Show cao berhe int 0 00 fill 4 SYNOPSIS CHAPTER I 1 jennie woodruff contemptuously refuses to marry jim irwin young farm hand because of hl hla financial condition and poor prospects he H Is intellectually above big hi station and has advanced ideas concerning the f possibilities of 0 export expert school teaching for or which ho he Is in ridiculed by many CHAPTER II 11 more as a joke than otherwise jim to Is selected as teacher of the 11 0 woodruff district school CHAPTER jim in his hl no new w position 0 st 1 sets out to make stanch fifo friends n ids of his pupils especially two boys newton bronson and buddy simme the latter lia ater the son of a shiftless farmer colonel colon woodruff jennies jennie father has att little falth faith in jims ideas of improving rural educational methods method he nickname him the brown mouse la in illustration of an anecdote CHAPTER rv alma conduct of the school where he endeavors to teach the children the wonders of nature and some of the scientific methods of fa farming in a well an a book learning Is if condemned enned CHAPTER V jennie woodruff is I 1 no minted tor for tho the position of county superintendent ri dent of schools the school board grows bitter in its opposition to jim and his innovations CHAPTER viat VI at a public meeting meeting jim roundly condemns the methods ot or teaching in the rural schools and makes no friends thereby CHAPTER VII vila A ie 0 n 0 of prominent women condemn jim Ms methods do of teaching but he Is I 1 stoutly defended by his hi pupils especially newton bronson CHAPTER VIII I jim has ha christmas dinner at colonel woodruff and listening to him jennie begins bag lna to do some thinking concerning ht his ability and his hi prospects CHAPTER IX in the evening jim as will well as he knows know how courts court jennie without how however lever making much progress tr pro ogress gres though she h Is quickly losing her er poor opinion of him CHAPTER X jennie elected county superintendent of schools receives so many complaints from people of the district concerning jims jima methods method of teaching that she h finds herself compelled oiled formally to ask for his hi resignation rin after she has left jim is I 1 visited by colonel woodruff who strongly urges urge him to refuse to resign and offers to back him jim agrees to tick stick tor for a while at least CHAPTER XIA meeting of the school chool board which had bad been gathered to got get jim Is confronted by jennie jenni 0 who upholds him he conducts an examination arni nation of his pupils at the tha meet dinv inv to prove that he Is not neglecting their book learning arnina iii by the introduce tion of other subjects which he con aders of importance the splendid i snowing bowl a g made by the children converts many who had doubted to his him views CHAPTER XII tho the novel ideas which jim has introduced have been i talked about outside the county and he Is vie tied by protestor professor withers ex tension lecturer at the state university vere who invites him to deliver an address ild resi at the next annual meeting of the farmers farmer institute CHAPTER XIII professor withers Is impressed by many of the sinnova itono made b by irwin and so informs colonel W woodruff 0 and jennie somewhat to the astonishment of both the colonel suggests ests to jim that his he the colonel sek election to the school board replacing cornelius bonner implacable enemy of jim irwin I 1 CHAPTER XIV feigning elcane M newton ewton bronson youngster youn giter whom ir win has ha redeemed from idleness and tuy and set met on the ri right ht path and gath who almost worships the teacher or keeps bis big father from voting at the school board election bronson Is 19 a friend of bonner and would have voted tor for him As al it Is colonel woodruff 1 Is 8 chosen for this the position owing to Bron 13 ron sons mons absence CHAPTER XV X jim clr convinces convince a the farmers of the district of the a advantages to be derived from a operative cooperative co tri creamery amory and it Is im agreed to establish ano on his rim rise to a position of leader chiv hiv in the community and high r re e has made a distinct difre differ r anee nce in jennies jennie feelings toward jim which she Is forced to acknowledge to herself CHAPTER XVI in his address addres at th the farmers institute jim makes a distinctly d I 1 favorable impression Impre islon after th the meeting he Is in offered a position as teacher in another district with a con st dorable advance in salary and agree to consider it CHAPTER pvn jim friends urge mm him to remain at his present post leading citizens of tb the 0 di district assuring him that they are p proud r 0 ud of hinl him CHAPTER at a public meeting I 1 old men man simm buddys buddes father fath As of the good h he 6 and nd h alg a family hav aye derived from jl jims teaching an and suggestions and captures the gat gathering CHAPTER jim tells the meeting the tha various school improvements Improve menta he k will insist on having it if he is remains