Show THE BROWN MOUSE I rI r- r HERBERT QUICK Copyright by The Tho Merrill Dobbs Merrill Company L' L YOU MARRY HUMPH A noted book by a noted man manI manla I la The Brown Drown Mouse by Her Her- Herbert b bert rt Quick Its It's a story o of the fascination that lies both In to farming and Imd teaching It If you look for tor it the right way Its It's read cv everywhere because Its It's a charming story yet its it's so practical that It Its It's come to be a n sort of ot text book Its Ils Ideas ha have ve been adopted far tar and wide as a part of ot the advancement advancement ad ad- ad- ad of ot the sciences o of farming and teaching Ss S's A Scotch scientist crossed the Japanese waltzing mouse on the theS S common white whit mouse and ant got abrown a abrown abrown brown mouse which was different from any other mouse In the tho world Well VeIl young Jim Irwin Is the brown mouse Hes He's a field hand and hand and s p p. p latent genius Jenale Jennie Jen Jen- ale nie Woodruff likes him but cantsee cant can't cantsee cantsee see a husband In to him A practical practical practical Joke results In Jim becomIng becoming becom becom- ing the village school teacher Thereupon Jim proceeds to rook rock the boat so hard that the waves scare the community and tho the ripples run state wide Experience Is a n. great teacher Herbert Quick hits has h s been farmer schoolmaster lawyer editor pub public lie lic servant social worker war var worker r and several other things Now hes he's probably more novelist than an anything else with a n. dozen good books to his credit and the output getting better and bet bet- ter Folly Fony was a n. n huge and The The Hawkeye Hawkeye Gm his latest appears to be even more successful You sec see Herbert JJ Quick knows what hes he's about CHAPTER I r 1 1 S A Maidens Maiden's Humph I II I Jim Jm brought blought from his days day's work wort althe all an anthe 1 the fragrances of next years year's meadowS meadows meadow s S He had been feeding the crops All An 1 things have opposite poles and th the e scents of the farm tarm are are no exception n to the rule Just now Jim Irwin po possessed possessed pos pos- s In his clothes and person th the se e olfactory pole opposite to the new new- mown hay har the fragrant butter an antl and d tl tl i scented breath of the lowing kin kine e perspiration and top He lIe was not quite so keenly co conscious con con- n s of this as was Jennie Woodruff re Had lied he been heen so the glimmer limmer of h her er white pique dr ts s on the bench and Under er the basswood would not pace have drawn draw cn tint him back from the gate He had co come cometo cometo me to the house to ask Colonel Woodruff about the farm work worle and having r received received re re- e- e Instructions to take a team and an d Join loin In the road work ork next da day he ha had d gone down the walk between the bet beds Is of four and petunias to thelan lane e Turning to latch t the te gate he he sa saw w U through rough the dusk the white dress u uder under und un un- n- n d der r the tree and drawn by the greatest greate it attraction known In nature had r reentered reentered re- re e entered the Woodruff grounds and an d strolled trolled back I A brief hello hello betrayed old acquaintance acquaint ante ance and that social equality which still sUll persists in theory between the work people on time the American farmand farm farmand farmand and the family of the employer A desultory murmur of voices ensued Jim IrwIn sat down on the bencH bencH- not too close be it observed to the pique skirt There came into the voices a note of deeper earnestness earnestness earnestness earnest earnest- ness betokening something quite aside from the r r. of the course of true love running smoothly In the mans man's voice was a tone of protest and plead plead- lag ing I 1 know you are said she but after all these years dont don't you think you should be at least preparing to be something more than that What can an I r do he pleaded Im tied hand and foot I might have You might nave Gave said sae 4 but ut a Jim you OU haven't and I r dont don't se see any prospects I r have been writing for the farm I papers said Jim but 1 But ut that doesn't get you anywhere you know Youre You're a great 7 i vy c 1 M I You Marry Humph deal more able and Intelligent than thane Ed and see what a fine position he e has In ChIcago Theres es mother you OU know lenow said JIm gently You cant can't do anything here said Jennie Tennie Youve louve lH been becu en a hand farm hand for 1 fifteen rt en years and you always will Ul be unless you pull lull yourself loose Evena Iwen Iven a girl am n make a place for COl he herself her herI I ti self lt If it f she doe doesn't ut marry and leaves lea I I th the tarns farm Youre You're twenty eight years I old Its all nil wrong said Jim gently The farm ought to be the place forthe for forthe forthe the best sort of career career I I