Show qa ck SYNOPSIS ci I 1 jentile jennie woodruff contemptuously refuges to marry jim ir win young tuini tarin hand because of his hi financial condition and poor prospects ecta lie he la Is above his station and aa has 3 advance d ideas aas con concerning concertin cernin tho the possibilities of export expect school I 1 te teaching aali ng lor for which lio lie la is ridiculed by many II 11 more as aa a joke than otherwise jim la is selected as aa teacher of 0 the wo woodruff 0 druff district school CHAPTER ill jim tn in his new gat tion on seta meta out to make stanch fr friends end of ht iila pupils specially especially two boys boya no newton bronson and auddy the th latter the son bon 0 of a sh evs farmer colonel woodruff jennies father has hag little falth faith in jims ideas of improving rural educational education ai methods no lie nick bamps him the drown brown mouse alouse in it 11 lustia lusti atlon tion of an anecdote CHAPTER IV jims conduct ot of the school whore where he endeavors to teach the children the wo riders ot of nature und and some of the methods of farming as well melt ma as book learning Is condemned CHAPy nil V jentile jennie woodruff Is t no minted for the position ot of county superintendent of schools the school board grown bitter in its opposition to jim ind and ills his innovations chantell CHAP TEll VJ at tt a public meeting jim roundly condemns the methods method 01 ot teaching in tile the rural schools a and makes no bends wends thereby VII A delegation of prominent women condemn jims methods of teaching but lie ho la Is stoutly defended by hla hia pupils especially newton dronson Uro naon VIII jim hns has Christ christman mali dinner at colonel ta and Us toning to him jennie begins to do some thinking con corning his ability and his prospects kimt will te good aioo 11 s bald t I 1 Tl it will save auve you ou lots of time I 1 hope you make the county pay for the gaso gaab line 1 I lent thought about that said aid jennie been so nice to mei me I 1 want to give as aa well as receive why said IIa Ilan akon kon you will begin to receive when your salary begins in january Ya nuary not nol said bald jennie alye re cc A much more than that bowl now I 1 you danl know liow how proud I 1 feel so many nice men ilion I 1 never knew before and all my old friends like you jou working for nie me in tile the convention coment lon and at the polls just as if I 1 amounted to something 11 and you dont know how proud I 1 feel said IIa lIa akon to have hae in county office a little girl I 1 used to hold on my lap Il aalon was a rather richer man than the colonel and not a littleproud little proud of tits ills ascent to ati afi luence A gilld spoken soft bojt voiced scandinavian lie he was quito quite completely ani americanized erl cant zed and his influence vas aa always worth fifty to sixty vian votes vote s 11 in any county election lie ile was a good party man wid conscious of being en titled to ills his voice oko in party matters this seemed to liliu tin an opportunity for exerting it a bit of political Yenn le said lie he this inin yam irwin needs to be lined up lined cupl what do you iou keatir mean the vay lie ho Is doing in the school bald Ila akon Is all vuong if you cant line him up lie will willie you ou trouble we must look ahead everybody IeTi body has hai ills his friends and alin irwin lias fins its his if you ou have trouble with him tits his friends will be against you ou when tte ae want int to nuin lium binate you fur for it second term cerili the county Is getting close it if we e go to without your home dolega delaga tion it would enkin you jou and if we vie nominate you ou every cery piece of trouble like this cuts down doii your wow you ought to line him up tip and have him do right allut lie Is so funny said jennie lie ile likes you ion said IIa fla ahon akon you can line 1 hlin hill up jennie blushed and to conceal hei bell slight embarrassment embarras got out for the purpose of cranking her machine hut if I 1 cannot line him film up said she 1 I tank said IIa Ilan akon kon it if you cant line him up lip you ion will ft have a chance to revoke ills certificate when yuu you take office jennie thought 0 air petersons Ieter sons suggestion us as to lining fining up jim irwin its as lin BO thoroughly sensible that site she gave it a n good deal of thought that day to 1110 be sure eve e embody ly had always favored more practical ed education uca tion and JIMS farm arithmetic farm physiology farni farm reading and writing cow testing exercises seed Is c corn 0 rn clubs and the tomato afy f and 1 a pig clubs ho he proposed to it averin operation tile the ne next nett tt summer seemed highly practical but to jennies mind the fact that they intro i deuced dissension in the neighborhood and promised to make her official life I 1 vexatious seemed ample kniple proof that j jims work was visionary and impractical poor jennie was not aware of tile the fact that now new truth always comes bringing not pence peace to mankind but it sword flather father said she alia that night lets have it little christmas party all right said the colonel whom shall we invite dont laugh said she 1 I want to invite jim irwin and ills his mother and nobody elso else all right reiterated the colonel