The Brown Mouse Page 14

  CHAPTER XIV

  THE COLONEL TAKES THE FIELD

  Every Iowa county has its Farmers' Institute. Usually it is held in thecounty seat, and is a gathering of farmers for the ostensible purpose oflistening to improving discussions and addresses both instructive andentertaining. Really, in most cases, the farmers' institutes have beenoccasions for the cultivation of relations between a few of theexceptional farmers and their city friends and with one another. Seldom isanything done which leads to any better selling methods for the farmers,any organization looking to cooperative effort, or anything else that anagricultural economist from Ireland, Germany or Denmark would suggest asthe sort of action which the American farmer must take if he is to makethe most of his life and labor.

  The Woodruff District was interested in the institute however, because ofthe fact that a rural-school exhibit was one of its features that year,and that Colonel Woodruff had secured an urgent invitation to the schoolto take part in it.

  "We've got something new out in our district school," said he to thepresident of the institute.

  "So I hear," said the president--"mostly a fight, isn't it?"

  "Something more," said the colonel. "If you'll persuade our school to makean exhibit of real rural work in a real rural school, I'll promise yousomething worth seeing and discussing."

  Such exhibits are now so common that it is not worth while for us todescribe it; but then, the sight of a class of children testing andweighing milk, examining grains for viability and foul seeds, planningcrop rotations, judging grains and live stock was so new in that county asto be the real sensation of the institute.

  Two persons were a good deal embarrassed by the success of the exhibit.One was the county superintendent, who was constantly in receipt ofundeserved compliments upon her wisdom in fostering really "practical workin the schools." The other was Jim Irwin, who was becoming famous, and whofelt he had done nothing to deserve fame. Professor Withers, an extensionlecturer from Ames, took Jim to dinner at the best hotel in the town, forthe purpose of talking over with him the needs of the rural schools. Jimwas in agony. The colored waiter fussed about trying to keep Jim in thebeaten track of hotel manners, restored to him the napkin which Jim failedto use, and juggled back into place the silverware which Jimmisappropriated to alien and unusual uses. But, when the meal hadprogressed to the stage of conversation, the waiter noticed that graduallythe uncouth farmer became master of the situation, and the well-groomedcollege professor the interested listener.

  "You've got to come down to our farmers' week next year, and tell us aboutthese things," said he to Jim. "Can't you?"

  Jim's brain reeled. He go to a gathering of real educators and tell hiscrude notions! How could he get the money for his expenses? But he hadthat gameness which goes with supreme confidence in the thing dealt with.

  "I'll come," said he.

  "Thank you," said the Ames man, "There's a small honorarium attached, youknow."

  Jim was staggered. What was an honorarium? He tried to remember what anhonorarium is, and could get no further than the thought that it is insome way connected with the Latin root of "honor." Was he obliged to payan honorarium for the chance to speak before the college gathering? Well,he'd save money and pay it. The professor must be able to understand thatit couldn't be expected that a country school-teacher would be able to paymuch.

  "I--I'll try to take care of the honorarium," said he. "I'll come."

  The professor laughed. It was the first joke the gangling innovator hadperpetrated.

  "It won't bother you to take care of it," said he, "but if you're not tooextravagant it will pay you your expenses and give you a few dollarsover."

  Jim breathed more freely. An honorarium was paid to the person receivingthe honor, then. What a relief!

  "All right," he exclaimed. "I'll be glad to come!"

  "Let's consider that settled," said the professor. "And now I must begoing back to the opera-house. My talk on soil sickness comes next. I tellyou, the winter wheat crop has been--"

  But Jim was not able to think much of the winter wheat problem as theywent back to the auditorium. He was worth putting on the program at astate meeting! He was worth the appreciation of a college professor,trained to think on the very matters Jim had been so long mulling over inisolation and blindness! He was actually worth paying for his thoughts.

