Show 4 40 SYNOPSIS CHAPTER I 1 jennie woodruff contemptuously letusia to marry rr y jim tin irwin young farm hand because u I 1 0 f h his 19 financial condition and poor prospects he Is intellectually aboe his hl station atlon nt and has haa advanced ideas concerning the possibilities of expert school teaching tor for which he Is ridiculed by many CHAPTER II 11 more as aa a loke joke than otherwise jim Is selected as a teacher of the woodruff district school the president preside rif followed usage when he said it if theres no objection it will be so ordered prepare the ballots for a vote on the election of teacher mr secretary there was no surprise in view of the nomination of jim irwin by the blarneying blarney ing donner bonner when the secretary smoothed out the first ballot and read james E irwin one but when the next slip came forth james E irwin two the board of directors of the woodruff independent district were stunned at the slowly dawning knowledge that they had made an elect election ioni 1 before they had rallied the secretary drew from the box the third and last ballot and read james E irwin three 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 the ballot having shown the unanimous election of james E irwin I 1 declare him elected he ie dropped into his chair while the secretary a very methodical man drew from his portfolio a contract duly drawn up save the name and signature tills 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 sign there he said jim looked it over saw the other signatures and felt an impulse to dodge the whole thing then he thought of jennie woodruff afro and he be sig signed neill move ae we adjourn sald peterson 1 no ejection so ordered I 1 said bronson ronson ae ie secretary and jim w went ent out while the directors waited what the billy begun began bonn bonner r and finished lamely what tor for did you vote for the dub ez eza 1 I voted tor for him replied brondon Ur onson because lie he fought tor for my boy this afternoon aft ei noon I 1 want it stuck into him too liard hard I 1 wanted him to have hae one vote an I 1 wanted him to have wan ye voe too said bonner 1 I thought the only dang fool on the board nn he made a that aimed wan vote but fr the love of bivin that dub fr a te teach acherl crl what comy com over you haskon haakon you doted tr fr him too tool I 1 ay canted him to have one I 1 too said peterson and in this wise jim became the teacher in the woodrun district nil on account of jennie woodruffs Ill I 1 CHAPTER III what Is a brown mouse immediately upon the accidental election of jim irwin to the position of teacher of the woodruff sc hooli i lie he developed habits somewhat like a ghosts or a bandits that Is he walked of nights and on rainy day on fine days lie he worked in colonel woodruffs fields lie as of yore jil jims ins salary was to be just for nine months work in the woodruff school and he was to find himself and his mother therefore lie he had to indulge in ills his loose habits of night walking and roaming about after hours only or on holidays and in foul weather the simms family being from the mountings of tennessee were rather startled one night when jim irwin homely stooped and errand less sl at bently 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 and up to the house otherwise how was one to know whether the visitor was friend or foe from force of habit old man simms started for his gun rack at jims appearance pe arance but the LIncoln lan smile and the low slow speech so much like his bis own in some respects ended that stranger said mr simms after greetings gre elings had been exchanged youre lt acome but in my kentry 9 aln to walk in chisa way how so queried jim irwin moren likely git shot up some replied mr simms onless you whooped from the big road 1 I know thava that replied jim im im ignorant of the customs ot of other cab A r old man simms started for his HI qun gun countries alei bould would you hii fat rattier lier rd fd whoop from the big road nobody else will 1 I reckon replied mr that we all will have t to 0 accommodate ourselves our to the ways heeti haeb 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 bad cut through and not many trees but down in the creek bed with the oaks elms and box elders arching overhead the 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 cornfields of lown iowa the soil eoll was so poor in comparison with those black uploads that the owner of the old woodlot wood lot could find no renter but it was better than the soil in the mountains and suited the lonesome much more than a better farm would have done they were not of the iowa people anyhow not understood not their equals equal s they were pore and expected to stay pore while the iowa people all 11 seemed to be either well to do or expecting to become so jim irwin asked old mun man simms about the fishing in the creek and whether there was any duck shooting spring and fall we git right smart of these little said mr simms an calesta done shot two butterball ducks about tater time calesta blushed but this stranger so much like themselves could not see gee the rosy suffusion the allusion gave him a chance to look about him at the family there was a boy of sixteen it a girl the duck shooting calesta younger than raymond a girl of 0 eleven named virginia but called jinnie and a smaller mailer lad who rejoiced in the name of mcgeehee but was aas mercifully called buddy calesta squirmed for something to say raymond runs a line 0 traps when the furs fues prime ahe lie volunteered deved then came a long talk on traps and trapping shooting ng hunting and the joys of the mountings during which jim noted the ignorance and poverty of the Simi uses the clothing of the girls was not decent according to local standards for while calesta wore a skirt hurriedly slipped on jim wits was quite sure and not without evidence to support his views that she lidd had been wearing when he arrived the same regimentals now displayed by jimile a pair of 0 ragged blue overalls evidently the were wearing what they had and not what they desired the father was faded patched gray and earthy and the boys looked hetter better than the rest solely because we boys to be torn and patched mrs simms was invisible except as a gray blur beyond the rain burrel barrel lo in the midst of which her pipe glowed with a regular ebb and flow of embers on the next rainy day jim called again and secured the services of raymond to help him select seed corn lie ile was going to teach the 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 them seles and who was so greatly interested in trapping hunting and the tennessee mountains ains so raymond wont went with jim and with newt brunson and five more they selected colonel woodruffs seed corn com tor for the next year under the colonelli colo neli personal superintendence in the evening they looked the grain over on the woodruff lawn and the colonel talked about corn alid add corn selection they had supper athale past six and jennie waited on them having assisted her mother ir in the cooking I 1 dijt was quite a festival jim irwin iraln was the genst conspicuous person in the gathering but the colonel