed from +a late, cold, backward sexual spring, into a +warm June of the spirit, in which he had +walked amid roses and lilies with Jennie. He +was in love with her. He knew how insane it +was, how much less than nothing had taken +place in his circumstances to justify the hope +that he could ever emerge from the state in +which she would not say “Humph!” at the +thought that he could marry her or any one +else. Yet, he had made up his mind that he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138' name='page_138'></a>138</span> +would marry Jennie Woodruff .... She ought +never have tried to line him up. She knew not +what she did.</p> +<p>He saw her through clouds of rose and pink; +but she looked at him as at a foolish man who +was making trouble for her, chasing rainbows +at her expense, and deeply vexing her. She +was in a cold official frame of mind.</p> +<p>“Jim,” said she, “do you know that you are +facing trouble?”</p> +<p>“Trouble,” said Jim, “is the natural condition +of a man in my state of mind. But it is +going to be a delicious sort of tribulation.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know what you mean,” she replied +in perfect honesty.</p> +<p>“Then I don’t know what you mean,” replied +Jim.</p> +<p>“Jim,” she said pleadingly, “I want you to +give up this sort of teaching. Can’t you see +it’s all wrong?”</p> +<p>“No,” answered Jim, in much the manner +of a man who has been stabbed by his sweetheart. +“I can’t see that it’s wrong. It’s the +only sort I can do. What do you see wrong +in it?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139' name='page_139'></a>139</span></p> +<p>“Oh, I can see some very wonderful things +in it,” said Jennie, “but it can’t be done in the +Woodruff District. It may be correct in theory, +but it won’t work in practise.”</p> +<p>“Jennie,” said he, “when a thing won’t work, +it isn’t correct in theory.”</p> +<p>“Well, then, Jim,” said she, “why do you +keep on with it?”</p> +<p>“It works,” said Jim. “Anything that’s correct +in theory will work. If the theory seems +correct, and yet won’t work, it’s because something +is wrong in an unsuspected way with the +theory. But my theory is correct, and it +works.”</p> +<p>“But the district is against it.”</p> +<p>“Who are the district?”</p> +<p>“The school board are against it.”</p> +<p>“The school board elected me after listening +to an explanation of my theories as to the new +sort of rural school in which I believe. I assume +that they commissioned me to carry out +my ideas.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Jim!” cried Jennie. “That’s sophistry! +They all voted for you so you wouldn’t be without +support. Each wanted you to have just one +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140' name='page_140'></a>140</span> +vote. Nobody wanted you elected. They were +all surprised. You know that!”</p> +<p>“They stood by and saw the contract signed,” +said Jim, “and—yes, Jennie, I <i>am</i> dealing in +sophistry! I got the school by a sort of shell-game, +which the board worked on themselves. +But that doesn’t prove that the district is +against me. I believe the people are for me, +now, Jennie. I really do!”</p> +<p>Jennie rose and walked to the rear of the +room and back, twice. When she spoke, there +was decision in her tone—and Jim felt that it +was hostile decision.</p> +<p>“As an officer,” she said rather grandly, “my +relations with the district are with the school +board on the one hand, and with your competency +as a teacher on the other.”</p> +<p>“Has it come to that?” asked Jim. “Well, I +have rather expected it.”</p> +<p>His tone was weary. The Lincolnian droop +in his great, sad, mournful mouth accentuated +the resemblance to the martyr president. Possibly +his feelings were not entirely different +from those experienced by Lincoln at some +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141' name='page_141'></a>141</span> +crises of doubt, misunderstanding and depression.</p> +<p>“If you can’t change your methods,” said +Jennie, “I suggest that you resign.”</p> +<p>“Do you think,” said Jim, “that changing +my methods would appease the men who feel +that they are made laughing-stocks by having +elected me?”</p> +<p>Jennie was silent; for she knew that the +school board meant to pursue their policy of +getting rid of the accidental incumbent regardless +of his methods.</p> +<p>“They would never call off their dogs,” said +Jim.</p> +<p>“But your methods would make a great difference +with my decision,” said Jennie.</p> +<p>“Are you to be called upon to decide?” asked +Jim.</p> +<p>“A formal complaint against you for incompetency,” +she replied, “has been lodged in my +office, signed by the three directors. I shall +be obliged to take notice of it.”</p> +<p>“And do you think,” queried Jim, “that my +abandonment of the things in which I believe +in the face of this attack would prove to your +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142' name='page_142'></a>142</span> +mind that I am competent? Or would it show +me incompetent?”</p> +<p>Again Jennie was silent.</p> +<p>“I guess,” said Jim, “that we’ll have to stand +or fall on things as they are.”</p> +<p>“Do you refuse to resign?” asked Jennie.</p> +<p>“Sometimes I think it’s not worth while to +try any longer,” said Jim. “And yet, I believe +that in my way I’m working on the question +which must be solved if this nation is to stand—the +question of making the farm and farm life +what they should be and may well be. At this +moment, I feel like surrendering—for your +sake more than mine; but I’ll have to think +about it. Suppose I refuse to resign?”</p> +<p>Jennie had drawn on her gloves, and stood +ready for departure.</p> +<p>“Unless you resign before the twenty-fifth,” +said she, “I shall hear the petition for your removal +on that date. You will be allowed to +be present and answer the charges against +you. The charges are incompetency. I bid you +good evening!”</p> +<p>“Incompetency!” The disgraceful word, +representing everything he had always despised, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143' name='page_143'></a>143</span> +rang through Jim’s mind as he walked +home. He could think of nothing else as he sat +at the simple supper which he could scarcely +taste. Incompetent! Well, had he not always +been incompetent, except in the use of his +muscles? Had he not always been a dreamer? +Were not all his dreams as foreign to life +and common sense as the Milky Way +from the earth? What reason was there for +thinking that this crusade of his for better +schools had any sounder foundation than his +dream of being president, or a great painter, +or a poet or novelist or philosopher? He was +just a hayseed, a rube, a misfit, as odd as Dick’s +hatband, an off ox. He <i>was</i> incompetent. He +picked up a pen, and began writing. He wrote, +“To the Honorable the Board of Education of +the Independent District of ——” And he +heard a tap at the door. His mother admitted +Colonel Woodruff.</p> +<p>“Hello, Jim,” said he.</p> +<p>“Good evening, Colonel,” said Jim. “Take +a chair, won’t you?”</p> +<p>“No,” replied the colonel. “I thought I’d +see if you and the boys at the schoolhouse +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144' name='page_144'></a>144</span> +can’t tell me something about the smut in my +wheat. I heard you were going to work on that +to-night.”</p> +<p>“I had forgotten!” said Jim.</p> +<p>“I wondered if you hadn’t,” said the colonel, +“and so I came by for you. I was waiting up +the road. Come on, and ride up with me.”</p> +<p>The colonel had always been friendly, but +there was a new note in his manner to-night. +He was almost deferential. If he had been +talking to Senator Cummins or the president +of the state university, his tone could not have +been more courteous, more careful to preserve +the amenities due from man to man. He +worked with the class on the problem of smut. +He offered to aid the boys in every possible +way in their campaign against scab in potatoes. +He suggested some tests which would show the +real value of the treatment. The boys were in +a glow of pride at this cooperation with Colonel +Woodruff. This was real work! Jim and the +colonel went away together. It had been a +great evening.</p> +<p>“Jim,” said the colonel, “can these kids +spell?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145' name='page_145'></a>145</span></p> +<p>“You mean these boys?”</p> +<p>“I mean the school.”</p> +<p>“I think,” said Jim, “that they can outspell +any school about here.”</p> +<p>“Good,” said the colonel. “How are they +about reading aloud?”</p> +<p>“Better than they were when I took hold.”</p> +<p>“How about arithmetic and the other +branches? Have you sort of kept them up to +the course of study?”</p> +<p>“I have carried them in a course parallel to +the text-books,” said Jim, “and covering the +same ground. But it has been vocational work, +you know—related to life.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said the colonel, “if I were you, I’d +put them over a rapid review of the text-books +for a few days—say between now and the +twenty-fifth.”</p> +<p>“What for?”</p> +<p>“Oh, nothing—just to please me .... And +say, Jim, I glanced over a communication +you have started to the more or less Honorable +Board of Education.”</p> +<p>“Yes?”</p> +<p>“Well, don’t finish it .... And say, Jim, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146' name='page_146'></a>146</span> +I think I’ll give myself the luxury of being a +wild-eyed reformer for once.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jim, dazed.</p> +<p>“And if you think, Jim, that you’ve got no +friends, just remember that I’m for you.”</p> +<p>“Thank you, Colonel.”</p> +<p>“And we’ll show them they’re in a horse +race.”</p> +<p>“I don’t see ...” said Jim.</p> +<p>“You’re not supposed to see,” said the +colonel, “but you can bet that we’ll be with +them at the finish; and, by thunder! while +they’re getting a full meal, we’ll get at least +a lunch. See?”</p> +<p>“But Jennie says,” began Jim.</p> +<p>“Don’t tell me what she says,” said the +colonel. “She’s acting according to her judgment, +and her lights and other organs of perception, +and I don’t think it fittin’ that her +father should try to influence her official conduct. +But you go on and review them common +branches, and keep your nerve. I haven’t felt +so much like a scrap since the day we stormed +Lookout Mountain. I kinder like being a wild-eyed +reformer, Jim.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XIII_FAME_OR_NOTORIETY' id='XIII_FAME_OR_NOTORIETY'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147' name='page_147'></a>147</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> +<h3>FAME OR NOTORIETY</h3> +</div> + +<p>The office of county superintendent was, as +a matter of course, the least desirable room +of the court-house. I say “room” advisedly, +because it consisted of a single chamber of +moderate size, provided with office furniture of +the minimum quantity and maximum age. It +opened off the central hall at the upper end of +the stairway which led to the court room, and +when court was in session, served the extraordinary +needs of justice as a jury room. At +such times the county superintendent’s desk +was removed to the hall, where it stood in a +noisy and confusing but very democratic publicity. +Superintendent Jennie might have +anticipated the time when, during the March +term, offenders passing from the county jail +in the basement to arraignment at the bar of +justice might be able to peek over her shoulders +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148' name='page_148'></a>148</span> +and criticize her method of treating +examination papers. On the twenty-fifth of +February, however, this experience lurked +unsuspected in her official future.</p> +<p>Poor Jennie! She anticipated nothing more +than the appearance of Messrs. Bronson, +Peterson and Bonner in her office to confront +Jim Irwin on certain questions of fact relating +to Jim’s competency to hold a teacher’s +certificate. The time appointed was ten +o’clock. At nine forty-five Cornelius Bonner +and his wife entered the office, and took twenty-five +per cent. of the chairs therein. At nine +fifty Jim Irwin came in, haggard, weather-beaten +and seedy as ever, and looked as if he +had neither eaten nor slept since his sweetheart +stabbed him. At nine fifty-five Haakon Peterson +and Ezra Bronson came in, accompanied by +Wilbur Smythe, attorney-at-law, who carried +under his arm a code of Iowa, a compilation +of the school laws of the state, and <i>Throop on +Public Officers</i>. At nine fifty-six, therefore, the +crowd in Jennie’s office exceeded its seating +capacity, and Jennie was in a flutter as the +realization dawned upon her that this promised +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149' name='page_149'></a>149</span> +to be a bigger and more public affair than she +had anticipated. At nine fifty-nine Raymond +Simms opened the office door and there filed +in enough children, large and small, some of +them accompanied by their parents, and all +belonging to the Woodruff school, to fill completely +the interstices of the corners and angles +of the room and between the legs of the grownups. +In addition there remained an overflow +meeting in the hall, under the command of that +distinguished military gentleman, Colonel Albert +Woodruff.</p> +<p>“Say, Bill, come here!” said the colonel, +crooking his finger at the deputy sheriff.</p> +<p>“What you got here, Al!” said Bill, coming +up the stairs, puffing. “Ain’t it a little early +for Sunday-school picnics?”</p> +<p>“This is a school fight in our district,” said +the colonel. “It’s Jennie’s baptism of fire, I +reckon ... and say, you’re not using the +court room, are you?”</p> +<p>“Nope,” said Bill.</p> +<p>“Well, why not just slip around, then,” said +the colonel, “and tell Jennie she’d better adjourn +to the big room.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150' name='page_150'></a>150</span></p> +<p>Which suggestion was acted upon instanter +by Deputy Bill.</p> +<p>“But I can’t, I can’t,” said Jennie to the +courteous deputy sheriff. “I don’t want all this +publicity, and I don’t want to go into the court +room.”</p> +<p>“I hardly see,” said Deputy Bill, “how you +can avoid it. These people seem to have business +with you, and they can’t get into your +office.”</p> +<p>“But they have no business with me,” said +Jennie. “It’s mere curiosity.”</p> +<p>Whereupon Wilbur Smythe, who could see no +particular point in restricted publicity, said, +“Madame County Superintendent, this hearing +certainly is public or quasi-public. Your office +is a public one, and while the right to attend +this hearing may not possibly be a universal +one, it surely is one belonging to every citizen +and taxpayer of the county, and if the taxpayer, +<i>qua</i> taxpayer, then certainly <i>a fortiori</i> to the +members of the Woodruff school and residents +of that district.”</p> +<p>Jennie quailed. “All right, all right!” said +she. “But, shall I have to sit on the bench!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151' name='page_151'></a>151</span></p> +<p>“You will find it by far the most convenient +place,” said Deputy Bill.</p> +<p>Was this the life to which public office had +brought her? Was it for this that she had +bartered her independence—for this and the +musty office, the stupid examination papers, +and the interminable visiting of schools, knowing +that such supervision as she could give +was practically worthless? Jim had said to her +that he had never heard of such a thing as a +good county superintendent of schools, and she +had thought him queer. And now, here was she, +called upon to pass on the competency of the +man who had always been her superior in +everything that constitutes mental ability; and +to make the thing more a matter for the laughter +of the gods, she was perched on the judicial +bench, which Deputy Bill had dusted off for +her, tipping a wink to the assemblage while +doing it. He expected to be a candidate for +sheriff, one of these days, and was pleasing +the crowd. And that crowd! To Jennie it +was appalling. The school board under the +lead of Wilbur Smythe took seats inside the +railing which on court days divided the audience +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152' name='page_152'></a>152</span> +from the lawyers and litigants. Jim +Irwin, who had never been in a court room before, +herded with the crowd, obeying the attraction +of sympathy, but to Jennie, seated on +the bench, he, like other persons in the auditorium, +was a mere blurry outline with a knob +of a head on its top.</p> +<p>She couldn’t call the gathering to order. She +had no idea as to the proper procedure. She +sat there while the people gathered, stood about +whispering and talking under their breaths, +and finally became silent, all their eyes fixed +on her, as she wished that the office of county +superintendent had been abolished in the days +of her parents’ infancy.</p> +<p>“May it please the court,” said Wilbur +Smythe, standing before the bar. “Or, Madame +County Superintendent, I should say ...”</p> +<p>A titter ran through the room, and a flush +of temper tinted Jennie’s face. They were +laughing at her! She wouldn’t be a spectacle +any longer! So she rose, and handed down +her first and last decision from the bench—a +rather good one, I think.</p> +<p>“Mr. Smythe,” said she, “I feel very ill at +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153' name='page_153'></a>153</span> +ease up here, and I’m going to get down among +the people. It’s the only way I have of getting +the truth.”</p> +<p>She descended from the bench, shook hands +with everybody near her, and sat down by the +attorney’s table.</p> +<p>“Now,” said she, “this is no formal proceeding +and we will dispense with red tape. If +we don’t, I shall get all tangled up in it. +Where’s Mr. Irwin? Please come in here, +Jim. Now, I know there’s some feeling in these +things—there always seems to be; but I have +none. So I’ll just hear why Mr. Bronson, Mr. +Peterson and Mr. Bonner think that Mr. James +E. Irwin isn’t competent to hold a certificate.”</p> +<p>Jennie was able to smile at them now, and +everybody felt more at ease, save Jim Irwin, +the members of the board and Wilbur Smythe. +That individual arose, and talked down at Jennie.</p> +<p>“I appear for the proponents here,” said he, +“and I desire to suggest certain principles of +procedure which I take it belong indisputably +to the conduct of this hearing.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154' name='page_154'></a>154</span></p> +<p>“Have you a lawyer?” asked the county +superintendent of the respondent.</p> +<p>“A what?” exclaimed Jim. “Nobody here +has a lawyer!”</p> +<p>“Well, what do you call Wilbur Smythe?” +queried Newton Bronson from the midst of the +crowd.</p> +<p>“He ain’t lawyer enough to hurt!” said the +thing which the dramatists call A Voice.</p> +<p>There was a little tempest of laughter at +Wilbur Smythe’s expense, which was quelled +by Jennie’s rapping on the table. She was beginning +to feel the mouth of the situation.</p> +<p>“I have no way of retaining a lawyer,” said +Jim, on whom the truth had gradually dawned. +“If a lawyer is necessary, I am without protection—but +it never occurred to me ...”</p> +<p>“There is nothing in the school laws, as I +remember them,” said Jennie, “giving the parties +any right to be represented by counsel. If +there is, Mr. Smythe will please set me right.”</p> +<p>She paused for Mr. Smythe’s reply.</p> +<p>“There is nothing which expressly gives that +privilege,” said Mr. Smythe, “but the right to +the benefit of skilled advisers is a universal +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155' name='page_155'></a>155</span> +one. It can not be questioned. And in opening +this case for my clients, I desire to call your +honor’s attention—”</p> +<p>“You may advise your clients all you please,” +said Jennie, “but I’m not going to waste time +in listening to speeches, or having a lot of lawyers +examine witnesses.”</p> +<p>“I protest,” said Mr. Smythe.</p> +<p>“Well, you may file your protest in writing,” +said Jennie. “I’m going to talk this matter +over with these old friends and neighbors of +mine. I don’t want you dipping into it, I say!”</p> +<p>Jennie’s voice was rising toward the scream-line, +and Mr. Smythe recognized the hand of +fate. One may argue with a cantankerous judge, +but the woman, who like necessity, knows no +law, and who is smothering in a flood of perplexities, +is beyond reason. Moreover, Jennie +dimly saw that what she was doing had the +approval of the crowd, and it solved the problem +of procedure.</p> +<p>There was a little wrangling, and a little +protest from Con Bonner, but Jennie ruled with +a rod of iron, and adhered to her ruling. When +the hearing was resumed after the noon recess, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156' name='page_156'></a>156</span> +the crowd was larger than ever, but the proceedings +consisted mainly in a conference of +the principals grouped about Jennie at the big +lawyers’ table. They were talking about the +methods adopted by Jim in his conduct of the +Woodruff school—just talking. The only new +thing was the presence of a couple of newspaper +men, who had queried Chicago papers +on the story, and been given orders for a certain +number of words on the case of the farm-hand +schoolmaster on trial before his old sweetheart +for certain weird things he had done in the +home school in which they had once been classmates. +The fact that the old school-sweetheart +had kicked a lawyer out of the case was not +overlooked by the gentlemen of the fourth +estate. It helped to make it a “good story.”</p> +<p>By the time at which gathering darkness +made it necessary for the bailiff to light the +lamps, the parties had agreed on the facts. +Jim admitted most of the allegations. He had +practically ignored the text-books. He had +burned the district fuel and worn out the district +furniture early and late, and on Saturdays. +He had introduced domestic economy +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157' name='page_157'></a>157</span> +and manual training, to some extent, by sending +the boys to the workshops and the girls to +the kitchens and sewing-rooms of the farmers +who allowed those privileges. He had used +up a great deal of time in studying farm conditions. +He had induced the boys to test the +cows of the district for butter-fat yield. He +was studying the matter of a cooperative +creamery. He hoped to have a blacksmith +shop on the schoolhouse grounds sometime, +where the boys could learn metal working by +repairing the farm machinery, and shoeing the +farm horses. He hoped to install a cooperative +laundry in connection with the creamery. He +hoped to see a building sometime, with an auditorium +where the people would meet often for +moving picture shows, lectures and the like, +and he expected that most of the descriptions +of foreign lands, industrial operations, wild +animals—in short, everything that people +should learn about by seeing, rather than reading—would +be taught the children by moving +pictures accompanied by lectures. He hoped +to open to the boys and girls the wonders of +the universe which are touched by the work +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158' name='page_158'></a>158</span> +on the farm. He hoped to make good and contented +farmers of them, able to get the most +out of the soil, to sell what they produced to +the best advantage, and at the same time to +keep up the fertility of the soil itself. And +he hoped to teach the girls in such a way that +they would be good and contented farmers’ +wives. He even had in mind as a part of the +schoolhouse the Woodruff District would one +day build, an apartment in which the mothers +of the neighborhood would leave their babies +when they went to town, so that the girls could +learn the care of infants.</p> +<p>“An’ I say,” interposed Con Bonner, “that +we can rest our case right here. If that ain’t +the limit, I don’t know what is!”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Jennie, “do you desire to rest +your case right here?”</p> +<p>Mr. Bonner made no reply to this, and Jennie +turned to Jim.