The Brown Mouse Page 5

  CHAPTER V

  THE PROMOTION OF JENNIE

  If Jennie Woodruff was the cause of Jim Irwin's sudden irruption into theeducational field by her scoffing "Humph!" at the idea of a farm-hand'sever being able to marry, she also gave him the opportunity to knock downthe driver of the big motor-car, and perceptibly elevate himself in theopinion of the neighborhood, while filling his own heart with somethinglike shame.

  The fat man who had said "Cut it out" to his driver, was Mr. CharlesDilly, a business man in the village at the extreme opposite corner of thecounty. His choice of the Woodruff District as a place for motoring had asecret explanation. I am under no obligation to preserve the secret. Hecame to see Colonel Woodruff and Jennie. Mr. Dilly was a candidate forcounty treasurer, and wished to be nominated at the approaching countyconvention. In his part of the county lived the county superintendent--acandidate for renomination. He was just a plain garden or field countysuperintendent of schools, no better and no worse than the generalpolitical run of them, but he had local pride enlisted in his cause, andwas a good politician.

  Mr. Dilly was in the Woodruff District to build a backfire against thisconflagration of the county superintendent. He expected to use JennieWoodruff to light it withal. That is, while denying that he wished to makeany deal or trade--every candidate in every convention always saysthat--he wished to say to Miss Woodruff and her father, that if MissWoodruff would permit her name to be used for the office of countysuperintendent of schools, a goodly group of delegates could be selectedin the other corner of the county who would be glad to reciprocate anyfavors Mr. Charles J. Dilly might receive in the way of votes for countytreasurer with ballots for Miss Jennie Woodruff for superintendent ofschools.

  Mr. Dilly never inquired as to Miss Woodruff's abilities as an educator.That would have been eccentric. Miss Woodruff never asked herself if sheknew anything about rural education which especially fitted her for thetask; for was she not a popular and successful teacher--and was not thatenough? Mr. Dilly merely asked himself if Miss Woodruff's name couldcommand strength enough to eliminate the embarrassing candidate in hispart of the county and leave the field to himself. Miss Woodruff askedherself whether the work would not give her a pleasanter life than didteaching, a better salary, and more chances to settle herself in life. Soare the officials chosen who supervise and control the education of thefarm children of America.

  This secret mission to effect a political trade accounted for Mr. Dilly'sdesire that his driver should "cut out" the controversy with NewtonBronson, and the personal encounter with Jim Irwin--and it may account forJim's easy victory in his first and only physical encounter. An officeseeker could scarcely afford to let his friend or employee lick a memberof a farmers' road gang. It certainly explains the fact that when JimIrwin started home from putting out his team the day after his first callon the Simms family, Jennie was waiting at the gate to be congratulated onher nomination.

  "I congratulate you," said Jim.

  "Thanks," said Jennie, extending her hand.

  "I hope you're elected," Jim went on, holding the hand; "but there's nodoubt of that."

  "They say not," replied Jennie; "but father says I must go about and letthe people see me. He believes in working just as if we didn't have a bigmajority for the ticket."

  "A woman has an advantage of a man in such a contest," said Jim; "she canwork just as hard as he can, and at the same time profit by the fact thatit's supposed she can't."

  "I need all the advantage I possess," said Jennie, "and all the votes. Saya word for me when on your pastoral rounds."

  "All right," said Jim, "what shall I say you'll do for the schools?"

  "Why," said Jennie, rather perplexed, "I'll be fair in my examinations ofteachers, try to keep the unfit teachers out of the schools, visit schoolsas often as I can, and--why, what does any good superintendent do?"

  "I never heard of a good county superintendent," said Jim.

  "Never heard of one--why, Jim Irwin!"

  "I don't believe there is any such thing," persisted Jim, "and if you dono more than you say, you'll be off the same piece as the rest. Yoursystem won't give us any better schools than we have--of the old sort--andwe need a new kind."