love the soil I I l Ive been teaching for only two years and they say Ill I'll be nominated for county superintendent if It Ill I'll take It t. t Of or course course ourse I wont won't wont won't-It It seems sill silly silly silly- but if It were you now it would be ba baa bea a first step to o a life Ufe that I leads ads to something Mother Iother and I can enn an live JIve on my wages and and the garden an and chickens ens and the thc cow said Jim After I received my teachers teacher's certificate I tried to workout workout work workout out some way of doing the same thing on n a country teachers teacher's wages I couldn't It d doesn't seem right Jim rose and after pacing back and forth sat Bat down again a n little closet closel to Jennie Jennie moved away awny to the extreme end enil of the bench and the shrinking away of Jim as If he had been repelled by some sort of negative magnetism snowed either sensitiveness sensitive sensitive- ness or temper It se seems ms as If f it ought to be possIble pos possible pos sible said Jim for Ifor a n man moan to do wor wor on the farm or In the rural schools that would make hh him a liveli liveli- hood If he is only a field hand field hand it ought to be possible for him to save money mOlleY and buy a farm Pas land Is worth two hundred dollars an acre cere said Jennie Six months of your wages for an nn acre acre acre- even If you ou lived on nothing No he assent assented ell lilt It cant can't be done and the other U thing cant can't either There ought tl to be such conditions that thata a teacher make a living allyIng They do said Jennie if they can live lice at home during vacations I do But a man teaching in the country ought to be able Ie to marry Marry In said Jennie Jenne rather unfeelIngly I think You marry Then after remaining silent for nearly a minute she uttered the fhe syllable with syllable with with- out ut the utterance of which this narra- narra live ive would not have been written You marry I Humph Bumph I Jim Irwin rose from the bench tingling with the insult he found In Iner her er tone They had been boy and sweethearts in the old da days s 's at nt the Woodruff schoolhouse down do the road ronde and before the fateful time when Jennie ennie w unfit nt off to school and Jim began egan to 0 support his mother They I had ad even kissed kissed and and on Jims Jim's side lonely onely as was his life cut cut cutoff off as it 1 ne necessarily was from rom all companionshIp companionship companion- companion ship shIp hip save sa that of his tiny home and andis I hIs is workers fellow-workers of f the field the tender lender little stor story love was the sole ro- ro mauve manc t f his life Jennies Jennie's Humph l s retired this romance from circulation he felt It showed contempt for the l idea of his marrying It relegated him to a a sexless cate category ory with mbar rig Ar and hIm him with h- h ht t the cell celi c celibacy bacy of a sort of Twentieth century monk without the honor of the prIestly prIest prIest- ly vocation From another girl It would have been bad enough but from Jennie Woodruff Woodruff and and especially on un that quiet summer night under the linden linden linden-It it was Insupportable Good night said Jim simply Jim simply because because because be be- cause he could not trust himself to say sa more Good night replied Jennie and sat for a long time wondering Just lust how bow deeply she had llad unintentionally nally wound wounded d the feelings of her lIeI fathers father's hand field-hand deciding that If he wits was driven from her forever It would solve the problem of terminating that old childish love affair which still sUII persisted persisted per per- persisted In occupying a suite of at rooms all of its own in her memory and finally repenting of at the unpremedItated unpremeditated thrust which might easily have hurt hart too deeply so sensitive a man as ns Jim IrwIn But girls are not usually so 80 made as to feel any very bitter re re- remorse morse for their male victims and so Jennie slept very well that night Jim IrwIn was bony and rugged and homely with a big mouth and wide wid ears and anda a form stooped with labor He had fine lambent gentle eyes which lighted up his face when he lie smiled He was not ugly 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 dus in the Woodruff schoolhouse when Jennie Jenne wore her lieI hair hall down her back buck But In spite of this homely charm of ot personality Jim IrwIn was set oil off from his fellows of the Woodruff neighborhood He was different In local local parlance he was an nn ol off ox He was as odd as Dicks Dick's hatband lIe He ran In a gang by himself He lIe had always liked to read and had lead piles of literature liter lIter- In I Ills his attic room which was good because It was cheap Very few people leopie know that cheap literature Is Isery very ery likely to be good b be be- e- e cause It IS M Old find nM