</p> +<p>“Now, Mr. Irwin,” said she, “while you have +been following out these very interesting and +original methods, what have you done in the +way of teaching the things called for by the +course of study?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159' name='page_159'></a>159</span></p> +<p>“What is the course of study?” queried Jim. +“Is it anything more than an outline of the +mental march the pupils are ordered to make? +Take reading: why does it give the children +any greater mastery of the printed page to +read about Casabianca on the burning deck, +than about the cause of the firing of corn by hot +weather? And how can they be given better +command of language than by writing about +things they have found out in relation to some +of the sciences which are laid under contribution +by farming? Everything they do runs +into numbers, and we do more arithmetic than +the course requires. There isn’t any branch +of study—not even poetry and art and music—that +isn’t touched by life. If there is we haven’t +time for it in the common schools. We work +out from life to everything in the course of +study.”</p> +<p>“Do you mean to assert,” queried Jennie, +“that while you have been doing all this work +which was never contemplated by those who +have made up the course of study, that you +haven’t neglected anything?”</p> +<p>“I mean,” said Jim, “that I’m willing to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160' name='page_160'></a>160</span> +stand or fall on an examination of these children +in the very text-books we are accused of +neglecting.”</p> +<p>Jennie looked steadily at Jim for a full +minute, and at the clock. It was nearly time +for adjournment.</p> +<p>“How many pupils of the Woodruff school +are here?” she asked. “All rise, please!”</p> +<p>A mass of the audience, in the midst of which +sat Jennie’s father, rose at the request.</p> +<p>“Why,” said Jennie, “I should say we had a +quorum, anyhow! How many will come back +to-morrow morning at nine o’clock, and bring +your school-books? Please lift hands.”</p> +<p>Nearly every hand went up.</p> +<p>“And, Mr. Irwin,” she went on, “will you +have the school records, so we may be able to +ascertain the proper standing of these pupils?”</p> +<p>“I will,” said Jim.</p> +<p>“Then,” said Jennie, “we’ll adjourn until +nine o’clock. I hope to see every one here. +We’ll have school here to-morrow. And, Mr. +Irwin, please remember that you state that +you’ll stand or fall on the mastery by these +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161' name='page_161'></a>161</span> +pupils of the text-books they are supposed to +have neglected.”</p> +<p>“Not the mastery of the text,” said Jim. +“But their ability to do the work the text is +supposed to fit them for.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Jennie, “I don’t know but that’s +fair.”</p> +<p>“But,” said Mrs. Haakon Peterson, “we +don’t want our children brought up to be yust +farmers. Suppose we move to town—where +does the culture come in?”</p> +<hr class='tb' /> + +<p>The Chicago papers had a news item which +covered the result of the examinations; but +the great sensation of the Woodruff District +lay in the Sunday feature carried by one of +them.</p> +<p>It had a picture of Jim Irwin, and one of +Jennie Woodruff—the latter authentic, and +the former gleaned from the morgue, and apparently +the portrait of a lumber-jack. There +was also a very free treatment by the cartoonist +of Mr. Simms carrying a rifle with the +intention of shooting up the school board in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162' name='page_162'></a>162</span> +case the decision went against the schoolmaster.</p> +<hr class='tb' /> + +<p>“When it became known,” said the news +story, “that the schoolmaster had bet his job +on the proficiency of his school in studies supposed +and alleged to have been studiously +neglected, the excitement rose to fever heat. +Local sports bet freely on the result, the odds +being eight to five on General Proficiency +against the field. The field was Jim Irwin and +his school. And the way those rural kids rose +in their might and ate up the text-books was +simply scandalous. There was a good deal of +nervousness on the part of some of the small +starters, and some bursts of tears at excusable +failures. But when the fight was over, and +the dead and wounded cared for, the school +board and the county superintendent were +forced to admit that they wished the average +school could do as well under a similar test.</p> +<p>“The local Mr. Dooley is Cornelius Bonner, +a member of the ‘board.’ When asked for a +statement of his views after the county superintendent +had decided that her old sweetheart +was to be allowed the priceless boon of earning +forty dollars a month during the remainder +of his contract, Mr. Bonner said, ‘Aside from +being licked, we’re all right. But we’ll get this +guy yet, don’t fall down and fergit that!’</p> +<p>“‘The examinations tind to show,’ said Mr. +Bonner, when asked for his opinion on the result, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163' name='page_163'></a>163</span> +‘that in or-r-rder to larn anything you +shud shtudy somethin’ ilse. But we’ll git this +guy yit!’”</p> +<hr class='tb' /> + +<p>“Jim,” said Colonel Woodruff, as they rode +home together, “the next heat is the school +election. We’ve got to control that board next +year—and we’ve got to do it by electing one +out of three.”</p> +<p>“Is that a possibility?” asked Jim. “Aren’t +we sure to be defeated at last? Shouldn’t I quit +at the end of my contract? All I ever hoped for +was to be allowed to fulfill that. And is it worth +the fight?”</p> +<p>“It’s not only possible,” replied the colonel, +“but probable. As for being worth while—why, +this thing is too big to drop. I’m just +beginning to understand what you’re driving +at. And I like being a wild-eyed reformer more +and more.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XIV_THE_COLONEL_TAKES_THE_FIELD' id='XIV_THE_COLONEL_TAKES_THE_FIELD'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164' name='page_164'></a>164</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> +<h3>THE COLONEL TAKES THE FIELD</h3> +</div> + +<p>Every Iowa county has its Farmers’ +Institute. Usually it is held in the county +seat, and is a gathering of farmers for the +ostensible purpose of listening to improving +discussions and addresses both instructive and +entertaining. Really, in most cases, the +farmers’ institutes have been occasions for the +cultivation of relations between a few of the +exceptional farmers and their city friends and +with one another. Seldom is anything done +which leads to any better selling methods for +the farmers, any organization looking to cooperative +effort, or anything else that an agricultural +economist from Ireland, Germany or +Denmark would suggest as the sort of action +which the American farmer must take if he is +to make the most of his life and labor.</p> +<p>The Woodruff District was interested in the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165' name='page_165'></a>165</span> +institute however, because of the fact that a +rural-school exhibit was one of its features that +year, and that Colonel Woodruff had secured +an urgent invitation to the school to take part +in it.</p> +<p>“We’ve got something new out in our district +school,” said he to the president of the institute.</p> +<p>“So I hear,” said the president—“mostly a +fight, isn’t it?”</p> +<p>“Something more,” said the colonel. “If +you’ll persuade our school to make an exhibit +of real rural work in a real rural school, I’ll +promise you something worth seeing and discussing.”</p> +<p>Such exhibits are now so common that it is +not worth while for us to describe it; but then, +the sight of a class of children testing and +weighing milk, examining grains for viability +and foul seeds, planning crop rotations, judging +grains and live stock was so new in that county +as to be the real sensation of the institute.</p> +<p>Two persons were a good deal embarrassed +by the success of the exhibit. One was the +county superintendent, who was constantly in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166' name='page_166'></a>166</span> +receipt of undeserved compliments upon her +wisdom in fostering really “practical work in +the schools.” The other was Jim Irwin, who +was becoming famous, and who felt he had +done nothing to deserve fame. Professor +Withers, an extension lecturer from Ames, took +Jim to dinner at the best hotel in the town, for +the purpose of talking over with him the needs +of the rural schools. Jim was in agony. The +colored waiter fussed about trying to keep Jim +in the beaten track of hotel manners, restored +to him the napkin which Jim failed to use, +and juggled back into place the silverware +which Jim misappropriated to alien and unusual +uses. But, when the meal had progressed +to the stage of conversation, the waiter noticed +that gradually the uncouth farmer became +master of the situation, and the well-groomed +college professor the interested listener.</p> +<p>“You’ve got to come down to our farmers’ +week next year, and tell us about these things,” +said he to Jim. “Can’t you?”</p> +<p>Jim’s brain reeled. He go to a gathering of +real educators and tell his crude notions! How +could he get the money for his expenses? But +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167' name='page_167'></a>167</span> +he had that gameness which goes with supreme +confidence in the thing dealt with.</p> +<p>“I’ll come,” said he.</p> +<p>“Thank you,” said the Ames man, “There’s +a small honorarium attached, you know.”</p> +<p>Jim was staggered. What was an honorarium? +He tried to remember what an honorarium +is, and could get no further than the +thought that it is in some way connected with +the Latin root of “honor.” Was he obliged to +pay an honorarium for the chance to speak +before the college gathering? Well, he’d save +money and pay it. The professor must be able +to understand that it couldn’t be expected that +a country school-teacher would be able to pay +much.</p> +<p>“I—I’ll try to take care of the honorarium,” +said he. “I’ll come.”</p> +<p>The professor laughed. It was the first joke +the gangling innovator had perpetrated.</p> +<p>“It won’t bother you to take care of it,” said +he, “but if you’re not too extravagant it will +pay you your expenses and give you a few dollars +over.”</p> +<p>Jim breathed more freely. An honorarium +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168' name='page_168'></a>168</span> +was paid to the person receiving the honor, +then. What a relief!</p> +<p>“All right,” he exclaimed. “I’ll be glad to +come!”</p> +<p>“Let’s consider that settled,” said the +professor. “And now I must be going back to +the opera-house. My talk on soil sickness comes +next. I tell you, the winter wheat crop has +been—”</p> +<p>But Jim was not able to think much of the +winter wheat problem as they went back to +the auditorium. He was worth putting on the +program at a state meeting! He was worth +the appreciation of a college professor, trained +to think on the very matters Jim had been +so long mulling over in isolation and blindness! +He was actually worth paying for his +thoughts.</p> +<p>Calista Simms thought she saw something +shining and saint-like about the homely face +of her teacher as he came to her at her post +in the room in which the school exhibit was +held. Calista was in charge of the little children +whose work was to be demonstrated that +day, and was in a state of exaltation to which +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169' name='page_169'></a>169</span> +her starved being had hitherto been a stranger. +Perhaps there was something similar in her +condition of fervent happiness to that of Jim. +She, too, was doing something outside the +sordid life of the Simms cabin. She yearned +over the children in her care, and would have +been glad to die for them—and besides was not +Newton Bronson in charge of the corn exhibit, +and a member of the corn-judging team? To +the eyes of the town girls who passed about +among the exhibits, she was poorly dressed; +but if they could have seen the clothes she +had worn on that evening when Jim Irwin +first called at their cabin and failed to give a +whoop from the big road, they could perhaps +have understood the sense of wellbeing and +happiness in Calista’s soul at the feeling of her +whole clean underclothes, her neat, if cheap, +dress, and the “boughten” cloak she wore—and +any of them, even without knowledge of this, +might have understood Calista’s joy at the +knowledge that Newton Bronson’s eyes were +on her from his station by the big pillar, no +matter how many town girls filed by. For +therein they would have been in a realm of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170' name='page_170'></a>170</span> +the passions quite universal in its appeal to the +feminine soul.</p> +<p>“Hello, Calista!” said Jim. “How are you +enjoying it?”</p> +<p>“Oh!” said Calista, and drew a long, long +breath. “Ah’m enjoying myse’f right much, +Mr. Jim.”</p> +<p>“Any of the home folks coming in to see?”</p> +<p>“Yes, seh,” answered Calista. “All the +school board have stopped by this morning.”</p> +<p>Jim looked about him. He wished he could +see and shake hands with his enemies, Bronson, +Peterson and Bonner: and if he could tell them +of his success with Professor Withers of the +State Agricultural College, perhaps they would +feel differently toward him. There they were +now, over in a corner, with their heads together. +Perhaps they were agreeing among +themselves that he was right in his school +methods, and they wrong. He went toward +them, his face still beaming with that radiance +which had shone so plainly to the eyes of +Calista Simms, but they saw in it only a grin +of exultation over his defeat of them at the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171' name='page_171'></a>171</span> +hearing before Jennie Woodruff. When Jim +had drawn so close as almost to call for the +extended hand, he felt the repulsion of their +attitudes and sheered off on some pretended +errand to a dark corner across the room.</p> +<p>They resumed their talk.</p> +<p>“I’m a Dimocrat,” said Con Bonner, “and you +fellers is Republicans, and we’ve fought each +other about who we was to hire for teacher; +but when it comes to electing my successor, I +think we shouldn’t divide on party lines.”</p> +<p>“The fight about the teacher,” said Haakon +Peterson, “is a t’ing of the past. All our candidates +got odder yobs now.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Ezra Bronson. “Prue Foster +wouldn’t take our school now if she could +get it”</p> +<p>“And as I was sayin’,” went on Bonner, “I +want to get this guy, Jim Irwin. An’ bein’ +the cause of his gittin’ the school, I’d like to be +on the board to kick him off; but if you fellers +would like to have some one else, I won’t run, +and if the right feller is named, I’ll line up +what friends I got for him.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172' name='page_172'></a>172</span> +“You got no friend can git as many wotes as +you can,” said Peterson. “I tank you better +run.”</p> +<p>“What say, Ez?” asked Bonner.</p> +<p>“Suits me all right,” said Bronson. “I guess +we three have had our fight out and understand +each other.”</p> +<p>“All right,” returned Bonner, “I’ll take the +office again. Let’s not start too soon, but say +we begin about a week from Sunday to line up +our friends, to go to the school election and +vote kind of unanimous-like?”</p> +<p>“Suits me,” said Bronson.</p> +<p>“Wery well,” said Peterson.</p> +<p>“I don’t like the way Colonel Woodruff acts,” +said Bonner. “He rounded up that gang of +kids that shot us all to pieces at that hearing, +didn’t he?”</p> +<p>“I tank not,” replied Peterson. “I tank he +was yust interested in how Yennie managed it.”</p> +<p>“Looked mighty like he was managin’ the +demonstration,” said Bonner. “What d’ye +think, Ez?”</p> +<p>“Too small a matter for the colonel to monkey +with,” said Bronson. “I reckon he was just +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173' name='page_173'></a>173</span> +interested in Jennie’s dilemmer. It ain’t reasonable +that Colonel Woodruff after the p’litical +career he’s had would mix up in school district +politics.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Bonner, “he seems to take a lot +of interest in this exhibition here. I think +we’d better watch the colonel. That decision +of Jennie’s might have been because she’s stuck +on Jim Irwin, or because she takes a lot of +notice of what her father says.”</p> +<p>“Or she might have thought the decision was +right,” said Bronson. “Some people do, you +know.”</p> +<p>“Right!” scoffed Bonner. “In a pig’s wrist! +I tell you that decision was crooked.”</p> +<p>“Vell,” said Haakon Peterson, “talk of +crookedness wit’ Yennie Woodruff don’t get +wery fur wit’ me.”</p> +<p>“Oh, I don’t mean anything bad, Haakon,” +replied Bonner, “but it wasn’t an all-right decision. +I think she’s stuck on the guy.”</p> +<p>The caucus broke up after making sure that +the three members of the school board would +be as one man in maintaining a hostile front +to Jim Irwin and his tenure of office. It +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174' name='page_174'></a>174</span> +looked rather like a foregone conclusion, in a +little district wherein there were scarcely +twenty-five votes. The three members of the +board with their immediate friends and dependents +could muster two or three ballots +each—and who was there to oppose them? Who +wanted to be school director? It was a post +of no profit, little honor and much vexation. +And yet, there are always men to be found +who covet such places. Curiously there are always +those who covet them for no ascertainable +reason, for often they are men who have no +theory of education to further, and no fondness +for affairs of the intellect. In the Woodruff +District, however, the incumbents saw no candidate +in view who could be expected to stand +up against the rather redoubtable Con Bonner. +Jim’s hold upon his work seemed fairly secure +for the term of his contract, since Jennie had +decided that he was competent; and after that +he himself had no plans. He could not expect +to be retained by the men who had so bitterly +attacked him. Perhaps the publicity of his +Ames address would get him another place with +a sufficient stipend so that he could support his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175' name='page_175'></a>175</span> +mother without the aid of the little garden, the +cows and the fowls—and perhaps he would ask +Colonel Woodruff to take him back as a farm-hand. +These thoughts thronged his mind as +he stood apart and alone after his rebuff by +the caucusing members of the school board.</p> +<p>“I don’t see,” said a voice over against the +cooking exhibit, “what there is in this to +set people talking? Buttonholes! Cookies! +Humph!”</p> +<p>It was Mrs. Bonner who had clearly come +to scoff. With her was Mrs. Bronson, whose +attitude was that of a person torn between +conflicting influences. Her husband had indicated +to the crafty Bonner and the subtle Peterson +that while he was still loyal to the school +board, and hence perforce opposed to Jim +Irwin, and resentful to the decision of the +county superintendent, his adhesion to the institutions +of the Woodruff District as handed +down by the fathers was not quite of the +thick-and-thin type. For he had suggested that +Jennie might have been sincere in rendering +her decision, and that some people agreed with +her: so Mrs. Bronson, while consorting with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176' name='page_176'></a>176</span> +the censorious Mrs. Bonner evinced restiveness +when the school and its work was condemned. +Was not her Newton in charge of a part of +this show! Had he not taken great interest +in the project? Was he not an open and defiant +champion of Jim Irwin, and a constant +and enthusiastic attendant upon, not only his +classes, but a variety of evening and Saturday +affairs at which the children studied arithmetic, +grammar, geography, writing and spelling, by +working on cows, pigs, chickens, grains, +grasses, soils and weeds? And had not Newton +become a better boy—a wonderfully better +boy? Mrs. Bronson’s heart was filled with resentment +that she also could not be enrolled +among Jim Irwin’s supporters. And when +Mrs. Bonner sneered at the buttonholes and +cookies, Mrs. Bronson, knowing how the little +fingers had puzzled themselves over the one, +and young faces had become floury and red +over the other, flared up a little.</p> +<p>“And I don’t see,” said she, “anything to +laugh at when the young girls do the best they +can to make themselves capable housekeepers. +I’d like to help them.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177' name='page_177'></a>177</span> +She turned to Mrs. Bonner as if to add “If +this be treason, make the most of it!” but +that lady was far too good a diplomat to be +cornered in the same enclosure with a rupture +of relations.</p> +<p>“And quite right, too,” said she, “in the +proper place, and at the proper time. The +little things ought to be helped by every real +woman—of course!”</p> +<p>“Of course,” repeated Mrs. Bronson.</p> +<p>“At home, now, and by their mothers,” added +Mrs. Bonner.</p> +<p>“Well,” said Mrs. Bronson, “take them +Simms girls, now. They have to have help +outside their home if they are ever going to +be like other folks.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” agreed Mrs. Bonner, “and a lot more +help than a farm-hand can give ’em in school. +Pretty poor trash, they, and I shouldn’t wonder +if there was a lot we don’t know about why +they come north.”</p> +<p>“As for that,” replied Mrs. Bronson, “I don’t +know as it’s any of my business so long as +they behave themselves.”</p> +<p>Again Mrs. Bonner felt the situation getting +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178' name='page_178'></a>178</span> +out of hand, and again she returned to +the task of keeping Mrs. Bronson in alignment +with the forces of accepted Woodruff District +conditions.</p> +<p>“Ain’t it some of our business?” she +queried. “I wonder now! By the way Newtie +keeps his eye on that Simms girl, I shouldn’t +wonder if it might turn out your business.”</p> +<p>“Pshaw!” scoffed Mrs. Bronson. “Puppy +love!”</p> +<p>“You can’t tell how far it’ll go,” persisted +Mrs. Bonner. “I tell you these schools are +getting to be nothing more than sparkin’ +bees, from the county superintendent down.”</p> +<p>“Well, maybe,” said Mrs. Bronson, “but I +don’t see sparkin’ in everything boys and girls +do as quick as some.”</p> +<p>“I wonder,” said Mrs. Bonner, “if Colonel +Woodruff would be as friendly to Jim Irwin +if he knew that everybody says Jennie decided +he was to keep his certif’kit because she wants +him to get along in the world, so he can marry +her?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know as she is so very friendly to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179' name='page_179'></a>179</span> +him,” replied Mrs. Bronson; “and Jim and +Jennie are both of age, you know.”</p> +<p>“Yes, but how about our schools bein’ ruined +by a love affair?” interrogated Mrs. Bonner, as +they moved away. “Ain’t that your business +and mine?”</p> +<p>Instead of desiring further knowledge of +what they were discussing, Jim felt a dreadful +disgust at the whole thing. Disgust at being +the subject of gossip, at the horrible falsity +of the picture he had been able to paint to the +people of his objects and his ambitions, and +especially at the desecration of Jennie by such +misconstruction of her attitude toward him +officially and personally. Jennie was vexed at +him, and wanted him to resign from his position. +He firmly believed that she was surprised +at finding herself convinced that he was entitled +to a decision in the matter of his competency +as a teacher. She was against him, he +believed, and as for her being in love with +him—to hear these women discuss it was intolerable.</p> +<p>He felt his face redden as at the hearing of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180' name='page_180'></a>180</span> +some horrible indecency. He felt himself +stripped naked, and he was hotly ashamed that +Jennie should be associated with him in the +exposure. And while he was raging inwardly, +paying the penalty of his new-found place in +the public eye—a publicity to which he was +not yet hardened—he heard other voices. Professor +Withers, County Superintendent Jennie +and Colonel Woodruff were making an inspection +of the rural-school exhibit.