The Brown Mouse Page 13

  CHAPTER XIII

  FAME OR NOTORIETY

  The office of county superintendent was, as a matter of course, the leastdesirable room of the court-house. I say "room" advisedly, because itconsisted of a single chamber of moderate size, provided with officefurniture of the minimum quantity and maximum age. It opened off thecentral 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 justiceas a jury room. At such times the county superintendent's desk was removedto the hall, where it stood in a noisy and confusing but very democraticpublicity. Superintendent Jennie might have anticipated the time when,during the March term, offenders passing from the county jail in thebasement to arraignment at the bar of justice might be able to peek overher shoulders and criticize her method of treating examination papers. Onthe twenty-fifth of February, however, this experience lurked unsuspectedin her official future.

  Poor Jennie! She anticipated nothing more than the appearance of Messrs.Bronson, Peterson and Bonner in her office to confront Jim Irwin oncertain questions of fact relating to Jim's competency to hold a teacher'scertificate. The time appointed was ten o'clock. At nine forty-fiveCornelius Bonner and his wife entered the office, and took twenty-five percent. 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 eatennor slept since his sweetheart stabbed him. At nine fifty-five HaakonPeterson and Ezra Bronson came in, accompanied by Wilbur Smythe,attorney-at-law, who carried under his arm a code of Iowa, a compilationof the school laws of the state, and _Throop on Public Officers_. At ninefifty-six, therefore, the crowd in Jennie's office exceeded its seatingcapacity, and Jennie was in a flutter as the realization dawned upon herthat this promised to be a bigger and more public affair than she hadanticipated. At nine fifty-nine Raymond Simms opened the office door andthere filed in enough children, large and small, some of them accompaniedby their parents, and all belonging to the Woodruff school, to fillcompletely the interstices of the corners and angles of the room andbetween the legs of the grownups. In addition there remained an overflowmeeting in the hall, under the command of that distinguished militarygentleman, Colonel Albert Woodruff.

  "Say, Bill, come here!" said the colonel, crooking his finger at thedeputy sheriff.

  "What you got here, Al!" said Bill, coming up the stairs, puffing. "Ain'tit a little early for Sunday-school picnics?"

  "This is a school fight in our district," said the colonel. "It's Jennie'sbaptism of fire, I reckon ... and say, you're not using the court room,are you?"

  "Nope," said Bill.

  "Well, why not just slip around, then," said the colonel, "and tell Jennieshe'd better adjourn to the big room."

  Which suggestion was acted upon instanter by Deputy Bill.

  "But I can't, I can't," said Jennie to the courteous deputy sheriff. "Idon't want all this publicity, and I don't want to go into the courtroom."

  "I hardly see," said Deputy Bill, "how you can avoid it. These people seemto have business with you, and they can't get into your office."

  "But they have no business with me," said Jennie. "It's mere curiosity."

  Whereupon Wilbur Smythe, who could see no particular point in restrictedpublicity, said, "Madame County Superintendent, this hearing certainly ispublic or quasi-public. Your office is a public one, and while the rightto attend this hearing may not possibly be a universal one, it surely isone belonging to every citizen and taxpayer of the county, and if thetaxpayer, _qua_ taxpayer, then certainly _a fortiori_ to the members ofthe Woodruff school and residents of that district."

  Jennie quailed. "All right, all right!" said she. "But, shall I have tosit on the bench!"

  "You will find it by far the most convenient place," said Deputy Bill.

  Was this the life to which public office had brought her? Was it for thisthat she had bartered her independence--for this and the musty office, thestupid 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 goodcounty 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 hadalways been her superior in everything that constitutes mental ability;and to make the thing more a matter for the laughter of the gods, she wasperched 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 acandidate for sheriff, one of these days, and was pleasing the crowd. Andthat crowd! To Jennie it was appalling. The school board under the lead ofWilbur Smythe took seats inside the railing which on court days dividedthe audience from the lawyers and litigants. Jim Irwin, who had never beenin a court room before, herded with the crowd, obeying the attraction ofsympathy, but to Jennie, seated on the bench, he, like other persons inthe auditorium, was a mere blurry outline with a knob of a head on itstop.

  She couldn't call the gathering to order. She had no idea as to the properprocedure. She sat there while the people gathered, stood about whisperingand talking under their breaths, and finally became silent, all their eyesfixed on her, as she wished that the office of county superintendent hadbeen abolished in the days of her parents' infancy.

  "May it please the court," said Wilbur Smythe, standing before the bar."Or, Madame County Superintendent, I should say ..."