nt 1 l t I s. s A icu iv u uy ur copyright Jim had Emerson Thoreau an Encyclopedia of I English Ll Literature some editions of standard poets in paper pa pa- paper per covers and antI a few Huskins an and d all Carlyles Carlyles- all lI read to rags In n fact tact Jim had hall a good library of f publications which can cnn be obtained gratis emUs or ver very cheaply cheaply and and he knew their contents II Jh l h had bad t s personal philosophy while It had cos cost l i icon him lun the world In which his fellows I I lived had bad given him one of lit his Ills own In 1 I I I t f which he moved as lonely as a n cloud and as unto untouched ched of the life Hie about abou t him uy every test of common life h he e was a failure His Ills fatally family history was vas wasa vasa a n badge of failure People despised a aman aman man nian who was so smarter t than han they and yet ret could do no o better with himself than to work York In the fields field alongside longside a the tramps and transients and hoboes Save for his mother and their cow and garden and flock o of fowls Cowls and their wretched little rented house he was a tramp trump himself Ills His duties his mother and his dead f fathers father's status as an outcast too took k away his citizenship In and drove dro him In upon himself and a at first up upon Oil his school books and later late upon Emerson Thoreau RuskIn an anthe and the poets and the agricultural reports report a and nd bulletins All this All thIs degraded degrade degraded or or or exalted exalted hi him to the position of an Intellectual farm farmand farmhand h hand and with a n. sense of superiority and anda an ann d n a feeling of degradation It made mad dt Jennie e Woodruffs Woodruff's Humph I potent poten t to ke keep p him hm awake awake that night an and d send him him to the road work with Colonel Col Co onel anew Woodruffs Woodruff's ff's team next nest morning mornin g with hot eyes and a n hotter heart Colonel Woodruffs Woodruff S 'S gray p 9 seemed to feel the unrest of the their r driver v r for they frett fretted d and actual actually y executed a clumsy prance as Jimr Jim r r r 1 AN 4 I d I j f Fellers Have Haye Put Up a Job o on onYa You Jim S A s 's 1 Irwin pulled them theta up at the e d of of ofa the tIle turnpike across Bronson's Slew Slen a a peat peat marsh which annually h offered d t the he men of the district district the th e opportunity to hold the male mule a equivalent a- a lent e lt of n a sewing circle while working g jut out their road taxes Columbus Columbu s Brown rown the prided himself him hIm- elf self on the Bron BrOnson on Slew turnpike a as h lis is greatest triumph h in road engineer engineer- ng ag The work consisted in hauling dragging and carrying gravel out out o on I the low fill which carried t the road roa d across the marsh and then watching g It slowly slowly lt-slowly settle until the next summer r. r Haul gravel from the east gravel grave l bed Jim called Columbus Brown Brow n f from froin th the lowest spot I In the time mI middle dle no ne e of the turnpike Take Newt here t to o help load Jim smiled his habitual slow gentle gent e smile at nt Newton Bronson seventeen i undersized tobacco tobacco stained stained profane e and proud of the fact that he had had once once e ee beaten his way from Des Moines t to Faribault on freight trains A source e of ot anxiety to l his s father futher and the su subject sub sub- lees of many ninny predictions that h he e would come to no good end Newton n was out on the road rond work because he h was likely to b be be- beof of little use on th the e farm Clearly Newton ee was on th the e downward road In a double sense sense sense- r and fand yet Jim IrwIn rather liked him The fellers have put up a Job lob o on onI I you Jim volunteered Newton its as they began filling the wagon wit with li gravel 5 What sort of Job lob asked Jim nominating you for te teach cher ch 6 er replied Newton Since when has the position o f teacher been an elective office ask asked ed Jim Sure It aint elective answer answered ed Newton But they say that with us as many lUnny brains as as youve you've got rig hig around loose In the neighborhood d- d youre you're a candidate de that can break tb j tl th e deadlock in min the school board hoar Jim shoveled on silently for a n whit while e and b I by example urged Newton to ea ear earn l the money credited to his fathers father's a asse as as- se for the days day's work A slide of earth Just lust then brought brough t down a sweet-clover sweet plant growl growing fig rankly beside the fhe top of the time pit J Jim Jm m Irwin ln pulled It loose from Its Us anchor l age and after looking attentively ly at at the roots laid lold the whole plant on ou ti the bank for safety 11 What do you want of that weed eed asked Newton He thinks w were we're ro bullheaded mules and that all the scho schools ls i iare are bad 1 TO BE DE CONTINUED |