</p> +<p>“I hear he has been having some trouble +with his school board,” the professor was +saying.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jennie, “he has.”</p> +<p>“Wasn’t there an effort made to remove him +from his position?” asked the professor.</p> +<p>“Proceedings before me to revoke his certificate,” +replied Jennie.</p> +<p>“On what grounds?”</p> +<p>“Incompetency,” answered Jennie. “I found +that his pupils were really doing very well in +the regular course of study—which he seems +to be neglecting.”</p> +<p>“I’m glad you supported him,” said the +professor. “I’m glad to find you helping him.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181' name='page_181'></a>181</span> +“Really,” protested Jennie, “I don’t think +myself—”</p> +<p>“What do you think of his notions?” asked +the colonel.</p> +<p>“Very advanced,” replied Professor Withers. +“Where did he imbibe them all?”</p> +<p>“He’s a Brown Mouse,” said the colonel.</p> +<p>“I beg your pardon,” said the puzzled +professor. “I didn’t quite understand. A—a—what?”</p> +<p>“One of papa’s breeding jokes,” said Jennie. +“He means a phenomenon in heredity—perhaps +a genius, you know.”</p> +<p>“Ah, I see,” replied the professor, “a Mendelian +segregation, you mean?”</p> +<p>“Certainly,” said the colonel. “The sort of +mind that imbibes things from itself.”</p> +<p>“Well, he’s rather wonderful,” declared the +professor. “I had him to lunch to-day. He +surprised me. I have invited him to make an +address at Ames next winter during farmers’ +week.”</p> +<p>“He?”</p> +<p>Jennie’s tone showed her astonishment. Jim +the underling. Jim the off ox. Jim the thorn +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182' name='page_182'></a>182</span> +in the county superintendent’s side. Jim the +country teacher! It was stupefying.</p> +<p>“Oh, you musn’t judge him by his looks,” +said the professor. “I really do hope he’ll take +some advice on the matter of clothes—put on +a cravat and a different shirt and collar when +he comes to Ames—but I have no doubt he +will.”</p> +<p>“He hasn’t any other,” said the colonel.</p> +<p>“Well, it won’t signify, if he has the truth +to tell us,” said the professor.</p> +<p>“<i>Has</i> he?” asked Jennie.</p> +<p>“Miss Woodruff,” replied the professor +earnestly, “he has something that looks toward +truth, and something that we need. Just how +far he will go, just what he will amount to, +it is impossible to say. But something must +be done for the rural schools—something along +the lines he is trying to follow. He is a struggling +soul, and he is worth helping. You won’t +make any mistake if you make the most of Mr. +Irwin.”</p> +<p>Jim slipped out of a side door and fled. As +in the case of the conversation between Mrs. +Bronson and Mrs. Bonner, he was unable to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183' name='page_183'></a>183</span> +discern the favorable auspices in the showing +of adverse things. He had not sensed Mrs. +Bronson’s half-concealed friendliness for him, +though it was disagreeably plain to Mrs. +Bonner. And now he neglected the colonel’s +evident support of him, and Professor Withers’ +praise, in Jennie’s manifest surprise that old +Jim had been accorded the recognition of a +place on a college program, and the professor’s +criticism of his dress and general appearance.</p> +<p>It was unjust! What chance had he been +given to discover what it was fashionable to +wear, even if he had had the money to buy +such clothes as other young men possessed? He +would never go near Ames! He would stay +in the Woodruff District where the people +knew him, and some of them liked him. He +would finish his school year, and go back to +work on the farm. He would abandon the +struggle.</p> +<p>He started home, on foot as he had come, +A mile or so out he was overtaken by the +colonel, driving briskly along with room in his +buggy for Jim. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184' name='page_184'></a>184</span></p> +<p>“Climb in, Jim!” said he. “Dan and Dolly +didn’t like to see you walk.”</p> +<p>“They’re looking fine,” said Jim.</p> +<p>There is a good deal to say whenever two +horse lovers get together. Hoofs and coats +and frogs and eyes and teeth and the queer +sympathies between horse and man may sometimes +quite take the place of the weather for +an hour or so. But when Jim had alighted at +his own door, the colonel spoke of what had +been in his mind all the time.</p> +<p>“I saw Bonner and Haakon and Ez doing +some caucusing to-day,” said he. “They expect +to elect Bonner to the board again.”</p> +<p>“Oh, I suppose so,” replied Jim.</p> +<p>“Well, what shall we do about it?” asked the +colonel.</p> +<p>“If the people want him—” began Jim.</p> +<p>“The people,” said the colonel, “must have +a choice offered to ’em, or how can you or any +man tell what they want? How can they tell +themselves?”</p> +<p>Jim was silent. Here was a matter on +which he really had no ideas except the broad +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185' name='page_185'></a>185</span> +and general one that truth is mighty and shall +prevail—but that the speed of its forward +march is problematical.</p> +<p>“I think,” said the colonel, “that it’s up to +us to see that the people have a chance to +decide. It’s really Bonner against Jim Irwin.”</p> +<p>“That’s rather startling,” said Jim, “but I +suppose it’s true. And much chance Jim Irwin +has!”</p> +<p>“I calculate,” rejoined the colonel, “that +what you need is a champion.”</p> +<p>“To do what?”</p> +<p>“To take that office away from Bonner.”</p> +<p>“Who can do that?”</p> +<p>“Well, I’m free to say I don’t know that +any one can, but I’m willing to try. I think +that in about a week I shall pass the word +around that I’d like to serve my country on +the school board.”</p> +<p>Jim’s face lighted up—and then darkened.</p> +<p>“Even then they’d be two to one, Colonel.”</p> +<p>“Maybe,” replied the colonel, “and maybe +not. That would have to be figured on. A +cracked log splits easy.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186' name='page_186'></a>186</span></p> +<p>“Anyhow,” Jim went on, “what’s the use? I +shan’t be disturbed this year—and after that—what’s +the use?”</p> +<p>“Why, Jim,” said the colonel, “you aren’t +getting short of breath are you? Do I see +frost on your boots? I thought you good for +the mile, and you aren’t turning out a quarter +horse, are you? I don’t know what all it is +you want to do, but I don’t, believe you can +do it in nine months, can you?”</p> +<p>“Not in nine years!” replied Jim.</p> +<p>“Well, then, let’s plan for ten years,” said +the colonel. “I ain’t going to become a reformer +at my time of life as a temporary job. +Will you stick if we can swing the thing for +you?”</p> +<p>“I will,” said Jim, in the manner of a person +taking the vows in some solemn initiation.</p> +<p>“All right,” said the colonel. “We’ll keep +quiet and see how many votes we can muster +up at the election. How many can you speak +for?”</p> +<p>Jim gave himself for a few minutes to +thought. It was a new thing to him, this matter +of mustering votes—and a thing which he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187' name='page_187'></a>187</span> +had always looked upon as rather reprehensible. +The citizen should go forth with no +coercion, no persuasion, no suggestion, and +vote his sentiments.</p> +<p>“How many can you round up?” persisted +the colonel.</p> +<p>“I think,” said Jim, “that I can speak for +myself and Old Man Simms!”</p> +<p>The colonel laughed.</p> +<p>“Fine politician!” he repeated. “Fine politician! +Well, Jim, we may get beaten in this, +but if we are, let’s not have them going away +picking their noses and saying they’ve had no +fight. You round up yourself and Old Man +Simms and I’ll see what I can do—I’ll see what +I can do!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XV_A_MINOR_CASTS_HALF_A_VOTE' id='XV_A_MINOR_CASTS_HALF_A_VOTE'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188' name='page_188'></a>188</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> +<h3>A MINOR CASTS HALF A VOTE</h3> +</div> + +<p>March came in like neither a lion nor a +lamb, but was scarcely a week old before +the wild ducks had begun to score the sky +above Bronson’s Slew looking for open water +and badly-harvested corn-fields. Wild geese, +too, honked from on high as if in wonder that +these great prairies on which their forefathers +had been wont fearlessly to alight had been +changed into a disgusting expanse of farms. If +geese are favored with the long lives in which +fable bids us believe, some of these venerable +honkers must have seen every vernal and autumnal +phase of the transformation from +boundless prairie to boundless corn-land. I +sometimes seem to hear in the bewildering +trumpetings of wild geese a cry of surprise +and protest at the ruin of their former paradise. +Colonel Woodruff’s hired man, Pete, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189' name='page_189'></a>189</span> +had no such foolish notions, however. He +stopped Newton Bronson and Raymond Simms +as they tramped across the colonel’s pasture, +gun in hand, trying to make themselves believe +that the shooting was good.</p> +<p>“This ain’t no country to hunt in,” said he. +“Did either of you fellows ever have any real +duck-shooting?”</p> +<p>“The mountings,” said Raymond, “air poor +places for ducks.”</p> +<p>“Not big enough water,” suggested Pete. +“Some wood-ducks, I suppose?”</p> +<p>“Along the creeks and rivers, yes seh,” said +Raymond, “and sometimes a flock of wild geese +would get lost, and some bewildered, and a +man would shoot one or two—from the tops of +the ridges—but nothing to depend on.”</p> +<p>“I’ve never been nowhere,” said Newton, +“except once to Minnesota—and—and that +wasn’t in the shooting season.”</p> +<p>A year ago Newton would have boasted of +having “bummed” his way to Faribault. His +hesitant speech was a proof of the embarrassment +his new respectability sometimes inflicted +upon him. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190' name='page_190'></a>190</span></p> +<p>“I used to shoot ducks for the market at +Spirit Lake,” said Pete. “I know Fred Gilbert +just as well as I know you. If I’d ’a’ kep’ on +shooting I could have made my millions as +champion wing shot as easy as he has. He +didn’t have nothing on me when we was both +shooting for a livin’. But that’s all over, now. +You’ve got to go so fur now to get decent +shooting where the farmers won’t drive you +off, that it costs nine dollars to send a postcard +home.”</p> +<p>“I think we’ll have fine shooting on the slew +in a few days,” said Newton.</p> +<p>“Humph!” scoffed Pete. “I give you my +word, if I hadn’t promised the colonel I’d stay +with him another year, I’d take a side-door +Pullman for the Sand Hills of Nebraska or +the Devil’s Lake country to-morrow—if I had +a gun.”</p> +<p>“If it wasn’t for a passel of things that keep +me hyeh,” said Raymond, “I’d like to go too.”</p> +<p>“The colonel,” said Pete, “needs me. He +needs me in the election to-morrow. What’s +the matter of your ol’ man, Newt? What for +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191' name='page_191'></a>191</span> +does he vote for that Bonner, and throw down +an old neighbor?”</p> +<p>“I can’t do anything with him!” exclaimed +Newton irritably. “He’s all tangled up with +Peterson and Bonner.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Pete, “if he’d just stay at home, +it would help some. If he votes for Bonner, +it’ll be just about a stand-off.”</p> +<p>“He never misses a vote!” said Newton +despairingly.</p> +<p>“Can’t you cripple him someway?” asked +Pete jocularly. “Darned funny when a boy o’ +your age can’t control his father’s vote! So +long!”</p> +<p>“I wish I <i>could</i> vote!” grumbled Newton. “I +wish I <i>could</i>! We know a lot more about the +school, and Jim Irwin bein’ a good teacher than +dad does—and we can’t vote. Why can’t folks +vote when they are interested in an election, +and know about the issues. It’s tyranny that +you and I can’t vote.”</p> +<p>“I reckon,” said Raymond, the conservative, +“that the old-time people that fixed it thataway +knowed best.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192' name='page_192'></a>192</span></p> +<p>“Rats!” sneered Newton, the iconoclast. +“Why, Calista knows more about the election of +school director than dad knows.”</p> +<p>“That don’t seem reasonable,” protested +Raymond. “She’s prejudyced, I reckon, in +favor of Mr. Jim Irwin.”</p> +<p>“Well, dad’s prejudiced against him,—er, +no, he hain’t either. He likes Jim. He’s just +prejudiced against giving up his old notions. +No, he hain’t neither—I guess he’s only prejudiced +against seeming to give up some old notions +he seemed to have once! And the kids +in school would be prejudiced right, anyhow!”</p> +<p>“Paw says he’ll be on hand prompt,” said +Raymond. “But he had to be p’swaded right +much. Paw’s proud—and he cain’t read.”</p> +<p>“Sometimes I think the more people read the +less sense they’ve got,” said Newton. “I wish +I could tie dad up! I wish I could get snakebit, +and make him go for the doctor!”</p> +<p>The boys crossed the ridge to the wooded +valley in which nestled the Simms cabin. They +found Mrs. Simms greatly exercised in her +mind because young McGeehee had been found +playing with some blue vitriol used by Raymond +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193' name='page_193'></a>193</span> +in his school work on the treatment of +seed potatoes for scab.</p> +<p>“His hands was all blue with it,” said she. +“Do you reckon, Mr. Newton, that it’ll pizen +him?”</p> +<p>“Did he swallow any of it?” asked Newton.</p> +<p>“Nah!” said McGeehee scornfully.</p> +<p>Newton reassured Mrs. Simms, and went +away pensive. He was in rebellion against the +strange ways grown men have of discharging +their duties as citizens—a rather remarkable +thing, and perhaps a proof that Jim Irwin’s +methods had already accomplished much in +preparing Newton and Raymond for citizenship. +He had shown them the fact that voting +really has some relation to life. At present, +however, the new wine in the old bottles was +causing Newton to forget his filial duty, and +his respect for his father. He wished he could +lock him up in the barn so he couldn’t go to +the school election. He wished he could become +ill—or poisoned with blue vitriol or something—so +his father would be obliged to go for a +doctor. He wished——well, why couldn’t he +get sick. Mrs. Simms had been about to send +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194' name='page_194'></a>194</span> +for the doctor for Buddy when he had explained +away the apparent necessity. People +got dreadfully scared about poison—— Newton +mended his pace, and looked happier. He +looked very much as he had done on the day +he adjusted the needle-pointed muzzle to his +dog’s nose. He looked, in fact, more like a +person filled with deviltry, than one yearning +for the right to vote.</p> +<p>“I’ll fix him!” said he to himself.</p> +<p>“What time’s the election, Ez?” asked Mrs. +Bronson at breakfast.</p> +<p>“I’m goin’ at four o’clock,” said Ezra. “And +I don’t want to hear any more from any one”—looking +at Newton—“about the election. It’s +none of the business of the women an’ boys.”</p> +<p>Newton took this reproof in an unexpectedly +submissive spirit. In fact, he exhibited his +very best side to the family that morning, like +one going on a long journey, or about to be +married off, or engaged in some deep dark +plot.</p> +<p>“I s’pose you’re off trampin’ the slews at +the sight of a flock of ducks four miles off as +usual?” stated Mr. Bronson challengingly. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195' name='page_195'></a>195</span></p> +<p>“I thought,” said Newton, “that I’d get a +lot of raisin bait ready for the pocket-gophers +in the lower meadow. They’ll be throwing up +their mounds by the first of April.”</p> +<p>“Not them,” said Mr. Bronson, somewhat +mollified, “not before May. Where’d you get +the raisin idee?”</p> +<p>“We learned it in school,” answered Newton. +“Jim had me study a bulletin on the control +and eradication of pocket-gophers. You use +raisins with strychnine in ’em—and it tells +how.”</p> +<p>“Some fool notion, I s’pose,” said Mr. +Bronson, rising. “But go ahead if you’re careful +about handlin’ the strychnine.”</p> +<p>Newton spent the time from twelve-thirty +to half after two in watching the clock; and +twenty minutes to three found him seated in +the woodshed with a pen-knife in his hand, a +small vial of strychnine crystals on a stand +before him, a saucer of raisins at his right +hand, and one exactly like it, partially filled +with gopher bait—by which is meant raisins +under the skin of each of which a minute +crystal of strychnine had been inserted on the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196' name='page_196'></a>196</span> +point of the knife. Newton was apparently +happy and was whistling <i>The Glow-Worm</i>. It +was a lovely scene if one can forget the gopher’s +point of view.</p> +<p>At three-thirty, Newton went into the house +and lay down on the horsehair sofa, saying to +his mother that he felt kind o’ funny and +thought he’d lie down a while. At three-forty +he heard his father’s voice in the kitchen and +knew that his sire was preparing to start for +the scene of battle between Colonel Woodruff +and Con Bonner, on the result of which hinged +the future of Jim Irwin and the Woodruff +school.</p> +<p>A groan issued from Newton’s lips—a +gruesome groan as of the painful death of a +person very sensitive to physical suffering. +But his father’s voice from the kitchen door +betrayed no agitation. He was scolding the +horses as they stood tied to the hitching-post, +in tones that showed no knowledge of his +son’s distressed moans.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter?”</p> +<p>It was Newton’s little sister who asked the +question, her facial expression evincing appreciation +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197' name='page_197'></a>197</span> +of Newton’s efforts in the line of +groans, somewhat touched with awe. Even +though regarded as a pure matter of make-believe, +such sounds were terrible.</p> +<p>“Oh, sister, sister!” howled Newton, “run +and tell ’em that brother’s dying!”</p> +<p>Fanny disappeared in a manner which +expressed her balanced feelings—she felt that +her brother was making believe, but she believed +for all that, that something awful was +the matter. So she went rather slowly to the +kitchen door, and casually remarked that +Newton was dying on the sofa in the sitting-room.</p> +<p>“You little fraud!” said her father.</p> +<p>“Why, Fanny!” said her mother—and ran +into the sitting-room—whence in a moment, +with a cry that was almost a scream, she summoned +her husband, who responded at the top +of his speed.</p> +<p>Newton was groaning and in convulsions. +Horrible grimaces contorted his face, his jaws +were set, his arms and legs drawn up, and +his muscles tense.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter?” His father’s voice was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198' name='page_198'></a>198</span> +stern as well as full of anxiety. “What’s the +matter, boy?”</p> +<p>“Oh!” cried Newton. “Oh! Oh! Oh!”</p> +<p>“Newtie, Newtie!” cried his mother, “where +are you in pain? Tell mother, Newtie!”</p> +<p>“Oh,” groaned Newtie, relaxing, “I feel +awful!”</p> +<p>“What you been eating?” interrogated his +father.</p> +<p>“Nothing,” replied Newton.</p> +<p>“I saw you eatin’ dinner,” said his father.</p> +<p>Again Newton was convulsed by strong +spasms, and again his groans filled the hearts +of his parents with terror.</p> +<p>“That’s all I’ve eaten,” said he, when his +spasms had passed, “except a few raisins. I +was putting strychnine in ’em——”</p> +<p>“Oh, heavens!” cried his mother. “He’s +poisoned! Drive for the doctor, Ezra! Drive!”</p> +<p>Mr. Bronson forgot all about the election—forgot +everything save antidotes and speed. He +leaped toward the door. As he passed out, he +shouted “Give him an emetic!” He tore the +hitching straps from the posts, jumped into the +buggy and headed for the road. Skilfully avoiding +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199' name='page_199'></a>199</span> +an overturn as he rounded into the highway, +he gave the spirited horses their heads, +and fled toward town, carefully computing the +speed the horses could make and still be able +to return. Mile after mile he covered, passing +teams, keeping ahead of automobiles and advertising +panic. Just at the town limits, he +met the doctor in Sheriff Dilly’s automobile, +the sheriff himself at the steering wheel. Mr. +Bronson signaled them to stop, ignoring the +fact that they were making similar signs to +him.</p> +<p>“We’re just starting for your place,” said +the doctor. “Your wife got me on the phone.”</p> +<p>“Thank God!” replied Bronson. “Don’t fool +any time away on me. Drive!”</p> +<p>“Get in here, Ez,” said the sheriff. “Doc +knows how to drive, and I’ll come on with your +team. They need a slow drive to cool ’em off.”</p> +<p>“Why didn’t you phone me?” asked the +doctor.</p> +<p>“Never thought of it,” replied Bronson. “I +hain’t had the phone only a few years. Drive +faster!”</p> +<p>“I want to get there, or I would,” answered +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200' name='page_200'></a>200</span> +the doctor. “Don’t worry. From what your +wife told me over the phone I don’t believe +the boy’s eaten any more strychnine than I +have—and probably not so much.”</p> +<p>“He was alive, then?”</p> +<p>“Alive and making an argument against +taking the emetic,” replied the doctor. “But +I guess she got it down him.”</p> +<p>“I’d hate to lose that boy, Doc!”</p> +<p>“I don’t believe there’s any danger. It +doesn’t sound like a genuine poisoning case +to me.”</p> +<p>Thus reassured, Mr. Bronson was calm, even +if somewhat tragic in calmness, when he +entered the death chamber with the doctor. +Newton was sitting up, his eyes wet, and his +face pale. His mother had won the argument, +and Newton had lost his dinner. Haakon +Peterson occupied an armchair.</p> +<p>“What’s all this?” asked the doctor. “How +you feeling, Newt? Any pain?”</p> +<p>“I’m all right,” said Newton. “Don’t give +me any more o’ that nasty stuff!”</p> +<p>“No,” said the doctor, “but if you don’t tell +me just what you’ve been eating, and doing, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201' name='page_201'></a>201</span> +and pulling off on us, I’ll use this”—and the +doctor exhibited a huge stomach pump.</p> +<p>“What’ll you do with that?” asked Newton +faintly.</p> +<p>“I’ll put this down into your hold, and unload +you, that’s what I’ll do.”</p> +<p>“Is the election over, Mr. Peterson?” asked +Newton.</p> +<p>“Yes,” answered Mr. Peterson, “and the +votes counted.”</p> +<p>“Who’s elected?” asked Newton.</p> +<p>“Colonel Woodruff,” answered Mr. Peterson. +“The vote was twelve to eleven.”</p> +<p>“Well, dad,” said Newton, “I s’pose you’ll +be sore, but the only way I could see to get in +half a vote for Colonel Woodruff was to get +poisoned and send you after the doctor. If +you’d gone, it would ’a’ been a tie, anyhow, and +probably you’d ’a’ persuaded somebody to +change to Bonner. That’s what’s the matter +with me. I killed your vote. Now, you can +do whatever you like to me—but I’m sorry I +scared mother.”</p> +<p>Ezra Bronson seized Newton by the +throat, but his fingers failed to close. “Don’t +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202' name='page_202'></a>202</span> +pinch, dad,” said Newton. “I’ve been using +that neck an’ it’s tired.” Mr. Bronson dropped +his hands to his sides, glared at his son for a +moment and breathed a sigh of relief.</p> +<p>“Why, you darned infernal little fool,” said +he. “I’ve a notion to take a hamestrap to +you! If I’d been there the vote would have +been eleven to thirteen!”