  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 sherose, and handed down her first and last decision from the bench--a rathergood one, I think.

  "Mr. Smythe," said she, "I feel very ill at ease up here, and I'm going toget down among the people. It's the only way I have of getting thetruth."

  She descended from the bench, shook hands with everybody near her, and satdown by the attorney's table.

  "Now," said she, "this is no formal proceeding and we will dispense withred 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 thesethings--there always seems to be; but I have none. So I'll just hear whyMr. Bronson, Mr. Peterson and Mr. Bonner think that Mr. James E. Irwinisn't competent to hold a certificate."

  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. Thatindividual arose, and talked down at Jennie.

  "I appear for the proponents here," said he, "and I desire to suggestcertain principles of procedure which I take it belong indisputably to theconduct of this hearing."

  "Have you a lawyer?" asked the county superintendent of the respondent.

  "A what?" exclaimed Jim. "Nobody here has a lawyer!"

  "Well, what do you call Wilbur Smythe?" queried Newton Bronson from themidst of the crowd.

  "He ain't lawyer enough to hurt!" said the thing which the dramatists callA Voice.

  There was a little tempest of laughter at Wilbur Smythe's expense, whichwas quelled by Jennie's rapping on the table. She was beginning to feelthe mouth of the situation.

  "I have no way of retaining a lawyer," said Jim, on whom the truth hadgradually dawned. "If a lawyer is necessary, I am without protection--butit never occurred to me ..."

  "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."

  She paused for Mr. Smythe's reply.

  "There is nothing which expressly gives that privilege," said Mr. Smythe,"but the right to the benefit of skilled advisers is a universal one. Itcan not be questioned. And in opening this case for my clients, I desireto call your honor's attention--"

  "You may advise your clients all you please," said Jennie, "but I'm notgoing to waste time in listening to speeches, or having a lot of lawyersexamine witnesses."

  "I protest," said Mr. Smythe.

  "Well, you may file y
our protest in writing," said Jennie. "I'm going totalk this matter over with these old friends and neighbors of mine. Idon't want you dipping into it, I say!"

  Jennie's voice was rising toward the scream-line, and Mr. Smytherecognized the hand of fate. One may argue with a cantankerous judge, butthe woman, who like necessity, knows no law, and who is smothering in aflood of perplexities, is beyond reason. Moreover, Jennie dimly saw thatwhat she was doing had the approval of the crowd, and it solved theproblem of procedure.

  There was a little wrangling, and a little protest from Con Bonner, butJennie ruled with a rod of iron, and adhered to her ruling. When thehearing was resumed after the noon recess, the crowd was larger than ever,but the proceedings consisted mainly in a conference of the principalsgrouped about Jennie at the big lawyers' table. They were talking aboutthe methods adopted by Jim in his conduct of the Woodruff school--justtalking. 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 acertain number of words on the case of the farm-hand schoolmaster on trialbefore his old sweetheart for certain weird things he had done in the homeschool in which they had once been classmates. The fact that the oldschool-sweetheart had kicked a lawyer out of the case was not overlookedby the gentlemen of the fourth estate. It helped to make it a "goodstory."

  By the time at which gathering darkness made it necessary for the bailiffto light the lamps, the parties had agreed on the facts. Jim admitted mostof the allegations. He had practically ignored the text-books. He hadburned the district fuel and worn out the district furniture early andlate, and on Saturdays. He had introduced domestic economy and manualtraining, to some extent, by sending the boys to the workshops and thegirls to the kitchens and sewing-rooms of the farmers who allowed thoseprivileges. He had used up a great deal of time in studying farmconditions. He had induced the boys to test the cows of the district forbutter-fat yield. He was studying the matter of a cooperative creamery. Hehoped to have a blacksmith shop on the schoolhouse grounds sometime, wherethe boys could learn metal working by repairing the farm machinery, andshoeing the farm horses. He hoped to install a cooperative laundry inconnection with the creamery. He hoped to see a building sometime, with anauditorium where the people would meet often for moving picture shows,lectures and the like, and he expected that most of the descriptions offoreign lands, industrial operations, wild animals--in short, everythingthat people should learn about by seeing, rather than reading--would betaught the children by moving pictures accompanied by lectures. He hopedto open to the boys and girls the wonders of the universe which aretouched by the work on the farm. He hoped to make good and contentedfarmers of them, able to get the most out of the soil, to sell what theyproduced to the best advantage, and at the same time to keep up thefertility of the soil itself. And he hoped to teach the girls in such away that they would be good and contented farmers' wives. He even had inmind as a part of the schoolhouse the Woodruff District would one daybuild, an apartment in which the mothers of the neighborhood would leavetheir babies when they went to town, so that the girls could learn thecare of infants.