who was a seasoned politician observed that the farm hand band 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 winters teacher some confidential hint as an 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 ag for raymond simms it was clearly best to leave him alone all this talk of corn selection and related things was new to him lind and he be drank it n 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 jennie said colonel woodruff after the party had bad broken up im losing the best hand I 1 ever had and ive been sorry im glad hes leaving you yon said jennie he ought to do something except work in the field tor for wages ive had no idea he could make good as a teacher and what Is there in it it if he does what has he lost if he ha 1 rejoined jennie and why cant he make good the school boards against him for one tiling thing replied the colonel colon pl fire him it if they get a cliance chance the laughingstock laughing stock of the country for hiring him by mistake lind and irritated rita ted but after seeing win hm perform tonight I 1 wonder it if he cant make good it if he could feel like anything but an underling hed succeed said jennie covats Tats his heredity stated the co colonel onel whose live stock operations were based on heredity jims a scrub I 1 suppose but lie he acts as it if he might turn out to be a grown brown mouse mo use what do you mean pal pa 1 scoffed jennie a brown mouse 1 A fellow in edinburgh si said ild the colonel crossed the japanese waltzing mouse with the common white mouse jims peddling father was a waltzing mouse no good except to jump from one spot to another for no good reason jims mother Is tin an albino of a woman with all the color washed out in one way or another jim ought to be a mongrel and ive always considered hint him one cut but the edinburgh fellow every once in a while got out of his variously colored waltzing tin and albino hybrids a brown mouse it it a common house mouse either but a wild mouse unlike any he be had ever seen it ran away and bit and gnawed and raised hob bob it was wa what we breeders bleeders bre eders call a monde mende llan ilan segregation of genetic factors that had been in tile the walty walt ora and albinos all the time their thear original wild ancestor of tile the woods and fields it if jim turns out to be n brown bron mouse he may be a bigger man mail that than any of us anyhow im tor for hirn hell have to be a big man to make anything out of the job of a country school teacher sillo said jennie any jobs as big as the man who holds it down said her father next day jim received a le letter t ter from jennie dear jim it ran father says you are sure to have a tard lard t ard time the school boards against you and all that but lie he addled added im tor for jim anyhow I 1 I 1 though oud like to know this also lie he said any job s as big as the man who holds it down and I 1 believe tills this also and im for you tool you are doing wonders even before the school starts in getting the pupils interested in a lot of things ti lings which while they dont belong to school work will make thom friends of yours I 1 dont spa see how this will help you much but its a fine thing and shows your interest in them imant be too original the cheel runs easiest in the beaten truck track yours jennie jennies caution ninde made no impression on jim but lie put the letter away and every evening took it out and read the words im illa for you tool too the colonels colonel dictum any jobs as big as the man who holds it lown aown was an Emers onlan truism to jim it reduced all jobs to an equality and it meant equality in intellectual and spiritual development it moan for instance that any job was as good ns its another in making it possible for a man to marry mid and jennie woo humph Hump hl 1 returned to kill and drag off her im for you tool too 1 CHAPTER IV the first day of school jim irwin was full of ills emersons Kmer Umer sons representative men and ills his C cair lr lyles french revolution and the other old fashioned excellent good literature which did not cost over 2 cents a volume and he had pored long and with many thrills over the pages of matthews getting on in tile lie world his view of efficiency was that it Is the capacity to see opportunity where others overlook it and make the most ot of it il all through his life he had had find lits hla own plans for becoming great and all the time he be was bare touted III clad and dreamed his dreams to tile the accompaniment of the growl of the plow cutting the roots under the brown furrow slice or the woo shing ln of the milk in the pall at twenty felcht he considered these dreams over As tor for this new employment he saw no great opportunity in it ile he went into the small mean ill paid task as a part of the days work with no knowledge of the stirring of the nation tor for a different sort of rural school and no suspicion that there lay in it any ny highway to success in life afe ho he rather wondered why uty he taif had ilowe jennies sneer to sting him into the course of action which put him in this new relation to his neighbors hut but true to ills his belief in honest thorough work like a general preparing for battle he examined his field of 0 operations p orations erat ions ills manner of doing tills this seemed to prove to colonel woodruff lT who watched it with keen interest as something new in the world that jim irwin was possibly fil a brown mouse but the colonel knew only a part of jims performances ile he saw jim clothed in slickers walking through rainstorms brainstorms rain storms to the houses in the woodruff district as greedy for every moment of rain as a bay haymaker maker for shine find and he knew that jim made a great many evening calls but he be 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 25 cents a volume and jim had never seen one however it was a survey to be sure lie he had long known everybody in the district save the and he was now a friend of all that exotic race but there Is knowing and knowing ile he now lad had notebooks note books full of facts about people and their farms ile he knew how many acres each family possessed and what sort ort of farming eich each husband was doing live stock grain or mixed he knew about the mortgages and the debts ile he knew whether the family atmosphere was happy and contented or the reverse ne ile knew which boys and girls wore were wayward and insubordinate ile he made a record of the advancement in their studies of all the children and what they liked to read lie he knew their favorite amusements he talked with their mothers lind and sisters not about the school to any extent but on the weather the horses the automobiles the silo alio filling machinery and the profits of farming really keally though jennie woodruff ild did not see how such doings related to school work jim erwins irwins 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 con bonnor bonner who came to see the opening voiced the sentiments of the older people when he condemned the school as disorderly to be sure sui a there were more pupils enrolled th thia m had ever entered on a first day in the whole history of the school |