</p> +<p>“There was plenty wotes there for the colonel, +if he needed ’em,” said Haakon, whose politician’s +mind was already fully adjusted to the +changed conditions. “Ay tank the Woodruff +District will have a junanimous school board +from dis time on once more. Colonel Woodruff +is yust the man we have needed.”</p> +<p>“I’m with you there,” said Bronson. “And +as for you, young man, if one or both of them +horses is hurt by the run I give them, I’ll lick +you within an inch of your life—— Here +comes Dilly driving ’em in now—— I guess +they’re all right. I wouldn’t want to drive a +good team to death for any young hoodlum like +him—— All right, how much do I owe you. +Doc?”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XVI_THE_GLORIOUS_FOURTH' id='XVI_THE_GLORIOUS_FOURTH'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203' name='page_203'></a>203</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> +<h3>THE GLORIOUS FOURTH</h3> +</div> + +<p>A good deal of water ran under the +Woodruff District bridges in the weeks +between the school election and the Fourth +of July picnic at Eight-Mile Grove. They were +very important weeks to Jim Irwin, though +outwardly uneventful. Great events are often +mere imperceptible developments of the +spirit.</p> +<p>Spring, for instance, brought a sort of +spiritual crisis to Jim; for he had to face the +accusing glance of the fields as they were +plowed and sown while he lived indoors. As +he labored at the tasks of the Woodruff school +he was conscious of a feeling not very easily +distinguished from a sense of guilt. It seemed +that there must be something almost wicked +in his failure to be afield with his team in the +early spring mornings when the woolly anemones +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204' name='page_204'></a>204</span> +appeared in their fur coats, the heralds +of the later comers—violets, sweet-williams, +puccoons, and the scarlet prairie lilies.</p> +<p>A moral crisis accompanies the passing of +a man from the struggle with the soil to any +occupation, the productiveness of which is not +quite so clear. It requires a keenly sensitive +nature to feel conscious of it, but Jim Irwin +possessed such a temperament; and from the +beginning of the daily race with the seasons, +which makes the life of a northern farmer an +eight months’ Marathon in which to fall behind +for a week is to lose much of the year’s +reward, the gawky schoolmaster slept uneasily, +and heard the earliest cock-crow as a soldier +hears a call to arms to which he has made up +his mind he will not respond.</p> +<p>I think there is a real moral principle +involved. I believe that this deep instinct for +labor in and about the soil is a valid one, and +that the gathering together of people in cities +has been at the cost of an obscure but actual +moral shock.</p> +<p>I doubt if the people of the cities can ever +be at rest in a future full of moral searchings +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205' name='page_205'></a>205</span> +of conscience until every man has traced +definitely the connection of the work he is +doing with the maintenance of his country’s +population. Sometimes those vocations whose +connection can not be so traced will be recognized +as wicked ones, and people engaged in +them will feel as did Jim—until he worked out +the facts in the relation of school-teaching to +the feeding, clothing and sheltering of the +world. Most school-teaching he believed—correctly +or incorrectly—has very little to do with +the primary task of the human race; but as far +as his teaching was concerned, even he believed +in it. If by teaching school he could +not make a greater contribution to the productiveness +of the Woodruff District than by +working in the fields, he would go back to the +fields. Whether he could make his teaching +thus productive or not was the very fact in +issue between him and the local body politic.</p> +<p>These are some of the waters that ran under +the bridges before the Fourth of July picnic at +Eight-Mile Grove. Few surface indications +there were of any change in the little community +in this annual gathering of friends and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206' name='page_206'></a>206</span> +neighbors. Wilbur Smythe made the annual +address, and was in rather finer fettle than +usual as he paid his fervid tribute to the starry +flag, and to this very place as the most favored +spot in the best country of the greatest state +in the most powerful, intellectual, freest and +most progressive nation in the best possible +of worlds. Wilbur was going strong. Jim Irwin +read the Declaration rather well, Jennie Woodruff +thought, as she sat on the platform between +Deacon Avery, the oldest settler in the +district, and Mrs. Columbus Brown, the sole +local representative of the Daughters of the +American Revolution. Colonel Woodruff presided +in his Grand Army of the Republic +uniform.</p> +<p>The fresh northwest breeze made free with +the oaks, elms, hickories and box-elders of +Eight-Mile Grove, and the waters of Pickerel +Creek glimmered a hundred yards away, beyond +the flitting figures of the boys who preferred +to shoot off their own fire-crackers and torpedoes +and nigger-chasers, rather than to +listen to those of Wilbur Smythe. Still farther +off could be heard the voice of a lone lemonade +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207' name='page_207'></a>207</span> +vender as he advertised ice-cold lemonade, +made in the shade, with a brand-new spade, +by an old maid, as a guaranty that it was the +blamedest, coldest lemonade ever sold. And +under the shadiest trees a few incorrigible +Marthas were spreading the snowy tablecloths +on which would soon be placed the bountiful +repasts stored in ponderous wicker baskets +and hampers. It was a lovely day, in a +lovely spot—a good example of the miniature +forests which grew naturally from time immemorial +in favored locations on the Iowa +prairies—half a square mile of woodland, all +about which the green corn-rows stood aslant +in the cool breeze, “waist-high and laid by.”</p> +<p>They were passing down the rough board +steps from the platform after the exercises had +terminated in a rousing rendition of <i>America</i>, +when Jennie Woodruff, having slipped by +everybody else to reach him, tapped Jim Irwin +on the arm. He looked back at her over his +shoulder with his slow gentle smile.</p> +<p>“Isn’t your mother here, Jim?” she asked. +“I’ve been looking all over the crowd and can’t +see her.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208' name='page_208'></a>208</span></p> +<p>“She isn’t here,” answered Jim. “I was in +hopes that when she broke loose and went to +your Christmas dinner she would stay loose—but +she went home and settled back into her +rut.”</p> +<p>“Too bad,” said Jennie. “She’d have had a +nice time if she had come.”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Jim, “I believe she would.”</p> +<p>“I want help,” said Jennie. “Our hamper +is terribly heavy. Please!”</p> +<p>It was rather obvious to Mrs. Bonner that +Jennie was throwing herself at Jim’s head; but +that was an article of the Bonner family creed +since the decision which closed the hearing at +the court-house. It must be admitted that the +young county superintendent found tasks which +kept the schoolmaster very close to her side. He +carried the hamper, helped Jennie to spread the +cloth on the grass, went with her to the well +for water and cracked ice wherewith to cool it. +In fact, he quite cut Wilbur Smythe out when +that gentleman made ponderous efforts to obtain +a share of the favor implied in these permissions.</p> +<p>“Sit down, Jim,” said Mrs. Woodruff, “you’ve +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209' name='page_209'></a>209</span> +earned a bite of what we’ve got. It’s good +enough, what there is of it, and there’s enough +of it, such as it is!”</p> +<p>“I’m sorry,” said Jim, “but I’ve a prior engagement.”</p> +<p>“Why, Jim!” protested Jennie. “I’ve been +counting on you. Don’t desert me!”</p> +<p>“I’m awfully sorry,” said Jim, “but I promised. +I’ll see you later.”</p> +<p>One might have thought, judging by the +colonel’s quizzical smile, that he was pleased at +Jennie’s loss of her former swain.</p> +<p>“We’ll have to invite Jim longer ahead of +time,” said he. “He’s getting to be in demand.”</p> +<p>He seemed to be in demand—a fact that Jennie +confirmed by observation as she chatted +with Deacon Avery, Mrs. Columbus Brown and +her husband, and the Orator of the Day, at the +table set apart for the guests and notables. Jim +received a dozen invitations as he passed the +groups seated on the grass—one of them from +Mrs. Cornelius Bonner, who saw no particular +point in advertising disgruntlement. The children +ran to him and clung to his hands; young +girls gave him sisterly smiles and such trifles +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210' name='page_210'></a>210</span> +as chicken drumsticks, pieces of cake and like +tidbits. His passage to the numerous groups +at a square table under a big burr-oak was +quite an ovation—an ovation of the significance +of which he was himself quite unaware. +The people were just friendly, that was all—to +his mind.</p> +<p>But Jennie—the daughter of a politician and +a promising one herself—Jennie sensed the +fact that Jim Irwin had won something from +the people of the Woodruff District in the way +of deference. Still he was the gangling, Lincolnian, +ill-dressed, poverty-stricken Jim Irwin +of old, but Jennie had no longer the feeling +that one’s standing was somewhat compromised +by association with him. He had begun +to put on something more significant than +clothes, something which he had possessed all +the time, but which became valid only as it was +publicly apprehended. There was a slight air +of command in his down-sitting and up-rising +at the picnic. He was clearly the central figure +of his group, in which she recognized the +Bronsons, those queer children from Tennessee, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211' name='page_211'></a>211</span> +the Simmses, the Talcotts, the Hansens, +the Hamms and Colonel Woodruff’s hired man, +Pete, whose other name is not recorded.</p> +<p>Jim sat down between Bettina Hansen, a +flaxen-haired young Brunhilde of seventeen, +and Calista Simms—Jennie saw him do it, +while listening to Wilbur Smythe’s account of +the exacting nature of the big law practise he +was building up,—and would have been glad to +exchange places with Calista or Bettina.</p> +<p>The repast drew to a close; and over by the +burr-oak the crowd had grown to a circle surrounding +Jim Irwin.</p> +<p>“He seems to be making an address,” said +Wilbur Smythe.</p> +<p>“Well, Wilbur,” replied the colonel, “you had +the first shot at us. Suppose we move over +and see what’s under discussion.”</p> +<p>As they approached the group, they heard +Jim Irwin answering something which Ezra +Bronson had said.</p> +<p>“You think so, Ezra,” said he, “and it seems +reasonable that big creameries like those at +Omaha, Sioux City, Des Moines and the other +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212' name='page_212'></a>212</span> +centralizer points can make butter cheaper +than we would do here—but we’ve the figures +that show that they aren’t economical.”</p> +<p>“They can’t make good butter, for one +thing,” said Newton Bronson cockily.</p> +<p>“Why can’t they?” asked Olaf Hansen, the +father of Bettina.</p> +<p>“Well,” said Newton, “they have to have so +much cream that they’ve got to ship it so far +that it gets rotten on the way, and they have +to renovate it with lime and other ingredients +before they can churn it.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Raymond Simms, “I reckon they +sell their butter fo’ all it’s wuth; an’ they cain’t +get within from foah to seven cents a pound +as much fo’ it as the farmers’ creameries in +Wisconsin and Minnesota get fo’ theirs.”</p> +<p>“That’s a fact, Olaf,” said Jim.</p> +<p>“How do you kids know so darned much +about it?” queried Pete.</p> +<p>“Huh!” sniffed Bettina. “We’ve been reading +about it, and writing letters about it, and +figuring percentages on it in school all winter. +We’ve done arithmetic and geography and +grammar and I don’t know what else on it.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213' name='page_213'></a>213</span></p> +<p>“Well, I’m agin’ any schoolin’,” said Pete, +“that makes kids smarter in farmin’ than their +parents and their parents’ hired men. Gi’ me +another swig o’ that lemonade, Jim!”</p> +<p>“You see,” said Jim to his audience, meanwhile +pouring the lemonade, “the centralizer +creamery is uneconomic in several ways. It +has to pay excessive transportation charges. +It has to pay excessive commissions to its cream +buyers. It has to accept cream without proper +inspection, and mixes the good with the bad. +It makes such long shipments that the cream +spoils in transit and lowers the quality of the +butter. It can’t make the best use of the buttermilk. +All these losses and leaks the farmers +have to stand. I can prove—and so can +the six or eight pupils in the Woodruff school +who have been working on the cream question +this winter—that we could make at least six +cents a pound on our butter if we had a cooperative +creamery and all sent our cream +to it.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Ezra Bronson, “let’s start +one.”</p> +<p>“I’ll go in,” said Olaf Hansen. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214' name='page_214'></a>214</span></p> +<p>“Me, too,” said Con Bonner.</p> +<p>There was a general chorus of assent. Jim +had convinced his audience.</p> +<p>“He’s got the jury,” said Wilbur Smythe to +Colonel Woodruff.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said the colonel, “and right here is +where he runs into danger. Can he handle the +crowd when it’s with him?”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Jim, “I think we ought to organize +one, but I’ve another proposition first. +Let’s get together and pool our cream. By +that, I mean that we’ll all sell to the same +creamery, and get the best we can out of the +centralizers by the cooperative method. We +can save two cents a pound in that way, and +we’ll learn to cooperate. When we have found +just how well we can hang together, we’ll be +able to take up the cooperative creamery, with +less danger of falling apart and failing.”</p> +<p>“Who’ll handle the pool?” inquired Mr. +Hansen.</p> +<p>“We’ll handle it in the school,” answered +Jim.</p> +<p>“School’s about done,” objected Mr. Bronson.</p> +<p>“Won’t the cream pool pretty near pay the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215' name='page_215'></a>215</span> +expenses of running the school all summer?” +asked Bonner.</p> +<p>“We ought to run the school plant all the +time,” said Jim. “It’s the only way to get full +value out of the investment. And we’ve corn-club +work, pig-club work, poultry work and +canning-club work which make it very desirable +to keep in session with only a week’s vacation. +If you’ll add the cream pool, it will make +the school the hardest working crowd in the district +and doing actual farm work, too. I like +Mr. Bonner’s suggestion.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Haakon Peterson, who had +joined the group, “Ay tank we better have a +meeting of the board and discuss it.”</p> +<p>“Well, darn it,” said Columbus Brown, “I +want in on this cream pool—and I live outside +the district!”</p> +<p>“We’ll let you in, Clumb,” said the colonel.</p> +<p>“Sure!” said Pete. “We hain’t no more +sense than to let any one in, Clumb. Come in, +the water’s fine. We ain’t proud!”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Clumb, “if this feller is goin’ +to do school work of this kind, I want in the +district, too.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216' name='page_216'></a>216</span></p> +<p>“We’ll come to that one of these days,” said +Jim. “The district is too small.”</p> +<p>Wilbur Smythe’s car stopped at the distant +gate and honked for him—a signal which broke +up the party. Haakon Peterson passed the +word to the colonel and Mr. Bronson for a +board meeting the next evening. The picnic +broke up in a dispersion of staid married couples +to their homes, and young folks in top +buggies to dances and displays of fireworks in +the surrounding villages. Jim walked across +the fields to his home—neither old nor young, +having neither sweetheart with whom to dance +nor farm to demand labor in its inexorable +chores. He turned after crawling through a +wire fence and looked longingly at Jennie as +she was suavely assisted into the car by the +frock-coated lawyer.</p> +<p>“You saw what he did?” said the colonel interrogatively, +as he and his daughter sat on +the Woodruff veranda that evening. “Who +taught him the supreme wisdom of holding +back his troops when they grew too wild for +attack?”</p> +<p>“He may lose them,” said Jennie. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217' name='page_217'></a>217</span></p> +<p>“Not so,” said the colonel. “Individuals of +the Brown Mouse type always succeed when +they find their environment. And I believe +Jim has found his.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Jennie, “I wish his environment +would find him some clothes. It’s a +shame the way he has to go looking. He’d be +nice-appearing if he was dressed anyway.”</p> +<p>“Would he?” queried the colonel. “I wonder, +now! Well, Jennie, as his oldest friend having +any knowledge of clothes, I think it’s up +to you to act as a committee of one on Jim’s +apparel.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XVII_A_TROUBLE_SHOOTER' id='XVII_A_TROUBLE_SHOOTER'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218' name='page_218'></a>218</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> +<h3>A TROUBLE SHOOTER</h3> +</div> + +<p>A sudden July storm had drenched the +fields and filled the swales with water. +The cultivators left the corn-fields until the +next day’s sun and a night of seepage might +once more fit the black soil for tillage. The +little boys rolled up their trousers and tramped +home from school with the rich mud squeezing +up between their toes, thrilling with the electricity +of clean-washed nature, and the little +girls rather wished they could go barefooted, +too, as, indeed, some of the more sensible did.</p> +<p>A lithe young man with climbers on his legs +walked up a telephone pole by the roadside to +make some repairs to the wires, which had been +whipped into a “cross” by the wind of the storm +and the lashing of the limbs of the roadside +trees. He had tied his horse to a post up the +road, and was running out the trouble on the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219' name='page_219'></a>219</span> +line, which was plentifully in evidence just +then. Wind and lightning had played hob with +the system, and the line repairer was cheerfully +profane, in the manner of his sort, glad +by reason of the fire of summer in his veins, +and incensed at the forces of nature which had +brought him out through the mud to the Woodruff +District to do these piffling jobs that any +of the subscribers ought to have known how +to do themselves, and none of which took more +than a few minutes of his time when he reached +the seat of the difficulty.</p> +<p>Jim Irwin, his school out for the day, came +along the muddy road with two of his pupils, +a bare-legged little boy and a tall girl with +flaxen hair—Bettina Hansen and her small +brother Hans, who refused to answer to any +name other than Hans Nilsen. His father’s +name was Nils Hansen, and Hans, a born conservative, +being the son of Nils, regarded himself +as rightfully a Nilsen, and disliked the +“Hans Hansen” on the school register. Thus +do European customs sometimes survive among +us.</p> +<p>Hans strode through the pool of water which +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220' name='page_220'></a>220</span> +the shower had spread completely over the low +turnpike a few rods from the pole on which +the trouble shooter was at work, and the electrician +ceased his labors and rested himself on +a cross-arm while he waited to see what the +flaxen-haired girl would do when she came to it.</p> +<p>Jim and Bettina stopped at the water’s edge. +“Oh!” cried she, “I can’t get through!” The +trouble shooter felt the impulse to offer his +aid, but thought it best on the whole, to leave +the matter in the hands of the lank schoolmaster.</p> +<p>“I’ll carry you across,” said Jim.</p> +<p>“I’m too heavy,” answered Bettina.</p> +<p>“Nonsense!” said Jim.</p> +<p>“She’s awful heavy,” piped Hans. “Better +take off your shoes, anyhow!”</p> +<p>Jim thought of the welfare of his only good +trousers, and saw that Hans’ suggestion was +good; but a mental picture of himself with +shoes in hand and bare legs restrained him. +He took Bettina in his arms and went slowly +across, walking rather farther with his blushing +burden than was strictly necessary. Bettina +was undoubtedly heavy; but she was also +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221' name='page_221'></a>221</span> +wonderfully pleasant to feel in arms which had +never borne such a burden before; and her +arms about his neck as he slopped through the +pond were curiously thrilling. Her cheek +brushed his as he set her upon her feet and +felt, rather than thought, that if there had only +been a good reason for it, Bettina would have +willingly been carried much farther.</p> +<p>“How strong you are!” she panted. “I’m +awful heavy, ain’t I?”</p> +<p>“Not very,” said Jim, with scholastic accuracy. +“You’re just right. I—I mean, +you’re simply well-nourished and wholesomely +plump!”</p> +<p>Bettina blushed still more rosily.</p> +<p>“You’ve ruined your clothes,” said she. +“Now you’ll have to come home with me and +let me—see who’s there!”</p> +<p>Jim looked up at the trouble shooter, and +went over to the foot of the pole. The man +walked down, striking his spurs deep into the +wood for safety.</p> +<p>“Hello!” said he. “School out?”</p> +<p>“For the day,” said Jim. “Any important +work on the telephone line now?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222' name='page_222'></a>222</span></p> +<p>“Just trouble-shooting,” was the answer. “I +have to spend three hours hunting these troubles, +to one in fixing ’em up.”</p> +<p>“Do they take much technical skill?” asked +Jim.</p> +<p>“Mostly shakin’ out crosses, and puttin’ in +new carbons in the arresters,” replied the +trouble man. “Any one ought to do any of ’em +with five minutes’ instruction. But these +farmers—they’d rather have me drive ten +miles to take a hair-pin from across the binding-posts +than to do it themselves. That’s the +way they are!”</p> +<p>“Will you be out here to-morrow?” queried +the teacher.</p> +<p>“Sure!”</p> +<p>“I’d like to have you show my class in manual +training something about the telephone,” +said Jim. “The reason we can’t fix our own +troubles, if they are as simple as you say, is +because we don’t know how simple they are.”</p> +<p>“I’ll tell you what I’ll do, Professor,” said +the trouble man. “I’ll bring a phone with me +and give ’em a lecture. I don’t see how I can +employ the company’s time any better than in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223' name='page_223'></a>223</span> +beating a little telephone sense into the heads +of the community. Set the time, and I’ll be +there with bells.”</p> +<p>Bettina and her teacher walked on up the +shady lane, feeling that they had a secret. +They were very nearly on a parity as to the +innocence of soul with which they held this +secret, except that Bettina was much more +single-minded toward it than Jim. To her he +had been gradually attaining the status of a +hero whose clasp of her in that iron-armed way +was mysteriously blissful—and beyond that +her mind had not gone. To Jim, Bettina represented +in a very sweet way the disturbing influences +which had recently risen to the threshold +of consciousness in his being, and which +were concretely but not very hopefully embodied +in Jennie Woodruff.</p> +<p>Thus interested in each other, they turned +the corner which took them out of sight of the +lineman, and stopped at the shady avenue leading +up to Nils Hansen’s farmstead. Little +Hans Nilsen had disappeared by the simple +method of cutting across lots. Bettina’s girlish +instinct called for something more than the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224' name='page_224'></a>224</span> +casual good-by which would have sufficed yesterday. +She lingered, standing close by Jim +Irwin.