in his hl present position some of the old timers consider them almost revolutionary tio nary but the majority approve after the meeting jennie tor for som some r reason esson tell tells jim she has been th the biggest little tool fool in the county CHAPTER A party of kroml prominent 1 at southern educators arrange with aci dennl to visit felt jims school to ties see at arst hand the workings workings of big hl system which has been wide widely ly commented on throughout the country an agent Is there with an off offer r to supply the equipment 1 ent of the ere creamery same ry jim hat has the children prove his fugures are r 0 incorrect and the price ti he asks extortionate 0 CHAPTER after the agent has left in deep disgust the southern educators are ar jim given iven an idea of the methods which jim has bat made mad so successful rhey are ar deeply impressed and is say my so no predicting Iredia ting a brilliant future tor f or the iy ay brown mouse CHAPTER xan all the improvements jim has demanded are made jim and jennie return from rom their wedding wadding trip to a splendid din f nor ner prepared entirely by the school children cooking oking having been one of the th courses 0 s e s which jim had included in the school curriculum it Is I 1 the paint opinion that this tha brown house has ha more than justified his in atao 04 n th the acceptance of hi his idea the lie luncheon was wag rather a wonderful affair and its success was unqualified after everybody discovered that the majority oi of those in attendance felt much more at homo home when calling it dinner what dye think of our schools school sr asked the colonel well said professor gray Ws its not fair to judge colonel on what must have been rather an extraordinary moment in the schools history I 1 take it that you dont put on a representation resen tation of the knave unmasked every morning it was more like a caucus than ive ever seen it daddy said jennie 1 and less like a school dont you think said doctor brathwait Brath wayt that it was less like a school because it was more like life it was life if I 1 am not mistaken history of this community was making in that schoolroom as we entered youre perfectly right doctor said the colonel jims got too big tor for the district and so were going to enlarge the district and the schoolhouse nod and the teaching force and the means of educational grace generally as sure as can be after what took place this morning he hes ia rather a wonderful person to be found in such a position said professor gray or would be in any region I 1 have visited lies hes a native product said the colonel but a wonder all the same hes a brown mouse you know A a r 7 doctor brathwait Brath wayt was plainly astonished and so go the colonel was allowed to tell again the story of the darbishire brown mice and why he called jim irwin one doctor brathwait Brath wayt said it was an Infer interesting esting Men dellan explanation of the appearance of such a character as jim and it if you are right colonel lose him one of these days you cant expect to retain a caesar a napoleon or a lincoln in a rural school can you r 1 I dont know about that said the colonel the great opportunity for such a crown brown mouse may be in this very school right now hed have as big an army right here as socrates ever had bad the brown mouse Is the only judge of his own proper place 1 I think said mrs brathwait Brath wayt as they motored back to the school that your country schoolmaster Is rather terrible the way he crushed that mr carmichael was wag positively merciless ciless did he know how bow cruel he was 1 I 1 think not said bald jennie it was the truth that crushed mr car cap machael ml chael 0 O but that vote of thanks said mrs brathwait Brath wayt surely that wu was the bitterest irony 1 I wonder it if it wan wag said jennie no I 1 am sure it he ha wanted to leave the children thinking as well as possible of their victim and especially ally of mr bonner and there was really something in mr carmichaels Car michaels talk which could be praised I 1 have known jim irwin since we were both children andi anda feel sure that if be had bad had any idea that his treatment of this man had been unnecessarily cruel it would have given him a lot of pain sly my dear sold said mrs brathwait Brath wayt 1 I think you are to be ba congratulated tor for having known tor for a long time a genius thank you said jennie and mrs brathwait Brath wayt gave her a glance which brought to her cheek another blush but of a different sort front from the one provoked by the uproar in the woodruff school there could be no doubt now that sim jim was thoroughly wonderful nor that she tho the county superintendent was bulto as thoroughly a little too fool she to be put in authority over him I 1 it was too absurd tor for laughter fortunately tuna tely she aho hindered him much but who was wag to be thanked tor for that was wa it owing to any wisdom ot of hers well she had decided in Us his favor in those first proceedings to revoke his