hut but why chyr oh said bald jennie 1 I want to see whether I 1 can talk jim out of some som e of ills his foolishness you want to line him up do you your said the colonel well good politics and incidentally you may get some good ideas out of jim Il rather ileather unlikely sold said jennie 1 I 1 dont know about that said sald the colonel smil smiling lug 1 I begin to think that r talk jim out of some of hla his fool ashness Ish nees ness jims a brown mouse blouse ive told you about tha alij brown mouse IT 11 yes said jennie youve told MO me but professor darbishire brown mice were simply wild and incorrigible creatures just because it happens to emerge suddenly froin the forests of heredity it prove that the drown brown mouse blouse Is any good justin morgan was a brown mouse blouse said the colonel and lie he founded the greatest breed of horses in the world you say that said jennie bo be cause youre a lover of the tha morgan horse napoleon bonaparte was a brown mouse blouse said the colonel ro lonel so w was as george lV washington ashington and so was nas fleter tile the great whenever a drown brown mouse appears he changes things in a little way or a big way for the better always asked jennie no said the colonel the brown mouse may throw back to slant blunt trend ed savil savagery gery but jim some times I 1 think jim Is the wad kind of Men dellan segregation out of which we got get franklins and and their tort sort you may get some good ideas out of jim lot let us have them liere here for christmas by all means there to la no doubt that on christmas day jennie woodruff was justl led fled in thinking that they were a queer couple they like the woodruffs at ell all they were of a different pattern to be sure jims anis clothes were not especially noteworthy belog being just shiny and frayed framed at cuff and instep and short of sleeve and leg and ill and clie clieaf tip jims queerness lay not so much in ills clothes as in ills his personality on the other hand jennie could not help thinking that mrs airs arivina queerness was to be found almost solely in hw hv clothes the black alpaca looked undeniably respectable jennie felt it must have a story a story in which the stooped rusty somber bomber old lady looked like a character drawn to harmonize with the period just after the war wa r but jennie had the keenness to see that if mrs irwin could have had an up to date costume she would hive have become a rather ordinary find and not bad looking old lady what jennie filled failed to divine was waa that if jim could have invested a hundred dollars in the services ices of tal tailors lors haberdashers haberdashery haber dashers barbers and other specialists in personal appearance pe arance and could have blotted out his record as her fathers field hand he would have seemed to her a dis looking young roan man not handsome of course but the sort people look after and follow come to dinner said mrs woodruff who at uila this juncture had a hired girl but was yoked joked to uie the oar nevertheless when it came to turkey and the other firings of a christmas christinas dinner its good enough what there la Is of it and theres enough of it such as it to Is but the dressing in the turkey would be better tor for a little more sage I 1 the bountiful meat meal piled mountain high for guest and hired help and family melted away in a manner to dolight light the hearts of mrs woodruff and jennie the colonel in starched shirt black tie ond and frock coat carved carted with much and jim felt dyogi lo 10 for the feret time a sense cense ot of the value of manner 1 I 1 tind find bigger turkeys said mrs MM woodruff to mrs airs irwin but I 1 thought 1 it would be better to cook two turkey lie stead of ono one great big gobbler wi eat as tough as aa tripe and stained fall of fut fat one of the hens would a been plenty replied sirs mrs invin illow how much lid did they weigh about fifteen pounds was the wt answer tho gobbler would it weighed thirty I 1 guess lies iles pure mammoth bronze 1 I wish suld said jim that we could get ti a fow breeding birds bird S of the wild bronze turkeys front from mexico Al exico why asked the colonel lie original blood of tho the domestic bronze turkeys sold jim and bigger and handsomer than the pure bred bronzes even a better stock than the northern wild turkeys from which our common birds 11 where do you learn till all these things jimel jim asked mrs mra woodruff Woodi 1 I declare I 1 often tell Woo woodruff drutt that its as good as aa a lecture to have jim irwin at table my intelligence hus bas fallen since you quit working here jim there camo came into jims eyes tile gleam of the man devoted to a cause a and nd the dinner tended to develop into a lecture jennie saw a little more plainly wherein ills his lay theres un tin education in any meal it if we would just use list the things on efio table its as materials for study and follow their trails back to their starting points tills this turkey takes us back to the chaparral hill arrill of mexico rl chaparral asked jennie as it a diversion its one of tile words norda I 1 have seen so often and know per factly fertl to eceil it and rend read it but after lill all ita just a word and nothing more aint that the llie trouble with our education