</p> +<p>“Won’t you come in and let me clean the +mud off you,” she asked, “and give you some +dry socks?”</p> +<p>“Oh, no!” replied Jim. “It’s almost as far +to your house as it is home. Thank you, no.”</p> +<p>“There’s a splash of mud on your face,” said +Bettina. “Let me—” And with her little +handkerchief she began wiping off the mud. +Jim stooped to permit the attention, but not +much, for Bettina was of the mold of women +of whom warriors are born—their faces approached, +and Jim recognized a crisis in the +fact that Bettina’s mouth was presented for a +kiss. Jim met the occasion like the gentleman +he was. He did not leave her stung by rejection; +neither did he obey the impulse to respond +to the invitation according to his man’s instinct; +he took the rosy face between his palms +and kissed her forehead—and left her in possession +of her self-respect. After that Bettina +Hansen felt, somehow, that the world could +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225' name='page_225'></a>225</span> +not possibly contain another man like Jim Irwin—a +conviction which she still cherishes +when that respectful caress has been swept +into the cloudy distance of a woman’s memories.</p> +<p>Pete, Colonel Woodruff’s hired man, was +watering the horses at the trough when the +trouble shooter reached the Woodruff telephone. +County Superintendent Jennie had run +for her father’s home in her little motor-car +in the face of the shower, and was now on the +bench where once she had said “Humph!” to +Jim Irwin—and thereby started in motion the +factors in this story.</p> +<p>“Anything wrong with your phone?” asked +the trouble man of Pete.</p> +<p>“Nah,” replied Pete. “It was on the blink +till you done something down the road.”</p> +<p>“Crossed up,” said the lineman. “These +trees along here are something fierce.”</p> +<p>“I’d cut ’em all if they was mine,” said Pete, +“but the colonel set ’em out, along about sixty-six, +and I reckon they’ll have to go on +a-growin’.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226' name='page_226'></a>226</span></p> +<p>“Who’s your school-teacher?” asked the telephone +man.</p> +<p>The county superintendent pricked up her +ears—being quite properly interested in matters +educational.</p> +<p>“Feller name of Irwin,” said Pete.</p> +<p>“Not much of a looker,” said the trouble +shooter.</p> +<p>“Nater of the sile,” said Pete. “He an’ I +both worked in it together till it roughened up +our complexions.”</p> +<p>“Farmer, eh?” said the lineman interrogatively. +“Well, he’s the first farmer I ever saw +in my life that recognized there’s education in +the telephone business. I’m goin’ to teach +a class in telephony at the schoolhouse to-morrow.”</p> +<p>“Don’t get swelled up,” said Pete. “He has +everybody tell them young ones about everything—blacksmith, +cabinet-maker, pie-founder, +cookie-cooper, dressmaker—even down to telephones. +He’ll have them scholars figurin’ on +telephones, and writin’ compositions on ’em, +and learnin’ ’lectricity from ’em an’ things like +that” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227' name='page_227'></a>227</span></p> +<p>“He must be some feller,” said the lineman. +“And who’s his star pupil?”</p> +<p>“Didn’t know he had one,” said Pete. +“Why?”</p> +<p>“Girl,” said the trouble-shooter. “Goes to +school from the farm where the Western Union +brace is used at the road.”</p> +<p>“Nils Hansen’s girl?” asked Pete.</p> +<p>“Toppy little filly,” said the lineman, “with +silver mane—looks like she’d pull a good load +and step some.”</p> +<p>“M’h’m,” grunted Pete. “Bettina Hansen. +Looks well enough. What about her?”</p> +<p>Again the county superintendent, seated on +the bench, pricked up her ears that she might +learn, mayhap, something of educational interest.</p> +<p>“I never wanted to be a school-teacher as +bad,” continued the shooter of trouble, “as I +did when this farmer got to the low place in +the road with the fair Bettina this afternoon +when they was comin’ home from school. The +water was all over the road——”</p> +<p>“Then I win a smoke from the roadmaster,” +said Pete. “I bet him it would overflow.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228' name='page_228'></a>228</span></p> +<p>“Well, if I was in the professor’s place, I’d +be glad to pay the bet,” said the worldly lineman. +“And I’ll say this for him, he rose equal +to the emergency and caved the emergency’s +head in. He carried her across the pond, and +her a-clingin’ to his neck in a way to make +your mouth water. She wasn’t a bit mad about +it, either.”</p> +<p>“I’d rather have a good cigar any ol’ time,” +said Pete. “Nothin’ but a yaller-haired kid—an’ +a Dane at that. I had a dame once up +at Spirit Lake——”</p> +<p>“Well, I must be drivin’ on,” said the lineman. +“Got to get up a lecture for Professor +Irwin to-morrow—and maybe I’ll be able to +meet that yaller-haired kid. So long!”</p> +<p>The county superintendent recognized at +once the educational importance of the matter, +when one of her country teachers adopted the +policy of calling in everybody available who +could teach the pupils anything special, and +converting the school into a local Chautauqua +served by local lecturers. She made a run of ten +miles to hear the trouble shooter’s lecture. She +saw the boys and some of the girls give an explanation +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229' name='page_229'></a>229</span> +of the telephone and the use of it. +She heard the teacher give as a language exercise +the next day an essay on the ethics and +proprieties of eavesdropping on party lines; +and she saw the beginning of an arrangement +under which the boys of the Woodruff school +took the contract to look after easily-remedied +line troubles in the neighborhood on the basis +which paid for a telephone for the school, and +swelled slightly the fund which Jim was accumulating +for general purposes. Incidentally, +she saw how really educational was the work +of the day, and that to which it led.</p> +<p>She had no curiosity to which she would +have confessed, about the relations between +Jim Irwin and his “star pupil,” that young +Brunhilde—Bettina Hansen; but her official +duty required her to observe the attitude of +pupils to teachers—Bettina among them. +Clearly, Jim was looked upon by the girls, +large and small, as a possession of theirs. They +competed for the task of keeping his desk in +order, and of dusting and tidying up the schoolroom. +There was something of exaltation of +sentiment in this. Bettina’s eyes followed him +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230' name='page_230'></a>230</span> +about the room in a devotional sort of way; +but so, too, did those of the ten-year-olds. He +was loved, that was clear, by Bettina, Calista +Simms and all the rest—an excellent thing in +a school.</p> +<p>All the same, Jennie met Jim rather oftener +after the curious conversation between those +rather low fellows, Pete and the trouble +shooter. As autumn approached, and the time +came for Jim to begin to think of his trip to +Ames, Colonel Woodruff’s hint that she should +assume charge of the problem of Jim’s clothes +for the occasion, came more and more often to +her mind. Would Jim be able to buy suitable +clothes? Would he understand that he ought +not to appear in the costume which was tolerable +in the Woodruff District only because the +people there were accustomed to seeing him +dressed like a tramp? Could she approach the +subject with any degree of safety? Really +these were delicate questions; and considering +the fact that Jennie had quite dismissed her +old sweetheart from the list of eligibles—had +never actually admitted him to it, in fact—they +assumed great importance to her mind. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231' name='page_231'></a>231</span> +Once, only a little more than a year ago, she +had scoffed at Jim’s mention of the fact that +he might think of marrying; and now she could +not think of saying to him kindly, “Jim, you +really must have some better clothes to wear +when you go to Ames!” It would have been +far easier last summer.</p> +<p>Somehow, Jim had been acquiring dignity +and unapproachability. She must sidle up to +the subject. She did. She took him into her +runabout one day as he was striding toward +town in that plowed-ground manner of his, and +gave him a spin over to the fair grounds and +two or three times around the half-mile track.</p> +<p>“I’m going to Ames to hear your speech,” +said she.</p> +<p>“I’m glad of that,” said Jim. “More of the +farmers are going from this neighborhood than +ever before. I’ll feel at home, if they all sit +together where I can talk at them.”</p> +<p>“Who’s going?” asked Jennie.</p> +<p>“The Bronsons, Con Bonner and Nils Hansen +and Bettina,” replied Jim. “That’s all +from our district—and Columbus Brown and +probably others from near-by localities.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232' name='page_232'></a>232</span></p> +<p>“I shall have to have some clothes,” said +Jennie.</p> +<p>Jim failed to respond to this, as clearly out +of his field. They were passing the county fair +buildings, and he began expatiating on the +kind of county fair he would have—a great +county exposition with the schools as its central +thought—a clearing house for the rural +activities of all the country schools.</p> +<p>“And pa’s going to have a suit before we +go, too,” said Jennie. “Here are some samples +I got of Atkins, the tailor. Which would +be the most becoming do you think?”</p> +<p>Jim looked the samples over carefully, but +had little to say as to their adaptation to +Colonel Woodruff’s sartorial needs. Jennie +laid great stress on the excellent quality of one +or two samples, and carefully specified the +prices of them. Jim exhibited no more than +a languid and polite interest, and gave not the +slightest symptom of ever having considered +even remotely the contingency of having a +tailor-made suit. Jennie sidled closer to the +subject.</p> +<p>“I should think it would be awfully hard for +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233' name='page_233'></a>233</span> +you to get fitted in the stores,” said she, “you +are so very tall.”</p> +<p>“It would be,” said Jim, “if I had ever considered +the matter of looks very much. I guess +I’m not constructed on any plan the clothing +manufacturers have regarded as even remotely +possible. How about this county fair idea? +Couldn’t we do this next fall? You organize +the teachers——”</p> +<p>Jennie advanced the spark, cut out the muffler +and drowned the rest of Jim’s remarks in +wind and dust.</p> +<p>“I give it up, dad,” said she to her father +that evening.</p> +<p>“What?” queried the colonel.</p> +<p>“Jim Irwin’s clothes,” she replied. “I think +he’ll go to Ames in a disgraceful plight, but I +can’t get any closer to the subject than I have +done.”</p> +<p>“Oh, then you haven’t heard the news,” said +the colonel. “Jim’s going to have his first +made-to-measure suit for Ames. It’s all fixed.”</p> +<p>“Who’s making it?” asked Jennie.</p> +<p>“Gustaf Paulsen, the Dane that’s just opened +a shop in town.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_234' name='page_234'></a>234</span> +“A Dane?” queried Jennie. “Isn’t he related +to some of the neighbors?”</p> +<p>“A brother to Mrs. Hansen,” answered the +colonel.</p> +<p>“Bettina’s uncle!”</p> +<p>“Ratherly,” said the colonel jocularly, “seeing +as how Bettina’s Mrs. Hansen’s daughter.”</p> +<p>Clothes are rather important, but the difference +between a suit made by Atkins the +tailor, and one built by Gustaf Paulsen, the +new Danish craftsman, could not be supposed +to be crucially important, even when designed +for a very dear friend. And Jim was scarcely +that—of course not! Why, then, did the +county superintendent hastily run to her room, +and cry? Why did she say to herself that the +Hansens were very good people, and well-to-do, +and it would be a fine thing for Jim and his +mother,—and then cry some more? Colonel +failed to notice Jennie’s unceremonious retirement +from circulation that evening, and had he +known all about what took place, he would +have been as mystified as you or I.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XVIII_JIM_GOES_TO_AMES' id='XVIII_JIM_GOES_TO_AMES'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_235' name='page_235'></a>235</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +<h3>JIM GOES TO AMES</h3> +</div> + +<p>The boat tipped over, and Jim Irwin was +left struggling in the water. It was in the +rapids just above the cataract—and poor Jim +could not swim a stroke. Helpless, terrified, +gasping, he floated to destruction, and Jennie +Woodruff was not able to lift a hand to help +him. To see any human being swept to such +an end is dreadful, but for a county superintendent +to witness the drowning of one of her +best—though sometimes it must be confessed +most insubordinate—teachers, under such circumstances, +is unspeakable; and when that +teacher is a young man who was once that +county superintendent’s sweetheart, and falls +in, clothed in a new made-to-order suit in +which he looks almost handsome despite his +manifest discomfort in his new cravat and +starched collar, the experience is something almost +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_236' name='page_236'></a>236</span> +impossible to endure. That is why Jennie +gripped her seat until she must have +scratched the varnish. That is why she felt +she must go to him—and do something. She +could not endure it a moment longer, she felt; +and there he floated away, his poor pale face +dipping below the waves, his sad, long, homely +countenance sadder than ever, his lovely—yes, +she must confess it now, his eyes were lovely!—his +lovely blue eyes, so honest and true, wide +with terror; and she unable to give him so +much as a cry of encouragement!</p> +<p>And then Jim began to swim. He cast aside +the roll of manuscript which he had held in +his hand when the waters began to rise about +him, and struck out for the shore with strong +strokes—wild and agitated at first, but gradually +becoming controlled and coordinated, and +Jennie drew a long breath as he finally came +to shore, breasting the waves like Triton, and +master of the element in which he moved. +There was a burst of applause, and people went +forward to congratulate the greenhorn who +had really made good.</p> +<p>Jennie felt like throwing her arms about +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_237' name='page_237'></a>237</span> +his neck and weeping out her joy at his escape, +and his restoration to her. Her eyes told +him something of this; for there was a look +in them which reminded him of fifteen years +ago. Bettina Hansen was proud of him, and +Con Bonner shook his hand and said that he +agreed with him. Neither Bettina nor Con had +noticed the capsizing of the boat or saw the +form of Jim as it went drifting toward the +cataract. But Jim knew how near he had been +to disaster, and knew that Jennie knew. For +she had seen him turn pale when he came on +the platform to make his address at the farmers’ +meeting at Ames, had seen him begin the +speech he had committed to memory, had observed +how unable he was to remember it, had +noted his confusion as he tried to find his manuscript, +and then his place of beginning in it—and +when his confusion had seemingly quite +overcome him, had seen him begin talking to +his audience just as he had talked to the political +meeting that time when he had so deeply +offended her, and had observed how he won +first their respect, then their attention, then +apparently their convictions. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_238' name='page_238'></a>238</span></p> +<p>To Jennie’s agitated mind Jim had barely +escaped being drowned in the ocean of his own +unreadiness and confusion under trying conditions. +And she was right. Jim had never felt +more the upstart uneducated farm-hand than +when he was introduced to that audience by +Professor Withers, nor more completely disgraced +than when he concluded his remarks. +Even the applause was to him a kindly effort +on the part of the audience to comfort him in +his failure. His only solace was the look in +Jennie’s eyes.</p> +<p>“Young man,” said an old farmer who wore +thick glasses and looked like a Dutch burgomaster, +“I want to have a little talk with you.”</p> +<p>“This is Mr. Hofmyer of Pottawatomie County,” +said the dean of the college.</p> +<p>“I’m glad to meet you,” said Jim. “I can +talk to you now.”</p> +<p>“No,” said Jennie. “I know Mr. Hofmyer +will excuse you until after dinner. We have +a little party for Mr. Irwin, and we shall be +late if we don’t hurry.”</p> +<p>“Where can I see you after supper?” asked +Mr. Hofmyer. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239' name='page_239'></a>239</span></p> +<p>Easy it was to satisfy Mr. Hofmyer; and Jim +was carried off to a dinner given by County +Superintendent Jennie to Jim, the dean, Professor +Withers, and one or two others—and a wonderfully +select and distinguished company it +seemed to Jim. Jennie seized a moment’s opportunity +to say, “You did beautifully, Jim; +everybody says so.”</p> +<p>“I failed!” said. Jim. “You know I failed. +I couldn’t remember my speech. I can’t stay +here feasting. I want to get out in the snow.”</p> +<p>“You made the best address of the meeting; +and you did it because you forgot your speech,” +insisted Jennie.</p> +<p>“Does anybody else think so?”</p> +<p>“Why, Jim! You must learn to believe in +what you have done. Even Con Bonner says +it was the best. He says he didn’t think you +had it in ye!”</p> +<p>This advice from her to “believe in what you +have done,”—wasn’t there something new in +Jennie’s attitude here? Wasn’t his belief in +what he was doing precisely the thing which +had made him such a nuisance to the county +superintendent? However, Jim couldn’t stop +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240' name='page_240'></a>240</span> +to answer the question which popped up in his +mind.</p> +<p>“What does Professor Withers say?” he +asked.</p> +<p>“He’s delighted—silly!”</p> +<p>“Silly!” How wonderful it was to be called +“silly”—in that tone.</p> +<p>“I shouldn’t have forgotten the speech if it +hadn’t been for this darned boiled shirt and +collar, and for wearing a cravat,” urged Jim +in extenuation.</p> +<p>“You ought to ’ve worn them around the +house for a week before coming,” said Jennie. +“Why didn’t you ask my advice?”</p> +<p>“I will, next time, Jennie,” said Jim. “I +didn’t suppose I needed a bitting-rig—but I +guess I did!”</p> +<p>Jennie ran away then to ask Nils Hansen +and Bettina to join their dinner party. She +had a sudden access of friendliness for the +Hansens. Nils refused because he was going +out to see the college herds fed; but at Jennie’s +urgent request, reinforced by pats and hugs, +Bettina consented. Jennie was very happy, and +proved herself a beaming hostess. The dean +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_241' name='page_241'></a>241</span> +devoted himself to Bettina—and Jim found out +afterward that this inquiring gentleman was +getting at the mental processes of a specimen +pupil in one of the new kind of rural schools, +in which he was only half inclined to believe. +He thanked Jim for his speech, and said it was +“most suggestive and thought-provoking,” and +as the party broke up slipped into Jim’s hand +a check for the honorarium. It was not until +then that Jim felt quite sure that he was actually +to be paid for his speech; and he felt a +good deal like returning the check to the conscience +fund of the State of Iowa, if it by any +chance possessed such a fund. But the breach +made in his financial entrenchments by the expenses +of the trip and the respectable and well-fitting +suit of clothes overcame his feeling of +getting something for nothing. If he hadn’t +given the state anything, he had at least expended +something—a good deal in fact—on the +state’s account.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XIX_JIM_S_WORLD_WIDENS' id='XIX_JIM_S_WORLD_WIDENS'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242' name='page_242'></a>242</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> +<h3>JIM’S WORLD WIDENS</h3> +</div> + +<p>Mr. Hofmyer was waiting to give Jim +the final convincing proof that he had +produced an effect with his speech.</p> +<p>“Do you teach the kind of school you lay +out in your talk?” he asked.</p> +<p>“I try to,” said Jim, “and I believe I do.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Mr. Hofmyer, “that’s the kind +of education I b’lieve in. I kep’ school back +in Pennsylvany fifty years ago, and I made the +scholars measure things, and weigh things, and +apply their studies as fur as I could.”</p> +<p>“All good teachers have always done that,” +said Jim. “Froebel, Pestalozzi, Colonel Parker—they +all had the idea which is at the bottom +of my work; ‘learn to do by doing,’ and connecting +up the school with life.”</p> +<p>“M’h’m,” grunted Mr. Hofmyer, “I hain’t +been able to see how Latin connects up with a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243' name='page_243'></a>243</span> +high-school kid’s life—unless he can find a +Latin settlement som’eres and git a job clerkin’ +in a store.”</p> +<p>“But it used to relate to life,” said Jim, “the +life of the people who made Greek and Latin a +part of everybody else’s education as well as +their own. Latin and Greek were the only languages +in which anything worth much was +written, you know. But now”—Jim spread +out his arms as if to take in the whole world—“science, +the marvelous literature of our +tongue in the last three centuries! And to +make a child learn Latin with all that, a thousand +times richer than all the literature of +Latin, lying unused before him!”</p> +<p>“Know any Latin?” asked Mr. Hofmyer.</p> +<p>Jim blushed, as one caught in condemning +what he knows nothing about.</p> +<p>“I—I have studied the grammar, and read +<i>Cæsar</i>,” he faltered, “but that isn’t much. I +had no teacher, and I had to work pretty hard, +and it didn’t go very well.”</p> +<p>“I’ve had all the Latin they gave in the colleges +of my time,” said Mr. Hofmyer, “if I do +talk dialect; and I’ll agree with you so far as +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_244' name='page_244'></a>244</span> +to say that it would have been a crime for +me to neglect the chemistry, bacteriology, physics, +engineering and other sciences that pertain +to farmin’—if there’d been any such sciences +when I was gettin’ my schoolin’.”</p> +<p>“And yet,” said Jim, “some people want us +to guide ourselves by the courses of study made +before these sciences existed.”</p> +<p>“I don’t, by hokey!” said Mr. Hofmyer. “I’ll +be dag-goned if you ain’t right. I wouldn’t ’a’ +said so before I heard that speech—but I say +so now.”</p> +<p>Jim’s face lighted up at this, the first convincing +evidence that he had scored.</p> +<p>“I b’lieve, too,” went on Mr. Hofmyer, “that +your idee would please our folks. I’ve been the +stand-patter in our parts—mostly on English +and—say German. What d’ye say to comin’ +down and teachin’ our school? We’ve got a +two-room affair, and I was made a committee +of one to find a teacher.”</p> +<p>“I—I don’t see how—” Jim stammered, all +taken aback by this new breeze of recognition.</p> +<p>“We can’t pay much,” said Mr. Hofmyer. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_245' name='page_245'></a>245</span> +“You have charge of the dis-<i>cip</i>-line in the +whole school, and teach in Number Two room. +Seventy-five dollars a month. Does it appeal +to ye?”</p> +<p>Appeal to him! Why, eighteen months ago +it would have been worth crawling across the +state after, and now to have it offered to him—it +was stupendous. And yet, how about the +Simmses, Colonel Woodruff, the Hansens and +Newton Bronson, now just getting a firm start +on the upward path to usefulness and real happiness? +How could he leave the little, crude, +puny structure on which he had been working—on +which he had been merely practising—for +a year, and remove to the new field? Jim +was in exactly the same situation in which +every able young minister of the gospel finds +himself sooner or later. The Lord was calling +to a broader field—but how could he be sure +it was the Lord?