certificate perhaps that was waa as good a to remember us as was wai to bo be found in the record CHAPTER and so thy they lived and so it turned out quite as it 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 callin cabla on the old woodlot 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 bluegrass blue grass griss amid clumps of trees and wild bushes not far afield on either cither hand came the black blach cornland corn land but up and down the bluffy sides of the brook tor for some distance dIs talice on both sides of the king dragged highway ran tho the old woodlot now regaining much of the un ac hy h y f E I 1 9 kempt ap appearance pe afa icae iv ilitch caia characterized r acte r it when jim irwin had drawn upon himself the gentle rebuke of old man simms for not giving a whoop from the big road before coming into the yard the cabin was gonrand gon gone ennd and la in its place stood a pretty little bungalow about which blossomed lilacs and peonies and roses find and other old fashioned flowers furnished by mrs irwim r for or this was wag the teachers house or school manse for the new consolidated woodruff district and the old simms woodlot wood lot was henceforth to bo be the glebe land of the school manse jim turned over and over in ills his mind these new applications of old historic significant words dear to every reader of hi history atory glebe land school mans manse el and it seemed to him that they signified the return of many old things lost in morrie herrle england lost in new england lost all over the english speaking world 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 wag he not to have his manse his glebe land and his living inar and all because like tle the old clergyman be 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 icv ing with its glebe land and its school manse ile he would have rated the new dew na as at least quite as high as the old 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 school manse veranda and yet shut off 00 from it by the dry moat of the brook and its tiny meadow of bluegrass blue grass across the road was the creamery with its businesslike unloading platform and its addition in process of construction for the reception of the machinery for the operative cooperative co laundry not far from the creamery and also across the road stood the blacksmith and wheelwright shop still farther down the street were the barn poultry house pens hutches and yards of the little farm small as were all the buildings save the schoolhouse itself which was bull ded as it should have been for the future and even the schoolhouse when one thinks of the uses to which it was to bo be put kitchen nursery kindergarten banquet hall theater moving picture hall classrooms manual training rooms laboratory and counting room and what note not was wonderfully small colonel woodruff said far too small though it was necessarily so large a rge as to be rather astonishing to the passerby passer by the passerby passer by this way may day however would have been especially struck by the number of motor cars buggies and surreys parked ln jn the yard back of the creamery along the roadside and by the driveway running to the schoolhouse people in numbers had arrived by five in the afternoon and were still coining they strolled about the place examining the buildings anik an grounds and talking with the blacksmith and tb the e butter maker gradually they drew into the schoolhouse like ilka it a swarm of bees into a hive selected by the queen none of them however went across the con concrete crets bridge to the save mrs ibo crossed consulted with mrs irwin about the shrubbery and fl flowers oviers and went back to cuddle buddle and jinnie who were good children but nat aut chally be trusted trotted with so many other young ones some watch tn coming coming this was the cry horns borne to the people in and about the by that liana hans hansen who would woul it be called nans hans nilsen nans hans bad been to the pie top of the little hill 1111 and bad a look toward town like a crew manning a rigging or a crowd having its picture taken the assemblage crystallized into forms determined ter mined by the lie cli chances ances of getting a 2 glimpse of 0 the bungalow across the ravine on posts fences trees and hillocks A motor car came over the hillock ran down the road to the driveway to tho the school manso and drew up at the door out of it stepped mrs woodruff and the colonel their daughter daug liter 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 the fact that when they reached the threshold jim picked jennie up in his arms and carried her la in hlll enable any good detective to put one and ono one to together gother and make a pair which comes pretty dear telling the whole story by this time it was nearly seven and calesta simms came across the charmed bridge as a bearer saying that it if sir mr jim and miss jendie c le didat mind dinner would be suliven right toon soon it was cooked about right and the file folks was gettan |