JIM queried led the colonel elev erly save ing jim bach into the track of ills his illse discourse ourse they are not even living words nn answered mail jim unless indess wo we have clothed them in ill ash and blood through rome sort of concrete notion chaparral to jennie Is just the ghost of a word our civilization Is full or of 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 belted and handled tin anil tested and heard CHAPTER IX tile the brown D rown mouse escapes jennie looked jim over carefully fully ills queerness que was taking on n new phase and she felt a sense of surprise such as one experiences when the conjurer causes a 11 rose to grow into a tree before your very eyes 1 I think we lose so much time in jool jim went 0 01 1 while the children anre chiting their dinners well jim said mrs woodruff every one but you Is down on tile the human level the poor kids have to eat cat ill I 1 hut but think how much good education there Is wrapped up in the school dinner if we 0 o could only get it out jennie grow grew grave here was tills this brown mouse actually introducing the he subject of the and lie he ought to suspect that she was planning to line him hill up tip on this very tiling thing if lie it a perfect donkey as well as a dreamer and tie lie was calmly wading into the subject as if aie ie were the lie ex cs fari hand country teacher anti and lie was the county superintendent elect I 1 eating it a dinner Il tiner like tills this mother sold the colonel gallantly Is an all education in itself and eating some soine oth ers requires rr ono one but just how flow larn in Is wrapped up till in the school lunch Is a new ono one or on tile me jim well fald jim in the first place the n ought to cook their meals as a part of ti school work prior to that they to buy the materials and prior to that they ought to keep the accounts of the school kitchen I 1 they like to do these things and it would help prepare them tor for life on an all intelligent plane while they prepared the aneals that looking rather far ali abend ead asked the county superintend ent elect its like a lot of other things we think far ahead urged jim tile only reason why far off Is because we think them so its a thought and a thought Is as near the moment we think it as it will ever be 1 I guess soto so to n wild eyed reformer said the colont colon pl 1 allut hut go on develop your thought it a little allne some more inore dressing thanks I 1 i believe I 1 will said jim and a little more of the cranberry sauce no more turkey please id like to see the class that could prepare this dinner said mrs woodruff why said jim be ba there showing them howl get credits in their domestic economy course for getting the school dinner and bring their mothers into it to help them stand nt at the herd head of their classes and one detail of girls would cook ono one week and another servo serve the setting of the table would come coal e in as a study lowers flowers linen and all tha thiet and when wo we got get a civilized teacher table id take on that class said the hired man winking at selma carlson the mald maid from somewhere below tile the salt the way I 1 make my knife feed my face would bo a grent great heip to the children and when tile the food came on the table jim went on with aquille asu n smile ille nt at his former fellow laborer who had bad heard most of this before as a part of the field conversation just think 1 of th alio 0 t I 1 1 binm byg cowd could atud while enting eating it ai the lie literary term for in eaf ing a meal ineal Is discussing it well the discussion discus slon of it meal tinder andor proper guidance Is mu lucli b more educative than a lecture this breast bone now lie he referring to the remains on his plate physiology tho the cranberry botany find and commerce and soil management do you know colonel that the crabbe cranberry rry must have an add acid soil which would kill alfalfa or clover read something of it said the colonel c but it interest me much imich and the difference between the types of fowl on tile the table breeding and the nutmeg pepper and coconut tants geography aid everything on the table runs runa bock back to geography and comes to us linked to our jives ilves by dollars and cents and mathematics I 1 we ruurt roust have something more more than dollars nail and cents in life said jennie jenale wo we must have culture culture cried jim la is the ability to think in terms of life it like jesse jcsse james suggested the hired man who was a careful student of the life of that eminent bandit there was n storm of laughter laug liter at this sally which jennie wished site she had find thought of something like that jim joined in the laughter at ills his own expense but was clearly suffering from argumentative shock the best answer ive had on that point pete lie said after the till had subsided dut but if the james boys and the youngers had had tho the sort of culture im for they would have been successful stock men and farmers instead of train robbers take raymond Sl clinnis innis for instance ile he had all ail the qualifications of a member cal of the james gang when he came here all lie he needed was a few exasperated aspe rated associates of his own sort and a convenient railway with undefended |