</p> +<p>“I’m afraid I can’t,” said Jim Irwin, +“but——”</p> +<p>“If you’re only ’fraid you can’t,” said Mr. +Hofmyer, “think it over. I’ve got your post-office +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246' name='page_246'></a>246</span> +address on this program, and we’ll write +you a formal offer. We may spring them figures +a little. Think it over.”</p> +<p>“You mustn’t think,” said Jim, “that we’ve +<i>done</i> all the things I mentioned in my talk, or +that I haven’t made any mistakes or failures.”</p> +<p>“Your county superintendent didn’t mention +any failures,” said Mr. Hofmyer.</p> +<p>“Did you talk with her about my work?” inquired +Jim, suddenly very curious.</p> +<p>“M’h’m.”</p> +<p>“Then I don’t see why you want me,” Jim +went on.</p> +<p>“Why?” asked Mr. Hofmyer.</p> +<p>“I had not supposed,” said Jim, “that she +had a very high opinion of my work.”</p> +<p>“I didn’t ask her about that,” said Mr. Hofmyer, +“though I guess she thinks well of it. I +asked her what you are tryin’ to do, and what +sort of a fellow you are. I was favorably impressed; +but she didn’t mention any failures.”</p> +<p>“We haven’t succeeded in adopting a successful +system of selling our cream,” said Jim. +“I believe we can do it, but we haven’t.”</p> +<p>“Wal,” said Mr. Hofmyer, “I d’know as I’d +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_247' name='page_247'></a>247</span> +call that a failure. The fact that you’re tryin’ +of it shows you’ve got the right idees. We’ll +write ye, and mebbe pay your way down to +look us over. We’re a pretty good crowd, the +neighbors think.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XX_THINK_OF_IT' id='XX_THINK_OF_IT'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_248' name='page_248'></a>248</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2> +<h3>THINK OF IT</h3> +</div> + +<p>Ames was an inspiration. Jim Irwin received +from the great agricultural college +more real education in this one trip than many +students get from a four years’ course in its +halls; for he had spent ten years in getting +ready for the experience. The great farm of +hundreds of acres, all under the management +of experts, the beautiful campus, the commodious +classrooms and laboratories, and especially +the barns, the greenhouses, gardens, +herds and flocks filled him with a sort of apostolic +joy.</p> +<p>“Every school,” said he to Professor Withers, +“ought to be doing a good deal of the work +you have to do here.”</p> +<p>“I’ll admit,” said the professor, “that much +of our work in agriculture is pretty elementary.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_249' name='page_249'></a>249</span></p> +<p>“It’s intermediate school work,” said Jim. +“It’s a wrong to force boys and girls to leave +their homes and live in a college to get so much +of what they should have before they’re ten +years old.”</p> +<p>“There’s something in what you say,” said +the professor, “but some experiment station +men seem to think that agriculture in the common +schools will take from the young men and +women the felt need, and therefore the desire +to come to the college.”</p> +<p>“If you can’t give them anything better than +high-school work,” said Jim, “that will be so; +but if the science and art of agriculture is what +I think it is, it would make them hungry for the +advanced work that really can’t be done at +home. To make the children wait until they’re +twenty is to deny them more than half what +the college ought to give them—and make them +pay for what they don’t get.”</p> +<p>“I think you’re right,” said the professor.</p> +<p>“Give us the kind of schools I ask for,” cried +Jim, “and I’ll fill a college like this in every congressional +district in Iowa, or I’ll force you to +tear this down and build larger.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_250' name='page_250'></a>250</span></p> +<p>The professor laughed at his enthusiasm.</p> +<p>More nearly happy, and rather shorter of +money than he had recently been, Jim journeyed +home among the companions from his +own neighborhood, in a frenzy of plans for the +future. Mr. Hofmyer had dropped from his +mind, until Con Bonner, his old enemy, drew +him aside in the vestibule of the train and +spoke to him in the mysterious manner peculiar +to politicians.</p> +<p>“What kind of a proposition did that man +Hofmeister make you?” he inquired. “He +asked me about you, and I told him you’re a +crackerjack.”</p> +<p>“I’m much obliged,” replied Jim.</p> +<p>“No use in back-cappin’ a fellow that’s +tryin’ to make somethin’ of himself,” said Bonner. +“That ain’t good politics, nor good sense. +Anything to him?”</p> +<p>“He offered me a salary of seventy-five dollars +a month to take charge of his school,” said +Jim.</p> +<p>“Well,” said Con, “we’ll be sorry to lose yeh, +but you can’t turn down anything like that.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251' name='page_251'></a>251</span></p> +<p>“I don’t know,” said Jim. “I haven’t decided.”</p> +<p>Bonner scrutinized his face sharply, as if to +find out what sort of game he was playing.</p> +<p>“Well,” said he, at last, “I hope you can stay +with us, o’ course. I’m licked, and I never +squeal. If the rist of the district can stand +your kind of thricks, I can. And say, Jim”—here +he grew still more mysterious—“if you do +stay, some of us would like to have you be +enough of a Dimmycrat to go into the next con’vintion +f’r county superintendent.”</p> +<p>“Why,” replied Jim, “I never thought of +such a thing!”</p> +<p>“Well, think of it,” said Con. “The county’s +close, and wid a pop’lar young educator—an’ a +farmer, too, it might be done. Think of it.”</p> +<p>It must be confessed that Jim was almost +dazed at the number of “propositions” of which +he was now required to “think”—and that Bonner’s +did not at first impress him as having +anything back of it but blarney. He was to +find out later, however, that the wily Con had +made up his mind that the ambition of Jim +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_252' name='page_252'></a>252</span> +to serve the rural schools in a larger sphere +might be used for the purpose of bringing to +earth what he regarded as the soaring political +ambitions of the Woodruff family.</p> +<p>To defeat the colonel in the defeat of his +daughter when running for her traditionally-granted +second term; to get Jim Irwin out of +the Woodruff District by kicking him up-stairs +into a county office; to split the forces which +had defeated Mr. Bonner in his own school district; +and to do these things with the very instrument +used by the colonel on that sad but +glorious day of the last school election—these, +to Mr. Bonner, would be diabolically fine things +to do—things worthy of those Tammany politicians +who from afar off had won his admiration.</p> +<p>Jim had scarcely taken his seat in the car, +facing Jennie Woodruff and Bettina Hansen in +the Pullman, when Columbus Brown, pathmaster +of the road district and only across the +way from residence in the school district, came +down the aisle and called Jim to the smoking-room.</p> +<p>“Did an old fellow named Hoffman from Pottawatomie +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253' name='page_253'></a>253</span> +County ask you to leave us and take +his school?” he asked.</p> +<p>“Mr. Hofmyer,” said Jim, “—yes, he did.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Columbus, “I don’t want to ask +you to stand in your own light, but I hope you +won’t let him toll you off there among strangers. +We’re proud of you, Jim, and we don’t +want to lose you.”</p> +<p>Proud of him! Sweet music to the underling’s +ears! Jim blushed and stammered.</p> +<p>“The fact is,” said Columbus, “I know that +Woodruff District job hain’t big enough for +you any more; but we can make it bigger. If +you’ll stay, I believe we can pull off a deal to +consolidate some of them districts, and make +you boss of the whole shooting match.”</p> +<p>“I appreciate this, Clumb,” said Jim, “but I +don’t believe you can do it.”</p> +<p>“Well, think of it,” said Columbus. “And +don’t do anything till you talk with me and a +few of the rest of the boys.”</p> +<p>“Think of it” again!</p> +<p>A fine home-coming it was for Jim, with the +colonel waiting at the station with a double +sleigh, and the chance to ride into the snowy +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_254' name='page_254'></a>254</span> +country in the same seat with Jennie—a chance +which was blighted by the colonel’s placing of +Jennie, Bettina and Nils Hansen in the broad +rear seat, and Jim in front with himself. A +fine ride, just the same, over fine roads, and +past fine farmsteads snuggled into their rectangular +wrappages of trees set out in the old +pioneer days. The colonel would not allow him +to get out and walk when he could really have +reached home more quickly by doing so; no, he +set the Hansens down at their door, took Jennie +home, and then drove the lightened sleigh +merrily to the humble cabin of the rather excited +young schoolmaster.</p> +<p>“Did you make any deal with those people +down in the western part of the state?” asked +the colonel. “Jennie wrote me that you’ve got +an offer.”</p> +<p>“No,” said Jim, and he told the colonel about +the proposal of Mr. Hofmyer.</p> +<p>“Well,” said the colonel, “in my capacity of +wild-eyed reformer, I’ve made up my mind that +the first four miles in the trip is to make the +rural teacher’s job a bigger job. It’s got to +be a man’s size, woman’s size job, or we can’t +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_255' name='page_255'></a>255</span> +get real men and real women to stay in the +work.”</p> +<p>“I think that’s a statesmanlike formulation +of it,” said Jim.</p> +<p>“Well,” said the colonel, “don’t turn down +the Pottawatomie County job until we have a +chance to see what we can do. I’ll get some +kind of a meeting together, and what I want +you to do is to use this offer as a club over +this helpless school district. What we need is +to be held up. Do the Jesse James act, Jim!”</p> +<p>“I can’t, Colonel!”</p> +<p>“Yes, you can, too. Will you try it?”</p> +<p>“I want to treat everybody fairly,” said Jim, +“including Mr. Hofmyer. I don’t know what +to do, hardly.”</p> +<p>“Well, I’ll get the meeting together,” said +the colonel, “and in the meantime, think of +what I’ve said.”</p> +<p>Another thing to think of! Jim rushed into +the house and surprised his mother, who had +expected him to arrive after a slow walk from +town through the snow. Jim caught her in +his arms, from which she was released a moment +later, quite flustered and blushing. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_256' name='page_256'></a>256</span></p> +<p>“Why, James,” said she, “you seem excited. +What’s happened?”</p> +<p>“Nothing, mother,” he replied, “except that +I believe there’s just a possibility of my being a +success in the world!”</p> +<p>“My boy, my boy!” said she, laying her hand +on his arm, “if you were to die to-night, you’d +die the greatest success any boy ever was—if +your mother is any judge.”</p> +<p>Jim kissed her, and went up to his attic to +change his clothes. Inside the waistcoat was +a worn envelope, which he carefully opened, +and took from it a letter much creased from +many foldings. It was the old letter from Jennie, +written when the comical mistake had been +made of making him the teacher of the Woodruff +school. It still contained her rather fussy +cautions about being “too original,” and the +sage statement that “the wheel runs easiest in +the beaten track.” It was written before the +vexation and trouble he had caused her; but he +did not read the advice, nor think of the coolness +which had come between them—he read +only the sentence in which Jennie had told of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_257' name='page_257'></a>257</span> +her father’s interest in Jim’s success, ending +with the underscored words, “<i>I’m for you, too.</i>”</p> +<p>“I wonder,” said Jim, as he went out to do +the evening’s tasks, “I wonder if she <i>is</i> for +me!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XXI_A_SCHOOL_DISTRICT_HELD_UP' id='XXI_A_SCHOOL_DISTRICT_HELD_UP'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_258' name='page_258'></a>258</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2> +<h3>A SCHOOL DISTRICT HELD UP</h3> +</div> + +<p>Young McGeehee Simms was loitering +along the snowy way to the schoolhouse +bearing a brightly scoured tin pail two-thirds +full of water. He had been allowed to act as +Water Superintendent of the Woodruff School +as a reward of merit—said merit being an essay +on which he received credit in both language +and geography on “Harvesting Wheat in the +Tennessee Mountains.” This had been of vast +interest to the school in view of the fact that the +Simmses were the only pupils in the school +who had ever seen in use that supposedly-obsolete +harvesting implement, the cradle. +Buddy’s essay had been passed over to the class +in United States history as the evidence of an +eye-witness concerning farming conditions in +our grandfathers’ times. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259' name='page_259'></a>259</span></p> +<p>The surnameless Pete, Colonel Woodruff’s +hired man, halted Buddy at the door.</p> +<p>“Mr. Simms, I believe?” he said.</p> +<p>“I reckon you must be lookin’ for my +brother, Raymond, suh,” said Buddy.</p> +<p>“I am a-lookin’,” said Pete impressively, +“for Mr. McGeehee Simms.”</p> +<p>“That’s me,” said Buddy; “but I hain’t been +doin’ nothin’ wrong, suh!”</p> +<p>“I have a message here,” said Pete, “for Professor +James E. Irwin. He’s what-ho within, +there, ain’t he?”</p> +<p>“He’s inside, I reckon,” said Buddy.</p> +<p>“Then will you be so kind and condescendin’ +as to stoop so low as to jump so high as to +give him this letter?” asked Pete.</p> +<p>Buddy took the letter and was considering +of his reply to this remarkable speech, when +Pete, gravely saluting, passed on, rather congratulating +himself on having staged a very +good burlesque of the dignified manners of +those queer mountaineers, the Simmses.</p> +<div class='blockquot'> +<p>“Please come to the meeting to-night,” ran +the colonel’s note to Jim; “and when you come, +come prepared to hold the district up. If we +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_260' name='page_260'></a>260</span> +can’t meet the Pottawatomie County standard +of wages, we ought to lose you. Everybody in +the district will be there. Come late, so you +won’t hear yourself talked about—I should recommend +nine-thirty and war-paint.”</p> +</div> +<p>It was a crisis, no doubt of that; and the responsibility +of the situation rather sickened +Jim of the task of teaching. How could he +impose conditions on the whole school district? +How could the colonel expect such a thing of +him? And how could any one look for anything +but scorn for the upstart field-hand from +these men who had for so many years made +him the butt of their good-natured but none +the less contemptuous ridicule? Who was he, +anyway, to lay down rules for these substantial +and successful men—he who had been for +all the years of his life at their command, subservient +to their demands for labor—their underling? +Only one thing kept him from dodging +the whole issue and remaining at home—the +colonel’s matter-of-fact assumption that +Jim had become master of the situation. How +could he flee, when this old soldier was fighting +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261' name='page_261'></a>261</span> +so valiantly for him in the trenches? So Jim +went to the meeting.</p> +<p>The season was nearing spring, and it was +a mild thawy night. The windows of the +schoolhouse were filled with heads, evidencing +the presence of a crowd of almost unprecedented +size, and the sashes had been thrown +up for ventilation and coolness. As Jim +climbed the back fence of the school-yard, he +heard a burst of applause, from which he +judged that some speaker had just finished his +remarks. There was silence when he came +alongside the window at the right of the chairman’s +desk, a silence broken by the voice of +Old Man Simms, saying “Mistah Chairman!”</p> +<p>“The chair,” said the voice of Ezra Bronson, +“recognizes Mr. Simms.”</p> +<p>Jim halted in indecision. He was not expected +while the debate was in progress, and +therefore regarded himself at this time as +somewhat <i>de trop</i>. There is no rule of manners +or morals, however, forbidding eavesdropping +during the proceedings of a public meeting—and +anyhow, he felt rather shiveringly +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262' name='page_262'></a>262</span> +curious about these deliberations. Therefore +he listened to the first and last public speech +of Old Man Simms.</p> +<p>“Ah ain’t no speaker,” said Old Man Simms, +“but Ah cain’t set here and be quiet an’ go +home an’ face my ole woman an’ my boys an’ +gyuhls withouten sayin’ a word fo’ the best +friend any family evah had, Mr. Jim Irwin.” +(Applause.) “Ah owe it to him that Ah’ve +got the right to speak in this meetin’ at all. +Gentlemen, we-all owe everything to Mr. Jim +Irwin! Maybe Ah’ll be thought forrard to +speak hyah, bein’ as Ah ain’t no learnin’ an’ +some may think Ah don’t pay no taxes; but it +will be overlooked, I reckon, seein’ as how we’ve +took the Blanchard farm, a hundred an’ sixty +acres, for five yeahs, an’ move in a week from +Sat’day. We pay taxes in our rent, Ah reckon, +an’ howsomever that may be, Ah’ve come to +feel that you-all won’t think hard of me if Ah +speak what we-uns feel so strong about Mr. +Jim Irwin?”</p> +<p>Old Man Simms finished this exordium with +the rising inflection, which denoted a direct +question as to his status in the meeting. “Go +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263' name='page_263'></a>263</span> +on!” “You’ve got as good a right as any one!” +“You’re all right, old man!” Such exclamations +as these came to Jim’s ears with scarcely +less gratefulness than to those of Old Man +Simms—who stammered and went on.</p> +<p>“Ah thank you-all kindly. Gentlemen an’ +ladies, when Mr. Jim Irwin found us, we was +scandalous pore, an’ we was wuss’n pore—we +was low-down.” (Cries of “No—No!”) “Yes, +we was, becuz what’s respectable in the mountings +is one thing, whar all the folks is pore, +but when a man gets in a new place, he’s got +to lift himse’f up to what folks does where +he’s come to, or he’ll fall to the bottom of what +there is in that there community—an’ maybe +he’ll make a place fer himse’f lower’n anybody +else. In the mountings we was good people, +becuz we done the best we could an’ the best +any one done; but hyah, we was low-down +people becuz we hated the people that had mo’ +learnin’, mo’ land, mo’ money, an’ mo’ friends +than what we had. My little gyuhls wasn’t +respectable in their clothes. My childern was +igernant, an’ triflin’, but I was the most triflin’ +of all. Ah’ll leave it to Colonel Woodruff if I +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_264' name='page_264'></a>264</span> +was good fer a plug of terbacker, or a bakin’ of +flour at any sto’ in the county. Was I, Colonel? +Wasn’t I perfectly wuthless an’ triflin’?”</p> +<p>There was a ripple of laughter, in the midst +of which the colonel’s voice was heard saying, +“I guess you were, Mr. Simms, I guess you +were, but——”</p> +<p>“Thankee,” said Old Man Simms, as if the +colonel had given a really valuable testimonial +to his character. “I sho’ was! Thankee +kindly! An’now, what am I good fer? Cain’t +I get anything I want at the stores? Cain’t I +git a little money at the bank, if I got to +have it?”</p> +<p>“You’re just as good as any man in the district,” +said the colonel. “You don’t ask for +more than you can pay, and you can get all +you ask.”</p> +<p>“Thankee,” said Mr. Simms gravely. “What +Ah tell you-all is right, ladies and gentlemen. +An’ what has made the change in we-uns, ladies +and gentlemen? It’s the wuk of Mr. Jim +Irwin with my boy Raymond, the best boy any +man evah hed, and my gyuhl, Calista, an’ +Buddy, an’ Jinnie, an’ with me an’ my ole +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265' name='page_265'></a>265</span> +woman. He showed us how to get a toe-holt +into this new kentry. He teached the children +what orto be did by a rentin’ farmer in Ioway. +He done lifted us up, an’ made people of us. +He done showed us that you-all is good people, +an’ not what we thought you was. Outen what +he learned in school, my boy Raymond an’ me +made as good crops as we could last summer, +an’ done right much wuk outside. We got the +name of bein’ good farmers an’ good wukkers, +an’ when Mr. Blanchard moved to town, he said +he was glad to give us his fine farm for five +years. Now, see what Mr. Jim Irwin has done +for a pack o’ outlaws and outcasts. Instid o’ +hidin’ out from the Hobdays that was lay-wayin’ +us in the mountings, we’ll be livin’ in a +house with two chimleys an’ a swimmin’ tub +made outen crock’ryware. We’ll be in debt a +whole lot—an’ we owe it to Mr. Jim Irwin that +we got the credit to git in debt with, an’ the +courage to go on and git out agin!” (Applause.) +“Ah could affo’d to pay Mr. Jim Irwin’s +salary mysr’f, if Ah could. An’ there’s +enough men hyah to-night that say they’ve been +money-he’ped by his teachin’ the school to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_266' name='page_266'></a>266</span> +make up mo’ than his wages. Let’s not let Mr. +Jim Irwin go, neighbors! Let’s not let him +go!”</p> +<p>Jim’s heart sank. Surely the case was desperate +which could call forth such a forlorn-hope +charge as that of Old Man Simms—a performance +on Mr. Simms’ part which warmed +Jim’s soul. “There isn’t a man in that meeting,” +said he to himself, as he walked to the +schoolhouse door, “possessed of the greatness +of spirit of Old Man Simms. If he’s a fair +sample of the people of the mountains, they are +of the stuff of which great nations are made—if +they only are given a chance!”</p> +<p>Colonel Woodruff was on his feet as Jim +made his way through the crowd about the +door.</p> +<p>“Mr. Irwin is here, ladies and gentlemen,” +said he, “and I move that we hear from him as +to what we can do to meet the offer of our +friends in Pottawatomie County, who have +heard of his good work, and want him to work +for them; but before I yield the floor, I want +to say that this meeting has been worth while +just to have been the occasion of our all becoming +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267' name='page_267'></a>267</span> +better acquainted with our friend and +neighbor, Mr. Simms. Whatever may have +been the lack of understanding, on our part, +of his qualities, they were all cleared up by +that speech of his—the best I have ever heard +in this neighborhood.”</p> +<p>More applause, in the midst of which Old +Man Simms slunk away down in his seat to escape +observation. Then the chairman said that +if there was no objection they would hear from +their well-known citizen, whose growing fame +was more remarkable for the fact that it had +been gained as a country schoolmaster—he need +not add that he referred to Mr. James E. Irwin. +More and louder applause.</p> +<p>“Friends and neighbors,” said Jim, “you ask +me to say to you what I want you to do. I +want you to do what you want to do—nothing +more nor less. Last year I was glad to be tolerated +here; and the only change in the situation +lies in the fact that I have another place +offered me—unless there has been a change in +your feelings toward me and my work. I hope +there has been; for I know my work is good +now, whereas I only believed it then.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_268' name='page_268'></a>268</span></p> +<p>“Sure it is!” shouted Con Bonner from a +front seat, thus signalizing that astute wire-puller’s +definite choice of a place in the bandwagon. +“Tell us what you want, Jim!”