  "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!"

  "Well," said Jennie, "do you desire to rest your case right here?"

  Mr. Bonner made no reply to this, and Jennie turned to Jim.

  "Now, Mr. Irwin," said she, "while you have been following out these veryinteresting and original methods, what have you done in the way ofteaching the things called for by the course of study?"

  "What is the course of study?" queried Jim. "Is it anything more than anoutline 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 toread about Casabianca on the burning deck, than about the cause of thefiring of corn by hot weather? And how can they be given better command oflanguage than by writing about things they have found out in relation tosome of the sciences which are laid under contribution by farming?Everything they do runs into numbers, and we do more arithmetic than thecourse requires. There isn't any branch of study--not even poetry and artand music--that isn't touched by life. If there is we haven't time for itin the common schools. We work out from life to everything in the courseof study."

  "Do you mean to assert," queried Jennie, "that while you have been doingall this work which was never contemplated by those who have made up thecourse of study, that you haven't neglected anything?"

  "I mean," said Jim, "that I'm willing to stand or fall on an examinationof these children in the very text-books we are accused of neglecting."

  Jennie looked steadily at Jim for a full minute, and at the clock. It wasnearly time for adjournment.

  "How many pupils of the Woodruff school are here?" she asked. "All rise,please!"

  A mass of the audience, in the midst of which sat Jennie's father, rose atthe request.

  "Why," said Jennie, "I should say we had a quorum, anyhow! How many willcome back to-morrow morning at nine o'clock, and bring your school-books?Please lift hands."

  Nearly every hand went up.

  "And, Mr. Irwin," she went on, "will you have the school records, so wemay be able to ascertain the proper standing of these pupils?"

  "I will," said Jim.

  "Then," said Jennie, "we'll adjourn until nine o'clock. I hope to seeevery one here. We'll have school here to-morrow. And, Mr. Irwin, pleaseremember that you state that you'll stand or fall on the mastery by thesepupils of the text-books they are supposed to have neglected."

  "Not the mastery of the text," said Jim. "But their ability to do the workthe text is supposed to fit them for."

  "Well," said Jennie, "I don't know but that's fair."

  "But," said Mrs. Haakon Peterson, "we don't want our children brought upto be yust farmers. Suppose we move to town--where does the culture comein?"

  * * * * *

  The Chicago papers had a news item which covered the result of theexaminations; but the great sensation of the Woodruff District lay in theSunday feature carried by one of them.

  It had a picture of Jim Irwin, and one of Jennie Woodruff--the latterauthentic, and the former gleaned from the morgue, and apparently theportrait of a lumber-jack. There was also a very free treatment by thecartoonist of Mr. Simms carrying a rifle with the intention of shooting upthe school board in case the decision went against the schoolmaster.

  * * * * *

  "When it became known," said the news story, "that the schoolmaster hadbet his job on the proficiency of his school in studies supposed andalleged to have been studiously neglected, the excitement rose to feverheat. Local sports bet freely on the result, the odds being eight to fiveon General Proficiency against the field. The field was Jim Irwin and hisschool. And the way those rural kids rose in their might and ate up thetext-books was simply scandalous. There was a good deal of nervousness onthe part of some of the small starters, and some bursts of tears atexcusable failures. But when the fight was over, and the dead and woundedcared for, the school board and the county superintendent were forced toadmit that they wished the average school could do as well under a similartest.

  "The local Mr. Dooley is Cornelius Bonner, a member of the 'board.' Whenasked for a statement of his views after the county superintendent haddecided that her old sweetheart was to be allowed the priceless boon ofearning 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 thisguy yet, don't fall down and fergit that!'

  "'The examinations tind to show,' said Mr. Bonner, when asked for hisopinion on the result, 'that in or-r-rder to larn anything you shud shtudysomethin' ilse. But we'll git this guy yit!'"

  * * * * *

  "Jim," said Colonel Woodruff, as they rode home together, "the next heatis the school election. We've got to
control that board next year--andwe've got to do it by electing one out of three."

  "Is that a possibility?" asked Jim. "Aren't we sure to be defeated atlast? Shouldn't I quit at the end of my contract? All I ever hoped for wasto be allowed to fulfill that. And is it worth the fight?"

  "It's not only possible," replied the colonel, "but probable. As for beingworth while--why, this thing is too big to drop. I'm just beginning tounderstand what you're driving at. And I like being a wild-eyed reformermore and more."