  Calista Simms thought she saw something shining and saint-like about thehomely face of her teacher as he came to her at her post in the room inwhich the school exhibit was held. Calista was in charge of the littlechildren whose work was to be demonstrated that day, and was in a state ofexaltation to which her starved being had hitherto been a stranger.Perhaps there was something similar in her condition of fervent happinessto that of Jim. She, too, was doing something outside the sordid life ofthe Simms cabin. She yearned over the children in her care, and would havebeen glad to die for them--and besides was not Newton Bronson in charge ofthe corn exhibit, and a member of the corn-judging team? To the eyes ofthe town girls who passed about among the exhibits, she was poorlydressed; but if they could have seen the clothes she had worn on thatevening when Jim Irwin first called at their cabin and failed to give awhoop from the big road, they could perhaps have understood the sense ofwellbeing and happiness in Calista's soul at the feeling of her wholeclean underclothes, her neat, if cheap, dress, and the "boughten" cloakshe wore--and any of them, even without knowledge of this, might haveunderstood Calista's joy at the knowledge that Newton Bronson's eyes wereon her from his station by the big pillar, no matter how many town girlsfiled by. For therein they would have been in a realm of the passionsquite universal in its appeal to the feminine soul.

  "Hello, Calista!" said Jim. "How are you enjoying it?"

  "Oh!" said Calista, and drew a long, long breath. "Ah'm enjoying myse'fright much, Mr. Jim."

  "Any of the home folks coming in to see?"

  "Yes, seh," answered Calista. "All the school board have stopped by thismorning."

  Jim looked about him. He wished he could see and shake hands with hisenemies, Bronson, Peterson and Bonner: and if he could tell them of hissuccess with Professor Withers of the State Agricultural College, perhapsthey would feel differently toward him. There they were now, over in acorner, with their heads together. Perhaps they were agreeing amongthemselves that he was right in his school methods, and they wrong. Hewent toward them, his face still beaming with that radiance which hadshone so plainly to the eyes of Calista Simms, but they saw in it only agrin of exultation over his defeat of them at the hearing before JennieWoodruff. When Jim had drawn so close as almost to call for the extendedhand, he felt the repulsion of their attitudes and sheered off on somepretended errand to a dark corner across the room.

  They resumed their talk.

  "I'm a Dimocrat," said Con Bonner, "and you fellers is Republicans, andwe've fought each other about who we was to hire for teacher; but when itcomes to electing my successor, I think we shouldn't divide on partylines."

  "The fight about the teacher," said Haakon Peterson, "is a t'ing of thepast. All our candidates got odder yobs now."

  "Yes," said Ezra Bronson. "Prue Foster wouldn't take our school now if shecould get it"

  "And as I was sayin'," went on Bonner, "I want to get this guy, Jim Irwin.An' bein' the cause of his gittin' the school, I'd like to be on the boardto kick him off; but if you fellers would like to have some one else, Iwon't run, and if the right feller is named, I'll line up what friends Igot for him." "You got no friend can git as many wotes as you can," saidPeterson. "I tank you better run."

  "What say, Ez?" asked Bonner.

  "Suits me all right," said Bronson. "I guess we three have had our fightout and understand each other."

  "All right," returned Bonner, "I'll take the office again. Let's not starttoo soon, but say we begin about a week from Sunday to line up ourfriends, to go to the school election and vote kind of unanimous-like?"

  "Suits me," said Bronson.

  "Wery
well," said Peterson.

  "I don't like the way Colonel Woodruff acts," said Bonner. "He rounded upthat gang of kids that shot us all to pieces at that hearing, didn't he?"

  "I tank not," replied Peterson. "I tank he was yust interested in howYennie managed it."

  "Looked mighty like he was managin' the demonstration," said Bonner. "Whatd'ye think, Ez?"

  "Too small a matter for the colonel to monkey with," said Bronson. "Ireckon he was just interested in Jennie's dilemmer. It ain't reasonablethat Colonel Woodruff after the p'litical career he's had would mix up inschool district politics."

  "Well," said Bonner, "he seems to take a lot of interest in thisexhibition here. I think we'd better watch the colonel. That decision ofJennie's might have been because she's stuck on Jim Irwin, or because shetakes a lot of notice of what her father says."

  "Or she might have thought the decision was right," said Bronson. "Somepeople do, you know."

  "Right!" scoffed Bonner. "In a pig's wrist! I tell you that decision wascrooked."