</p> +<p>“What do I want?” asked Jim. “More than +anything else, I want such meetings as this—often—and +a place to hold them. If I stay in +the Woodruff District, I want this meeting to +effect a permanent organization to work with +me. I can’t teach this district anything. Nobody +can teach any one anything. All any +teacher can do is to direct people’s activities +in teaching themselves. You are gathered here +to decide what you’ll do about the small matter +of keeping me at work as your hired man. You +can’t make any legal decision here, but whatever +this meeting decides will be law, just the +same, because a majority of the people of the +district are here. Such a meeting as this can +decide almost anything. If I’m to be your +hired man, I want a boss in the shape of a +civic organization which will take in every man +and woman in the district. Here’s the place +and now’s the time to make that organization—an +organization the object of which shall be +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_269' name='page_269'></a>269</span> +to put the whole district at school, and to boss +me in my work for the whole district.”</p> +<p>“Dat sounds good,” cried Haakon Peterson. +“Ve’ll do dat!”</p> +<p>“Then I want you to work out a building +scheme for the school,” Jim went on. “We +want a place where the girls can learn to cook, +keep house, take care of babies, sew and learn +to be wives and mothers. We want a place in +which Mrs. Hansen can come to show them how +to cure meat—she’s the best hand at that in +the county—where Mrs. Bonner can teach them +to make bread and pastry—she ought to be +given a doctor’s degree for that—where Mrs. +Woodruff can teach them the cooking of turkeys, +Mrs. Peterson the way to give the family +a balanced ration, and Mrs. Simms induct them +into the mysteries of weaving rag rugs and +making jellies and preserves—you can all learn +these things from her. There’s somebody right +in this neighborhood able to teach anything the +young people want to learn.</p> +<p>“And I want a physician here once in a +while to examine the children as to their health, +and a dentist to look after their teeth and teach +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_270' name='page_270'></a>270</span> +them how to care for them. Also an oculist to +examine their eyes. And when Bettina Hansen +comes home from the hospital a trained +nurse, I want her to have a job as visiting nurse +right here in the Woodruff District.</p> +<p>“I want a counting-room for the keeping of +the farm accounts and the record of our observation +in farming. I want cooperation in +letting us have these accounts.</p> +<p>“I want some manual training equipment for +wood-working and metal working, and a blacksmith +and wagon shop, in which the boys may +learn to shoe horses, repair tools, design buildings, +and practise the best agricultural engineering. +So I want a blacksmith and handyman +with tools regularly on the job—and he’ll +more than pay his way. I want some land for +actual farming. I want to do work in poultry +according to the most modern breeding discoveries, +and I want your cooperation in that, +and a poultry plant somewhere in the district.</p> +<p>“I want a laboratory in which we can work +on seeds, pests, soils, feeds and the like. For +the education of your children must come out +of these things. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_271' name='page_271'></a>271</span></p> +<p>“I want these things because they are necessary +if we are to get the culture out of life we +should get—and nobody gets culture out of any +sort of school—they get it out of life, or they +don’t get it at all.</p> +<p>“So I want you to build as freely for your +school as for your cattle and horses and hogs.</p> +<p>“The school I ask for will make each of you +more money than the taxes it will require +would make if invested in your farm equipment. +If you are not convinced of this, don’t +bother with me any longer. But the money +the school will make for you—this new kind +of rural school—will be as nothing to the social +life which will grow up—a social life +which will make necessary an assembly-room, +which will be the social center, because it will +be the educational center, and the business center +of the countryside.</p> +<p>“I want all these things, and more. But I +don’t expect them all at once. I know that +this district is too small to do all of them, and +therefore, I am going to tell you of another +want which will tempt you to think that I am +crazy. I want a bigger district—one that will +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_272' name='page_272'></a>272</span> +give us the financial strength to carry out the +program I have sketched. This may be a presumptuous +thing for me to propose; but the +whole situation here to-night is presumptuous +on my part, I fear. If you think so, let me +go; but if you don’t, please keep this meeting +together in a permanent organization of grown-up +members of the Woodruff school, and by +pulling together, you can do these things—all +of them—and many more—and you’ll make the +Woodruff District a good place to live in and +die in—and I shall be proud to live and die +in it at your service, as the neighborhood’s hired +man!”</p> +<p>As Jim sat down there was a hush in the +crowded room, as if the people were dazed at +his assurance. There was no applause, until +Jennie Woodruff, now seen by Jim for the first +time over next the blackboard, clapped her +gloved hands together and started it; then it +swept out through the windows in a storm. The +dust rose from stamping feet until the kerosene +lamps were dimmed by it. And as the +noise subsided, Jim saw standing out in front +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_273' name='page_273'></a>273</span> +the stooped form of B. B. Hamm, one of the +most prosperous men in the district.</p> +<p>“Mr. Chairman—Ezra Bronson,” he roared, +“this feller’s crazy, an’ from the sound of +things, you’re all as crazy as he is. If this fool +scheme of his goes through, my farm’s for sale! +I’ll quit before I’m sold out for taxes!”</p> +<p>“Just a minute, B. B.!” interposed Colonel +Woodruff. “This ain’t as dangerous as you +think. You don’t want us to do all this in fifteen +minutes, do you, Jim?”</p> +<p>“Oh, as to that,” replied Jim, “I just wanted +you to have in your minds what I have in my +mind—and unless we can agree to work toward +these things there’s no use in my staying. But +time—that’s another matter. Believe with me, +and I’ll work with you.”</p> +<p>“Get out of here!” said the colonel to Jim +in an undertone, “and leave the rest to your +friends.”</p> +<p>Jim walked out of the room and took the way +toward his home. A horse tied to the hitching-pole +had his blanket under foot, and Jim +replaced it on his back, patting him kindly and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_274' name='page_274'></a>274</span> +talking horse language to him. Then he went +up and down the line of teams, readjusting +blankets, tying loosened knots, and assuring +himself that his neighbors’ horses were securely +tied and comfortable. He knew horses +better than he knew people, he thought. If he +could manage people as he could manage horses—but +that would be wrong. The horse did his +work as a servant, submissive to the wills of +others; the community could never develop anything +worth while in its common life, until it +worked the system out for itself. Horse management +was despotism; man-government must +be like the government of a society of wild +horses, the result of the common work of the +members of the herd.</p> +<p>Two figures emerged from the schoolhouse +door, and as he turned toward his home after +his pastoral calls on the horses, they overtook +him. They were the figures of Newton Bronson +and the county superintendent of schools.</p> +<p>“We were coming after you,” said Jennie.</p> +<p>“Dad wants you back there again,” said +Newton.</p> +<p>“What for?” inquired Jim. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_275' name='page_275'></a>275</span></p> +<p>“You silly boy,” said Jennie, “you talked +about the good of the schools all of the time, +and never said a word about your own salary! +What do you want? They want to know?”</p> +<p>“Oh!” exclaimed Jim in the manner of one +who suddenly remembers that he has forgotten +his umbrella or his pocket-knife. “I forgot all +about it. I haven’t thought about that at all, +Jennie!”</p> +<p>“Jim,” said she, “you need a guardian!”</p> +<p>“I know it, Jennie,” said he, “and I know +who I want. I want——”</p> +<p>“Please come back,” said Jennie, “and tell +papa how much you’re going to hold the district +up for.”</p> +<p>“You run back,” said Jim to Newton, “and +tell your father that whatever is right in the +way of salary will be satisfactory to me. I +leave that to the people.”</p> +<p>Newton darted off, leaving the schoolmaster +standing in the road with the county superintendent.</p> +<p>“I can’t go back there!” said Jim.</p> +<p>“I’m proud of you, Jim,” said Jennie. “This +community has found its master. They can’t +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_276' name='page_276'></a>276</span> +do all you ask now, nor very soon; but finally +they’ll do just as you want them to do. And, +Jim, I want to say that I’ve been the biggest +little fool in the county!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XXII_AN_EMBASSY_FROM_DIXIE' id='XXII_AN_EMBASSY_FROM_DIXIE'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_277' name='page_277'></a>277</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2> +<h3>AN EMBASSY FROM DIXIE</h3> +</div> + +<p>Superintendent Jennie sat at her +desk in no very satisfactory frame of mind. +In the first place court was to convene on the +following Monday, and both grand jury and +petit juries would be in session, so that her +one-room office was not to be hers for a few +days. Her desk was even now ready to be +moved into the hall by the janitor. To Wilbur +Smythe, who did her the honor of calling occasionally +as the exigencies of his law practise +took him past the office of the pretty country +girl on whose shapely shoulders rested the burden +of the welfare of the schools, she remarked +that if they didn’t soon build the new court-house +so as to give her such accommodations +as her office really needed, “they might take +their old office—so there!”</p> +<p>“Fair woman,” said Wilbur, as he creased +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_278' name='page_278'></a>278</span> +his Prince Albert in a parting bow, “should +adorn the home!”</p> +<p>“Bosh!” sneered Jennie, rather pleased, all +the same, “suppose she isn’t fair, and hasn’t +any home!”</p> +<p>This question of adorning a home was no +nearer settlement with Jennie than it had ever +been, though increasingly a matter of speculation.</p> +<p>There were two or three men—rather good +catches, too—who, if they were encouraged—but +what was there to any of them? Take Wilbur +Smythe, now; he would by sheer force of +persistent assurance and fair abilities eventually +get a good practise for a country lawyer—three +or four thousand a year—serve in the +legislature or the state senate, and finally become +a bank director with a goodly standing +as a safe business man; but what was there +to him? This is what Jennie asked her paper-weight +as she placed it on a pile of unfinished +examination papers. And the paper-weight +echoed, “Not a thing out of the ordinary!” And +then, said Jennie, “Well, you little simpleton, +who and what are <i>you</i> so out of the ordinary +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_279' name='page_279'></a>279</span> +that you should sneer at Wilbur Smythe and +Beckman Fifield and such men?” And echo +answered, “What?”—and then the mail-carrier +came in.</p> +<p>Down near the bottom of the pile she found +this letter, signed by a southern state superintendent +of schools, but dated at Kirksville, +Missouri:</p> +<div class='blockquot'> +<p>“I am a member of a party of southern educators—state +superintendents in the main,” the +letter ran, “<i>en tour</i> of the country to see what +we can find of an instructive nature in rural +school work. I assure you that we are being +richly repaid for the time and expense. There +are things going on in the schools here in northeastern +Missouri, for instance, which merit +much study. We have met Professor Withers, +of Ames, who suggests that we visit your +schools, and especially the rural school taught +by a young man named Irwin, and I wonder if +you will be free on next Monday morning, if +we come to your office, to direct us to the +place? If you could accompany us on the trip, +and perhaps show us some of your other excellent +schools, we should be honored and +pleased. The South is recreating her rural +schools, and we are coming to believe that we +shall be better workmen if we create a new +kind rather than an improvement of the old +kind.”</p> +</div> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_280' name='page_280'></a>280</span></div> +<p>There was more of this courteous and deferential +letter, all giving Jennie a sense of being +saluted by a fine gentleman in satin and ruffles, +and with a plume on his hat. And then came +the shock—a party of state officials were coming +into the county to study Jim Irwin’s school! +They would never come to study Wilbur +Smythe’s law practise—never in the world—or +her work as county superintendent—never!—and +Jim was getting seventy-five dollars a +month, and had a mother to support. Moreover, +he was getting more than he had asked +when the colonel had told him to “hold the district +up!” But there could be no doubt that +there was something <i>to</i> Jim—the man was out +of the ordinary. And wasn’t that just what +she had been looking for in her mind?</p> +<p>Jennie wired to her southerner for the number +of his party, and secured automobiles for +the trip. She sent a note to Jim Irwin telling +of the prospective visitation. She would show +all concerned that she could do some things, +anyhow, and she would send these people on +with a good impression of her county.</p> +<p>She was glad of the automobiles the next +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_281' name='page_281'></a>281</span> +Monday morning, when at nine-thirty the train +discharged upon her a dozen very alert, very +up-to-date, very inquisitive southerners, male +and female, most of whom seemed to have left +their “r’s” in the gulf region. It was eleven +when the party parked their machines before +the schoolhouse door.</p> +<p>“There are visitors here before us,” said +Jennie.</p> +<p>“Seems rather like an educational shrine,” +said Doctor Brathwayt, of Mississippi. “How +does he accommodate so many visitors in that +small edifice?”</p> +<p>“I am not aware,” said Jennie, “that he has +been in the habit of receiving so very many +from outside the district. Well, shall we +go in?”</p> +<p>Once inside, Jennie felt a queer return of +her old aversion to Jim’s methods—the aversion +which had caused her to criticize him so +sharply on the occasion of her first visit. The +reason for the return of the feeling lay in the +fact that the work going on was of the same +sort, but of a more intense character. It was +so utterly unlike a school as Jennie understood +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_282' name='page_282'></a>282</span> +the word, that she glanced back at the group +of educators with a little blush. The school +was in a sort of uproar. Not that uproar of +boredom and mischief of which most of us have +familiar memories, but a sort of eager uproar, +in which every child was intensely interested +in the same thing; and did little rustling things +because of this interest; something like the +hum at a football game or a dog-fight.</p> +<p>On one side of the desk stood Jim Irwin, and +facing him was a smooth stranger of the old-fashioned +lightning-rod-agent type—the shallower +and laxer sort of salesman of the kind +whose sole business is to get signatures on the +dotted line, and let some one else do the rest. +In short, he was a “closer.”</p> +<p>Standing back of him in evident distress was +Mr. Cornelius Bonner, and grouped about were +Columbus Brown, B. B. Hamm, Ezra Bronson, +A. B. Talcott and two or three others from +outside the Woodruff District. With envelopes +in their hands and the light of battle in their +eyes stood Newton Bronson, Raymond Simms, +Bettina Hansen, Mary Smith and Angie Talcott, +the boys filled with delight, the girls rather +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_283' name='page_283'></a>283</span> +frightened at being engaged in something like +a debate with the salesman.</p> +<p>As the latest-coming visitors moved forward, +they heard the schoolmaster finishing his passage +at arms with the salesman.</p> +<p>“You should not feel exasperated at us, Mr. +Carmichael,” said he in tones of the most complete +respect, “for what our figures show. You +are unfortunate in the business proposition you +offer this community. That is all. Even these +children have the facts to prove that the +creamery outfit you offer is not worth within +two thousand dollars of what you ask for it, +and that it is very doubtful if it is the sort +of outfit we should need.”</p> +<p>“I’ll bet you a thousand dollars—” began +Carmichael hotly, when Jim waved him down.</p> +<p>“Not with me,” said Jim. “Your friend, Mr. +Bonner, there, knows what chance there is for +you to bet even a thousand cents with me. Besides, +we know our facts, in this school. We’ve +been working on them for a long time.”</p> +<p>“Bet your life we have!” interpolated Newton +Bronson.</p> +<p>“Before we finish,” said Jim, “I want to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_284' name='page_284'></a>284</span> +thank you gentlemen for bringing in Mr. Carmichael. +We have been reading up on the literature +of the creamery promoter, and it is a +very fine thing to have one in the flesh with +whom to—to—demonstrate, if Mr. Carmichael +will allow me to say so.”</p> +<p>Carmichael looked at Bonner, made an expressive +motion with his head toward the door, +and turned as if to leave.</p> +<p>“Well,” said he, “I can do plenty of business +with <i>men</i>. If you <i>men</i> want to make the +deal I offer you, and I can show you from the +statistics I’ve got at the hotel that it’s a special +deal just to get started in this part of the +state, and carries a thousand dollars of cut in +price to you. Let’s leave these children and +this he school-ma’am and get something done.”</p> +<p>“I can’t allow you to depart,” said Jim more +gently than before, “without thanking you for +the very excellent talk you gave us on the advantage +of the cooperative creamery over the +centralizer. We in this school believe in the +cooperative creamery, and if we can get rid +of you, Mr. Carmichael, without buying your +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_285' name='page_285'></a>285</span> +equipment, I think your work here may be productive +of good.”</p> +<p>“He’s off three or four points on the average +overrun in the Wisconsin co-ops,” said Newton.</p> +<p>“And we thought,” said Mary Smith, “that +we’d need more cows than he said to keep up +a creamery of our own.”</p> +<p>“Oh,” replied Jim, “but we mustn’t expect +Mr. Carmichael to know the subject as well as +we do, children. He makes a practise of talking +mostly to people who know nothing about +it—and he talks very well. All in favor of +thanking Mr. Carmichael please say ‘Aye.’”</p> +<p>There was a rousing chorus of “Aye!” in +which Mr. Carmichael, followed closely by Mr. +Bonner, made his exit. B. B. Hamm went forward +and shook Jim’s hand slowly and contemplatively, +as if trying to remember just +what he should say.</p> +<p>“James E. Irwin,” said he, “you’ve saved us +from being skinned by the smoothest grafter +that I ever seen.”</p> +<p>“Not I,” said Jim; “the kind of school I +stand for, Mr. Hamm, will save you more than +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_286' name='page_286'></a>286</span> +that—and give you the broadest culture any +school ever gave. A culture based on life. +We’ve been studying life, in this school—the +life we all live here in this district.”</p> +<p>“He had a smooth partner, too,” said Columbus +Brown. Jim looked at Bonner’s little +boy in one of the front seats and shook his +head at Columbus warningly.</p> +<p>“If I hadn’t herded ’em in here to ask you +a few questions about cooperative creameries,” +said Mr. Talcott, “we’d have been stuck—they +pretty near had our names. And then the +whole neighborhood would have been sucked in +for about fifty dollars a name.”</p> +<p>“I’d have gone in for two hundred,” said +B. B. Hamm.</p> +<p>“May I call a little meeting here for a minute, +Jim?” asked Ezra Bronson. “Why, where’s +he gone?”</p> +<p>“They’s some other visitors come in,” said a +little girl, pulling her apron in embarrassment +at the teacher’s absence.</p> +<p>Jim had, after what seemed to Jennie an +interminable while, seen the county superintendent +and her distinguished party, and was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_287' name='page_287'></a>287</span> +now engaged in welcoming them and endeavoring +to find them seats,—quite an impossible +thing at that particular moment, by the way.</p> +<p>“Don’t mind us, Mr. Irwin,” said Doctor +Brathwayt. “This is the best thing we’ve seen +on our journeyings. Please go on with the +proceedin’s. That gentleman seems to have in +mind the perfectin’ of some so’t of organization. +I’m intensely interested.”</p> +<p>“I’d like to call a little meetin’ here,” said +Ezra to the teacher. “Seein’ we’ve busted up +your program so far, may we take a little while +longer?”</p> +<p>“Certainly,” said Jim. “The school will +please come to order.”</p> +<p>The pupils took their seats, straightened +their books and papers, and were at attention. +Doctor Brathwayt nodded approvingly as if at +the answer to some question in his mind.</p> +<p>“Children,” said Mr. Irwin, “you may or may +not be interested in what these gentlemen are +about to do—but I hope you are. Those who +wish may be members of Mr. Bronson’s meeting. +Those who do not prefer to do so may +take up their regular work.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_288' name='page_288'></a>288</span></p> +<p>“Gentlemen,” said Mr. Bronson to the remains +of Mr. Carmichael’s creamery party, +“we’ve been cutting bait in this neighborhood +about long enough. I’m in favor of fishing, +now. It would have been the biggest disgrace +ever put on this district to have been swindled +by that sharper, when the man that could have +set us right on the subject was right here working +for us, and we never let him have a chance. +And yet that’s what we pretty near did. How +many here favor building a cooperative creamery +if we can get the farmers in with cows +enough to make it profitable, and the equipment +at the right price?”</p> +<p>Each man held up a hand.</p> +<p>“Here’s one of our best farmers not voting,” +said Mr. Bronson, indicating Raymond Simms. +“How about you, Raymond?”</p> +<p>“Ah reckon paw’ll come in,” said Raymond +blushingly.</p> +<p>“He will if you say so,” said Mr. Bronson.</p> +<p>Raymond’s hand went up amid a ripple of +applause from the pupils, who seemed glad to +have a voter in their ranks.</p> +<p>“Unanimous!” said Mr. Bronson. “It is a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_289' name='page_289'></a>289</span> +vote! Now I’d like to hear a motion to perfect +a permanent organization to build a creamery.”</p> +<p>“I think we ought to have a secretary first,” +said Mr. Talcott, “and I nominate Mr. James +E. Irwin for the post.”</p> +<p>“Quite correct,” said Mr. Bronson, “thankee, +A. B. I was about to forgit the secretary. Any +other nominations? No ’bjections, Mr. Irwin +will be declared unanimously elected. Mr. Irwin’s +elected. Mr. Irwin, will you please assume +the duties?”</p> +<p>Jim sat down at the desk and began making +notes.</p> +<p>“I think we ought to call this the Anti-Carmichael +Protective Association,” said Columbus +Brown, but Mr. Bronson interrupted him, +rather frowningly.</p> +<p>“All in good time, Clumb,” said he, “but this +is serious work.” So admonished, the meeting +appointed committees, fixed upon a time for a +future meeting, threw a collection of half-dollars +on the desk to start a petty cash fund, +made the usual joke about putting the secretary +under bond, adjourned and dispersed. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_290' name='page_290'></a>290</span></p> +<p>“It’s a go this time!” said Newton to Jim.