  "Vell," said Haakon Peterson, "talk of crookedness wit' Yennie Woodruffdon't get wery fur wit' me."

  "Oh, I don't mean anything bad, Haakon," replied Bonner, "but it wasn't anall-right decision. I think she's stuck on the guy."

  The caucus broke up after making sure that the three members of the schoolboard would be as one man in maintaining a hostile front to Jim Irwin andhis tenure of office. It looked rather like a foregone conclusion, in alittle district wherein there were scarcely twenty-five votes. The threemembers of the board with their immediate friends and dependents couldmuster two or three ballots each--and who was there to oppose them? Whowanted to be school director? It was a post of no profit, little honor andmuch vexation. And yet, there are always men to be found who covet suchplaces. Curiously there are always those who covet them for noascertainable reason, for often they are men who have no theory ofeducation to further, and no fondness for affairs of the intellect. In theWoodruff District, however, the incumbents saw no candidate in view whocould be expected to stand up against the rather redoubtable Con Bonner.Jim's hold upon his work seemed fairly secure for the term of hiscontract, since Jennie had decided that he was competent; and after thathe himself had no plans. He could not expect to be retained by the men whohad so bitterly attacked him. Perhaps the publicity of his Ames addresswould get him another place with a sufficient stipend so that he couldsupport his mother without the aid of the little garden, the cows and thefowls--and perhaps he would ask Colonel Woodruff to take him back as afarm-hand. These thoughts thronged his mind as he stood apart and aloneafter his rebuff by the caucusing members of the school board.

  "I don't see," said a voice over against the cooking exhibit, "what thereis in this to set people talking? Buttonholes! Cookies! Humph!"

  It was Mrs. Bonner who had clearly come to scoff. With her was Mrs.Bronson, whose attitude was that of a person torn between conflictinginfluences. Her husband had indicated to the crafty Bonner and the subtlePeterson that while he was still loyal to the school board, and henceperforce opposed to Jim Irwin, and resentful to the decision of the countysuperintendent, his adhesion to the institutions of the Woodruff Districtas handed down by the fathers was not quite of the thick-and-thin type.For he had suggested that Jennie might have been sincere in rendering herdecision, and that some people agreed with her: so Mrs. Bronson, whileconsorting with the censorious Mrs. Bonner evinced restiveness when theschool and its work was condemned. Was not her Newton in charge of a partof this show! Had he not taken great interest in the project? Was he notan open and defiant champion of Jim Irwin, and a constant and enthusiasticattendant upon, not only his classes, but a variety of evening andSaturday affairs at which the children studied arithmetic, grammar,geography, writing and spelling, by working on cows, pigs, chickens,grains, grasses, soils and weeds? And had not Newton become a betterboy--a wonderfully better boy? Mrs. Bronson's heart was filled withresentment that she also could not be enrolled among Jim Irwin'ssupporters. And when Mrs. Bonner sneered at the buttonholes and cookies,Mrs. Bronson, knowing how the little fingers had puzzled themselves overthe one, and young faces had become floury and red over the other, flaredup a little.

  "And I don't see," said she, "anything to laugh at when the young girls dothe best they can to make themselves capable housekeepers. I'd like tohelp them." She turned to Mrs. Bonner as if to add "If this be treason,make the most of it!" but that lady was far too good a diplomat to becornered in the same enclosure with a rupture of relations.

  "And quite right, too," said she, "in the proper place, and at the propertime. The little things ought to be helped by every real woman--ofcourse!"

  "Of course," repeated Mrs. Bronson.

  "At home, now, and by their mothers," added Mrs. Bonner.

  "Well," said Mrs. Bronson, "take them Simms girls, now. They have to havehelp outside their home if they are ever going to be like other folks."

  "Yes," agreed Mrs. Bonner, "and a lot more help than a farm-hand can give'em in school. Pretty poor trash, they, and I shouldn't wonder if therewas a lot we don't know about why they come north."

  "As for that," replied Mrs. Bronson, "I don't know as it's any of mybusiness so long as they behave themselves."

  Again Mrs. Bonner felt the situation getting out of hand, and again shereturned to the task of keeping Mrs. Bronson in alignment with the forcesof accepted Woodruff District conditions.

  "Ain't it some of our business?" she queried. "I wonder now! By the wayNewtie keeps his eye on that Simms girl, I shouldn't wonder if it mightturn out your business."

  "Pshaw!" scoffed Mrs. Bronson. "Puppy love!"

  "You can't tell how far it'll go," persisted Mrs. Bonner. "I tell youthese schools are getting to be nothing more than sparkin' bees, from thecounty superintendent down."

  "Well, maybe," said Mrs. Bronson, "but I don't see sparkin' in everythingboys and girls do as quick as some."

  "I wonder," said Mrs. Bonner, "if Colonel Woodruff would be as friendly toJim Irwin if he knew that everybody says Jennie decided he was to keep hiscertif'kit because she wants him to get along in the world, so he canmarry her?"

  "I don't know as she is so very friendly to him," replied Mrs. Bronson;"and Jim and Jennie are both of age, you know."

  "Yes, but how about our schools bein' ruined by a love affair?"interrogated Mrs. Bonner, as they moved away. "Ain't that your businessand mine?"

  Instead of desiring further knowledge of what they were discussing, Jimfelt a dreadful disgust at the whole thing. Disgust at being the subjectof gossip, at the horrible falsity of the picture he had been able topaint to the people of his objects and his ambitions, and especially atthe desecration of Jennie by such misconstruction of her attitude towardhim officially and personally. Jennie was vexed at him, and wanted him toresign from his position. He firmly believed that she was surprised atfinding herself convinced that he was entitled to a decision in the matterof his competency as a teacher. She was against him, he believed, and asfor her being in love with him--to hear these women discuss it wasintolerable.

  He felt his face redden as at the hearing of some horrible indecency. Hefelt himself stripped naked, and he was hotly ashamed that Jennie shouldbe associated with him in the exposure. And while he was raging inwardly,paying the penalty of his new-found place in the public eye--a publicityto which he was not yet hardened--he heard other voices. ProfessorWithers, County Superintendent Jennie and Colonel Woodruff were making aninspection of the rural-school exhibit.

  "I hear he has been having some trouble with his school board," theprofessor was saying.

  "Yes," said Jennie, "he has."

  "Wasn't there an effort made to remove him from his position?" asked theprofessor.

  "Proceedings before me to revoke his certificate," replied Jennie.

  "On what grounds?"

  "Incompetency," answered Jennie. "I found that his pupils were reallydoing very well in the regular course of study--which he seems to beneglecting."r />
  "I'm glad you supported him," said the professor. "I'm glad to find youhelping him." "Really," protested Jennie, "I don't think myself--"

  "What do you think of his notions?" asked the colonel.

  "Very advanced," replied Professor Withers. "Where did he imbibe themall?"

  "He's a Brown Mouse," said the colonel.

  "I beg your pardon," said the puzzled professor. "I didn't quiteunderstand. A--a--what?"

  "One of papa's breeding jokes," said Jennie. "He means a phenomenon inheredity--perhaps a genius, you know."

  "Ah, I see," replied the professor, "a Mendelian segregation, you mean?"

  "Certainly," said the colonel. "The sort of mind that imbibes things fromitself."

  "Well, he's rather wonderful," declared the professor. "I had him to lunchto-day. He surprised me. I have invited him to make an address at Amesnext winter during farmers' week."

  "He?"

  Jennie's tone showed her astonishment. Jim the underling. Jim the off ox.Jim the thorn in the county superintendent's side. Jim the countryteacher! It was stupefying.

  "Oh, you musn't judge him by his looks," said the professor. "I really dohope he'll take some advice on the matter of clothes--put on a cravat anda different shirt and collar when he comes to Ames--but I have no doubt hewill."

  "He hasn't any other," said the colonel.

  "Well, it won't signify, if he has the truth to tell us," said theprofessor.

  "_Has_ he?" asked Jennie.

  "Miss Woodruff," replied the professor earnestly, "he has something thatlooks toward truth, and something that we need. Just how far he will go,just what he will amount to, it is impossible to say. But something mustbe done for the rural schools--something along the lines he is trying tofollow. He is a struggling soul, and he is worth helping. You won't makeany mistake if you make the most of Mr. Irwin."