</p> +<p>“I think so,” said Jim, “with those men interested. +Well, our study of creameries has +given a great deal of language work, a good +deal of arithmetic, some geography, and finally +saved the people from a swindle. Rather good +work, Raymond!”</p> +<p>“My mother has a delayed luncheon ready +for the party,” said Jennie to Jim. “Please +come with us—please!”</p> +<p>But Jim demurred. Getting off at this time +of day was really out of the question if he was +to be ready to show the real work of the school +in the afternoon session.</p> +<p>“This has been rather extraordinary,” said +Jim, “but I am very glad you were here. It +shows the utility of the right sort of work in +letter-writing, language, geography and arithmetic—in +learning things about farming.”</p> +<p>“It certainly does,” said Doctor Brathwayt. +“I wouldn’t have missed it under any consideration; +but I’m certainly sorry for that +creamery shark and his accomplice—to be +routed by the Fifth Reader grade in farming!”</p> +<p>The luncheon was rather a wonderful +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_291' name='page_291'></a>291</span> +affair—and its success was unqualified after everybody +discovered that the majority of those in +attendance felt much more at home when calling +it dinner. Colonel Woodruff had fought +against the regiment of the father of Professor +Gray, of Georgia, in at least one engagement, +and tentative plans were laid for the +meeting of the two old veterans “some winter +in the future.”</p> +<p>“What d’ye think of our school?” asked the +colonel.</p> +<p>“Well,” said Professor Gray, “it’s not fair to +judge, Colonel, on what must have been rather +an extraordinary moment in the school’s history. +I take it that you don’t put on a representation +of ‘The Knave Unmasked’ every +morning.”</p> +<p>“It was more like a caucus than I’ve ever +seen it, daddy,” said Jennie, “and less like a +school.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you think,” said Doctor Brathwayt, +“that it was less like a school because it was +more like life? It <i>was</i> life. If I am not mistaken, +history for this community was making +in that schoolroom as we entered.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_292' name='page_292'></a>292</span></p> +<p>“You’re perfectly right, Doctor,” said the +colonel. “Columbus Brown and about a dozen +others living outside the district are calling +Wilbur Smythe in counsel to perfect plans for +an election to consolidate a few of these little +independent districts, for the express purpose +of giving Jim Irwin a plant that he can do +something with. Jim’s got too big for the district, +and so we’re going to enlarge the district, +and the schoolhouse, and the teaching force, +and the means of educational grace generally. +That’s as sure as can be—after what took place +this morning.”</p> +<p>“He’s rather a wonderful person, to be found +in such a position,” said Professor Gray, “or +would be in any region I have visited.”</p> +<p>“He’s a native product,” said the colonel, +“but a wonder all the same. He’s a Brown +Mouse, you know.”</p> +<p>“A—a—?” Doctor Brathwayt was plainly +astonished. And so the colonel was allowed to +tell again the story of the Darbishire brown +mice, and why he called Jim Irwin one. Doctor +Brathwayt said it was an interesting Mendelian +explanation of the appearance of such +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_293' name='page_293'></a>293</span> +a character as Jim. “And if you are right, +Colonel, you’ll lose him one of these days. You +can’t expect to retain a Cæsar, a Napoleon, or +a Lincoln in a rural school, can you?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know about that,” said the colonel. +“The great opportunity for such a Brown +Mouse may be in this very school, right now. +He’d have as big an army right here as Socrates +ever had. The Brown Mouse is the only +judge of his own proper place.”</p> +<p>“I think,” said Mrs. Brathwayt, as they motored +back to the school, “that your country +schoolmaster is rather terrible. The way he +crushed that Mr. Carmichael was positively +merciless. Did he know how cruel he was?”</p> +<p>“I think not,” said Jennie. “It was the truth +that crushed Mr. Carmichael.”</p> +<p>“But that vote of thanks,” said Mrs. Brathwayt. +“Surely that was the bitterest irony.”</p> +<p>“I wonder if it was,” said Jennie. “No, I +am sure it wasn’t. He wanted to leave the children +thinking as well as possible of their victim, +and especially of Mr. Bonner; and there +was really something in Mr. Carmichael’s talk +which could be praised. I have known Jim Irwin +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_294' name='page_294'></a>294</span> +since we were both children, and I feel +sure that if he had had any idea that his treatment +of this man had been unnecessarily cruel, +it would have given him a lot of pain.”</p> +<p>“My dear,” said Mrs. Brathwayt, “I think +you are to be congratulated for having known +for a long time a genius.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” said Jennie. And Mrs. Brathwayt +gave her a glance which brought to her +cheek another blush; but of a different sort +from the one provoked by the uproar in the +Woodruff school.</p> +<p>There could be no doubt now that Jim was +thoroughly wonderful—nor that she, the county +superintendent, was quite as thoroughly a little +fool. She to be put in authority over him! +It was too absurd for laughter. Fortunately, +she hadn’t hindered him much—but who was +to be thanked for that? Was it owing to any +wisdom of hers? Well, she had decided in his +favor, in those first proceedings to revoke his +certificate. Perhaps that was as good a thing +to remember as was to be found in the record.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<a name='XXIII_AND_SO_THEY_LIVED' id='XXIII_AND_SO_THEY_LIVED'></a> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_295' name='page_295'></a>295</span> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> +<h3>AND SO THEY LIVED——</h3> +</div> + +<p>And so it turned out quite as if it were in +the old ballad, that “all in the merry +month of May,” and also “all in the merry green +wood,” there were great doings about the bold +little promontory where once stood the cabin +on the old wood-lot where the Simms family +had dwelt. The brook ran about the promontory, +and laid at its feet on three sides a carpet +of blue-grass, amid clumps of trees and +wild bushes. Not far afield on either hand +came the black corn-land, but up and down the +bluffy sides of the brook for some distance on +both sides of the King-dragged highway, ran +the old wood-lot, now regaining much of the +unkempt appearance which characterized it +when Jim Irwin had drawn upon himself the +gentle rebuke of Old Man Simms for not giving +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_296' name='page_296'></a>296</span> +a whoop from the big road before coming +into the yard.</p> +<p>But Old Man Simms was gone, with all the +Simmses, now thoroughly established on the +Blanchard farm, and quite happy in their new +success. The cabin was gone, and in its place +stood a pretty little bungalow, about which +blossomed the lilacs and peonies and roses and +other old-fashioned flowers, planted there long +ago by some pioneer woman, nourished back to +thriftiness by old Mrs. Simms, and carefully +preserved during the struggles with the builders +of the bungalow by Mrs. Irwin. For this +was Mrs. Irwin’s new home. It was, in point +of fact, the teacher’s house or schoolmanse for +the new consolidated Woodruff District, and +the old Simms wood-lot was the glebe-land of +the schoolmanse.</p> +<p>Jim turned over and over in his mind these +new applications of old, historic, significant +words, dear to every reader of history—“glebe-land,” +“schoolmanse”—and it seemed to him +that they signified the return of many old +things lost in Merrie England, lost in New England, +lost all over the English-speaking world, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_297' name='page_297'></a>297</span> +when the old publicly-paid clergyman ceased +to be so far the servant of all the people that +they refused to be taxed for his support. Was +not the new kind of rural teacher to be a publicly-paid +leader of thought, of culture, of progress, +and was he not to have his manse, his +glebe-land, and his “living”? And all because, +like the old clergymen, he was doing a work +in which everybody was interested and for +which they were willing to be taxed. Perhaps +it was not so high a status as the old; but who +was to say that? Certainly not Jim Irwin, the +possessor of the new kind of “living,” with its +“glebe-land” and its “schoolmanse.” He would +have rated the new quite as high as the old.</p> +<p>From the brow of the promontory, a light +concrete bridge took the pretty little gorge in +the leap of a single arch, and landed the eye +at the bottom of the front yard of the schoolhouse. +Thus the new institution of life was +in full view of the schoolmanse veranda, and +yet shut off from it by the dry moat of the +brook and its tiny meadow of blue-grass.</p> +<p>Across the road was the creamery, with its +businesslike unloading platform, and its addition +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_298' name='page_298'></a>298</span> +in process of construction for the reception +of the machinery for the cooperative +laundry. Not far from the creamery, and also +across the road, stood the blacksmith and +wheelwright shop. Still farther down the +stream were the barn, poultry house, pens, +hutches and yards of the little farm—small, +economically made, and unpretentious, as were +all the buildings save the schoolhouse itself, +which was builded for the future.</p> +<p>And even the schoolhouse, when one thinks +of the uses to which it was to be put—kitchen, +nursery, kindergarten, banquet-hall, theater, +moving-picture hall, classrooms, manual training +rooms, laboratory and counting-room and +what-not, was wonderfully small—Colonel +Woodruff said far too small—though it was +necessarily so large as to be rather astonishing +to the unexpectant passer-by.</p> +<p>The unexpectant passer-by this May day, +however, would have been especially struck by +the number of motor-cars, buggies and surreys +parked in the yard back of the creamery, along +the roadside, and by the driveway running to +the schoolhouse. People in numbers had arrived +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_299' name='page_299'></a>299</span> +by five o’clock in the afternoon, and were +still coming. They strolled about the place, +examining the buildings and grounds, and talking +with the blacksmith and the butter-maker, +gradually drawing into the schoolhouse like a +swarm of bees into a hive selected by the +queen. None of them, however, went across +the concrete bridge to the schoolmanse, save +Mrs. Simms, who crossed, consulted with Mrs. +Irwin about the shrubbery and flowers, and +went back to Buddie and Jinnie, who were good +children but natchally couldn’t be trusted with +so many other young ones withouten some +watchin’.</p> +<p>“They’re coming! They’re coming!”</p> +<p>This was the cry borne to the people in and +about the schoolhouse by that Hans Hansen +who would be called Hans Nilsen. Hans had +been to the top of the little hill and had a look +toward town. Like a crew manning the rigging, +or a crowd having its picture taken, the +assemblage crystallized into forms determined +by the chances of getting a glimpse of the bungalow +across the ravine—on posts, fences, +trees and hillocks. Still nobody went across +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_300' name='page_300'></a>300</span> +the bridge, and when McGeehee Simms and +Johnny Bonner strayed to the bridge-head, +Mrs. Simms called them back by a minatory, +“Buddy, what did I <i>tell</i> you? You come hyah!”</p> +<p>A motor-car came over the hillock, ran down +the road to the driveway to the schoolmanse +and drew up at the door. Out of it stepped +Mrs. Woodruff and the colonel, their daughter, +the county superintendent of schools, and Mr. +Jim Irwin. Jennie was dressed in a very well-tailored +traveling costume, and Jim in a moderately +well-tailored business suit. Mrs. Irwin +kissed her son and Jennie, and led the way into +the house. Jennie and Jim followed—and +when they went in, the crowd over across the +ravine burst forth into a tremendous cheer, +followed by a three-times-three and a tiger. +The unexpectant passer-by would have been +rather surprised at this, but we who are acquainted +with the parties must all begin to +have our suspicions. The fact that when they +reached the threshold Jim picked Jennie up in +his arms and carried her in, will enable any +good detective to put one and one together and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_301' name='page_301'></a>301</span> +make a pair—which comes pretty near telling +the whole story.</p> +<p>By this time it was nearly seven, and Calista +Simms came across the charmed bridge as a +despatch-bearer, saying that if Mr. Jim and +Miss Jennie didn’t mind, dinner would be +suhved right soon. It was cooked about right, +and the folks was gettin’ right hungry—an’ +such a crowd! There were fifteen in the +babies’ room, and for a while they thought the +youngest Hamm young one had swallowed a +marble. She would tell ’em they would be right +over; good-by.</p> +<p>There was another cheer as the three elderly +and the two young people emerged from the +schoolmanse and took their way over the +bridge to the school side of the velvet-bottomed +moat; but it did not terminate in three-times-three +and a tiger. It was, in fact shut off like +the vibration of a bell dipped in water by the +sudden rush of the shouters into the big assembly-room, +now filled with tables for the banquet—and +here the domestic economy classes, +with their mothers, sisters, female cousins and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_302' name='page_302'></a>302</span> +aunts, met them, as waiters, hat-snatchers, +hostesses, floor-managers and cooks, scoring +the greatest triumph of history in the Woodruff +District. For everything went off like +clockwork, especially the victuals—and such +victuals!</p> +<p>There was quantity in meats, breads, vegetables—and +there was also savor. There was +plenty, and there was style. Ask Mrs. Haakon +Peterson, who yearned for culture, and had +been afraid her children wouldn’t get it if Yim +Irwin taught them nothing but farming. She +will tell you that the dinner—which so many +thought of all the time as supper—was yust +as well served as it if had been in the Chamberlain +Hotel in Des Moines, where she had +stayed when she went with Haakon to the +state convention.</p> +<p>Why shouldn’t it have been even better +served? It was planned, cooked, served and +eaten by people of intelligence and brains, in +their own house, as a community affair, and +in a community where, if any one should ask +you, you are authorized to state that there’s as +much wealth to the acre as in any strictly farming +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_303' name='page_303'></a>303</span> +spot between the two oceans, and where +you are perfectly safe—financially—in dropping +from a balloon in the dark of the moon, +and paying a hundred and fifty dollars an acre +for any farm you happen to land on. Why +shouldn’t things have been well done, when +every one worked, not for money, but for the +love of the doing, and the love of learning to +do in the best way?</p> +<p>Some of these things came out in the +speeches following the repast—and some other +things, too. It was probably not quite fair for +B. B. Hamm to incorporate in his wishes for +the welfare and prosperity and so forth of Jim +and Jennie that stale one about the troubles +of life, but he wanted to see Jennie blush—which +as a matter of fact he did; but she +failed to grow quite so fiery red as did Jim. +But B. B. was a good fellow, and a Trojan in +his work for the cause, and the schoolmaster +and superintendent of schools forgave him. A +remark may be a little broad, and still clean, +and B. B. made a clean speech mainly devoted +to the increased value of that farm he at one +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_304' name='page_304'></a>304</span> +memorable time was going to sell before Jim’s +fool notions could be carried out.</p> +<p>Colonel Woodruff made most of the above +points which I have niched from him. He had +begun as a reformer late in life, he said, but +he would leave it to them if he hadn’t worked +at the trade steadily after enlistment. He had +become a follower of Jim Irwin, because Jim’s +reform was like dragging the road in front of +your own farm—it was reform right at home, +and not at the county seat, or Des Moines, or +Washington. He had followed Jim Irwin as he +had followed Lincoln, and Grant, and Blaine, +and McKinley—because Jim Irwin stood for +more upward growth for the average American +citizen than the colonel could see any prospect +of getting from any other choice. And +he was proud to live in a country like this, +saved and promoted by the great men he had +followed, and in a neighborhood served and +promoted, if not quite saved, by Jim Irwin. +And he was not so sure about its not being +saved. Every man and nation had to be saved +anew every so often, and the colonel believed +that Jim Irwin’s new kind of rural school is +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_305' name='page_305'></a>305</span> +just as necessary to the salvation of this country +as Lincoln’s new kind of recognition of +human rights was half a century ago. “I am +about to close my speech,” said the colonel, +“and the small service I have been able to give +to this nation. I went through the war, neighbors—and +am proud of it; but I’ve done more +good in the peaceful service of the last three +years than I did in four of fighting and campaigning. +That’s the way I feel about what +we’ve done in Consolidated District Number +One.” (Vociferous and long-continued applause.)</p> +<p>“Oh, Colonel!” The voice of Angie Talcott +rose from away back near the kitchen. “Can +Jennie keep on bein’ county superintendent, +now she’s married?”</p> +<p>A great guffaw of laughter reduced poor +Angie to tears; and Jennie had to go over and +comfort her. It was all right for her to ask +that, and they ought not to laugh at Angie, so +there! Now, you’re all right, and let’s talk +about the new schoolhouse, and so forth. Jennie +brought the smiles back to Angle’s face, +just in time to hear Jim tell the people amid +louder cheers that he had been asked to go into +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_306' name='page_306'></a>306</span> +the rural-school extension work in two states, +and had been offered a fine salary in either +place, but that he wasn’t even considering these +offers. And about that time, the children began +to get sleepy and cross and naughty, and +the women set in motion the agencies which +moved the crowd homeward.</p> +<hr class='tb' /> + +<p>Before a bright wood fire—which they really +didn’t need, but how else was Jim’s mother to +show off the little fireplace?—sat Jim and Jennie. +They had been together for a week now—this +being their home-coming—and had only +begun to get really happy.</p> +<p>“Isn’t it fine to have the fireplace?” said +Jennie.</p> +<p>“Yes, but we can’t really afford to burn a fire +in it—in Iowa,” said Jim. “Fuel’s too everlastingly +scarce. If we use it much, the fagots +and deadwood on our ‘glebe-land’ won’t last +long.”</p> +<p>“If you should take that Oklahoma position,” +said Jennie, “we could afford to have open wood +fires all the time.”</p> +<p>“It’s warmer in Oklahoma,” said Jim, “and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_307' name='page_307'></a>307</span> +wood’s more plentiful. Yes”—contemplatively—“we +could, dear.”</p> +<p>“It would be nice, wouldn’t it?” said Jennie.</p> +<p>“All right,” said Jim briskly, “get me my +writing materials, and we’ll accept. It’s still +open.”</p> +<p>Jennie sat looking into the fire oblivious of +the suggestion. She was smiling. Jim moved +uneasily, and rose.</p> +<p>“Well,” he said, “I believe I can better guess +where mother would put those writing materials +than you could, after all. I’ll hunt them +up.”</p> +<p>As he passed, Jennie took him by the hand +and pulled him down on the arm of her chair.</p> +<p>“Jim,” she said, “don’t be mean to me! You +know you wouldn’t do such a wicked, wicked +thing at this time as to leave the people here.”</p> +<p>“All right,” said Jim, “whatever you say is +the law.”</p> +<p>When Jennie spoke again things had taken +place which caused her voice to emanate from +Jim’s shirt-front.</p> +<p>“Did you hear,” said she, “what Angie Talcott +asked?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_308' name='page_308'></a>308</span></p> +<p>“M’h’m,” said Jim.</p> +<p>“Well,” said Jennie, “now that I’m married +can I go on being county superintendent?”</p> +<p>There was a long silence.</p> +<p>“Would you like to?” asked Jim.</p> +<p>“Kind of,” said Jennie; “if I knew enough +about things to do anything worth while; but +I’m afraid that by rising to my full height I +shall always just fail to be able to see over +anything.”</p> +<p>“You’ve done more for the schools of the +county,” said Jim, “in the last year than any +other county superintendent has ever done.”</p> +<p>“And we shall need the money so like—so +like the dickens,” said Jennie.</p> +<p>“Oh, not so badly,” laughed Jim, “except for +the first year. I’ll have this little farm paying +as much as some quarter-sections when we get +squared about. Why, we can make a living on +this school farm, Jennie,—or I’m not fit to be +the head of the school.”</p> +<p>There was another silence, during which +Jennie took down her hair, and wound it +around Jim’s neck. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_309' name='page_309'></a>309</span></p> +<p>“It will settle itself soon one of these days +anyhow,” said he at last. “There’s enough to +do for both of us right here.”</p> +<p>“But they won’t pay me,” she protested.</p> +<p>“They don’t pay the ministers’ wives,” said +Jim, “and yet, the ministers with the right sort +of wives are always the best paid. I guess +you’ll be in the bill, Jennie.”</p> +<p>Jim walked to the open window and looked +out over the still landscape. The untidy grounds +appealed to him—there would be lessons in +their improvement for both the children and +the older people. It was all good. Down in +the little meadow grew the dreaming trees, +their round crowns rising as from a sea not +quite to the level of the bungalow, their thrifty +leaves glistening in the moonlight. Across +the pretty bridge lay the silent little campus +with its twentieth-century temple facing its +chief priest. It was all good, without and +within. He went across the hall to bid his +mother good night. She clung to him convulsively, +and they had their own five minutes +which arranged matters for these two silent +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_310' name='page_310'></a>310</span> +natures on the new basis forever. Jennie was +in white before the mantel when he returned, +smiling at the inscription thereon.</p> +<p>“Why didn’t you put it in Latin?” she inquired. +“It would have had so much more distinction.”</p> +<p>“I wanted it to have meaning instead,” said +Jim. “And besides, nobody who was at hand +was quite sure how to turn the Latin phrase. +Are you?”</p> +<p>Jennie leaned forward with her elbows on +her knees, and studied it.</p> +<p>“I believe I could,” said she, “without any +pony. But after all, I like it better as it is. +I like everything, Jim—everything!”</p> +<p>“LET US CEASE THINKING SO MUCH +OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION, AND +DEVOTE OURSELVES TO EDUCATIONAL +AGRICULTURE. SO WILL THE NATION +BE MADE STRONG.”</p> +<div class='ce'> +<p style=' margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:3em;'>THE END</p> +</div> + +<!-- generated by ppgen.rb version: 2.31 --> +<!-- timestamp: Tue Oct 21 06:26:58 -0400 2008 --> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Brown Mouse, by Herbert Quick + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BROWN MOUSE *** + +***** This file should be named 26987-h.htm or 26987-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/9/8/26987/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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