  Jim slipped out of a side door and fled. As in the case of theconversation between Mrs. Bronson and Mrs. Bonner, he was unable todiscern the favorable auspices in the showing of adverse things. He hadnot sensed Mrs. Bronson's half-concealed friendliness for him, though itwas disagreeably plain to Mrs. Bonner. And now he neglected the colonel'sevident support of him, and Professor Withers' praise, in Jennie'smanifest surprise that old Jim had been accorded the recognition of aplace on a college program, and the professor's criticism of his dress andgeneral appearance.

  It was unjust! What chance had he been given to discover what it wasfashionable to wear, even if he had had the money to buy such clothes asother young men possessed? He would never go near Ames! He would stay inthe Woodruff District where the people knew him, and some of them likedhim. He would finish his school year, and go back to work on the farm. Hewould abandon the struggle.

  He started home, on foot as he had come, A mile or so out he was overtakenby the colonel, driving briskly along with room in his buggy for Jim.

  "Climb in, Jim!" said he. "Dan and Dolly didn't like to see you walk."

  "They're looking fine," said Jim.

  There is a good deal to say whenever two horse lovers get together. Hoofsand coats and frogs and eyes and teeth and the queer sympathies betweenhorse and man may sometimes quite take the place of the weather for anhour or so. But when Jim had alighted at his own door, the colonel spokeof what had been in his mind all the time.

  "I saw Bonner and Haakon and Ez doing some caucusing to-day," said he."They expect to elect Bonner to the board again."

  "Oh, I suppose so," replied Jim.

  "Well, what shall we do about it?" asked the colonel.

  "If the people want him--" began Jim.

  "The people," said the colonel, "must have a choice offered to 'em, or howcan you or any man tell what they want? How can they tell themselves?"

  Jim was silent. Here was a matter on which he really had no ideas exceptthe broad and general one that truth is mighty and shall prevail--but thatthe speed of its forward march is problematical.

  "I think," said the colonel, "that it's up to us to see that the peoplehave a chance to decide. It's really Bonner against Jim Irwin."

  "That's rather startling," said Jim, "but I suppose it's true. And muchchance Jim Irwin has!"

  "I calculate," rejoined the colonel, "that what you need is a champion."

  "To do what?"

  "To take that office away from Bonner."

  "Who can do that?"

  "Well, I'm free to say I don't know that any one can, but I'm willing totry. I think that in about a week I shall pass the word around that I'dlike to serve my country on the school board."

  Jim's face lighted up--and then darkened.

  "Even then they'd be two to one, Colonel."

  "Maybe," replied the colonel, "and maybe not. That would have to befigured on. A cracked log splits easy."

  "Anyhow," Jim went on, "what's the use? I shan't be disturbed thisyear--and after that--what's the use?"

  "Why, Jim," said the colonel, "you aren't getting short of breath are you?Do I see frost on your boots? I thought you good for the mile, and youaren't turning out a quarter horse, are you? I don't know what all it isyou want to do, but I don't, believe you can do it in nine months, canyou?"

  "Not in nine years!" replied Jim.

  "Well, then, let's plan for ten years," said the colonel. "I ain't goingto become a reformer at my time of life as a temporary job. Will you stickif we can swing the thing for you?"

  "I will," said Jim, in the manner of a person taking the vows in somesolemn initiation.

  "All right," said the colonel. "We'll keep quiet and see how many votes wecan muster up at the election. How many can you speak for?"

  Jim gave himself for a few minutes to thought. It was a new thing to him,this matter of mustering votes--and a thing which he had always lookedupon as rather reprehensible. The citizen should go forth with nocoercion, no persuasion, no suggestion, and vote his sentiments.

  "How many can you round up?" persisted the colonel.

  "I think," said Jim, "that I can speak for myself and Old Man Simms!"

  The colonel laughed.

  "Fine politician!" he repeated. "Fine politician! Well, Jim, we may getbeaten in this, but if we are, let's not have them going away pickingtheir noses and saying they've had no fight. You round up yourself and OldMan Simms and I'll see what I can do--I'll see what I can do!"