  "Oh, Jim, Jim! Dreaming as of yore! Why can't you be practical! What doyou mean by a new kind of rural school?"

  "A truly-rural rural school," said Jim.

  "I can't pronounce it," smiled Jennie, "to say nothing of understandingit. What would your tralalooral rural school do?"

  "It would be correlated with rural life," said Jim.

  "How?"

  "It would get education out of the things the farmers and farmers' wivesare interested in as a part of their lives."

  "What, for instance?"

  "Dairying, for instance, in this district; and soil management; andcorn-growing; and farm manual training for boys; and sewing, cooking andhousekeeping for the girls--and caring for babies!"

  Jennie looked serious, after smothering a laugh.

  "Jim," said she, "you're going to have a hard enough time to succeed inthe Woodruff school, if you confine yourself to methods that have beentested, and found good."

  "But the old methods," urged Jim, "have been tested and found bad. Shall Ikeep to them?"

  "They have made the American people what they are," said Jennie. "Don't beunpatriotic, Jim."

  "They have educated our farm children for the cities," said Jim. "Thiscounty is losing population--and it's the best county in the world."

  "Pessimism never wins," said Jennie.

  "Neither does blindness," answered Jim. "It is losing the farms theirdwellers, and swelling the cities with a proletariat."

  For some time, now, Jim had ceased to hold Jennie's hand; and theirsweetheart days had never seemed farther away.

  "Jim," said Jennie, "I may be elected to a position in which I shall beobliged to pass on your acts as teacher--in an official way, I mean. Ihope they will be justifiable."

  Jim smiled his slowest and saddest smile.

  "If they're not, I'll not ask you to condone them," said he. "But first,they must be justifiable to me, Jennie."

  "Good night," said Jennie curtly, and left him.

  Jennie, I am obliged to admit, gave scant attention to the new career uponwhich her old sweetheart seemed to be entering. She was in politics, andwas playing the game as became the daughter of a local politician. Thereader must not by this term get the impression that Colonel Woodruff wasa man of the grafting tricky sort of which we are prone to think when theterm is used. The West has been ruled by just such men as he, and the Westhas done rather well, all things considered. Colonel Albert Woodruff wentsouth with the army as a corporal in 1861, and came back a lieutenant. Histitle of colonel was conferred by appointment as a member of the staff ofthe governor, long years ago, when he was county auditor. He was not arich man, as I may have suggested, but a well-to-do farmer, whose wife didher own work much of the time, not because the colonel could not afford tohire "help," but for the reason that "hired girls" were hard to get.

  The colonel, having seen the glory of the coming of the Lord in thetriumph of his side in the great war, was inclined to think that allreform had ceased, and was a political stand-patter--a very honest andsincere one. Moreover, he was influential enough so that when Mr. Cumminsor Mr. Dolliver came into the county on political errands, ColonelWoodruff had always been called into conference. He was of the old NewEngland type, believed very much in heredity, very much in the theory thatwhatever is is right, in so far as it has secured money or power.

  He had hated General Weaver and his forces; and had sometimes wondered howa man of Horace Boies' opinions had succeeded in being so good a governor.He broke with Governor Larrabee when that excellent man had turned againstthe great men who had developed Iowa by building the railroads. He wasalways in the county convention, and preferred to serve on the committeeon credentials, and leave to others the more showy work of membership inthe committee on resolutions. He be
lieved in education, provided it didnot unsettle things. He had a good deal of Latin and some Greek, and livedon a farm rather than in a fine house in the county seat because of hislack of financial ability. As a matter of fact, he had been too strictlyscrupulous to do the things--such as dealing in lands belonging to easternspeculators who were not advised as to their values, speculating in countywarrants, buying up tax titles with county money, and the like--by whichhis fellow-politicians who held office in the early years of the countyhad founded their fortunes. A very respectable, honest, American tory wasthe colonel, fond of his political sway, and rather soured by the factthat it was passing from him. He had now broken with Cummins and Dolliveras he had done years ago with Weaver and later with Larrabee--and thisbreach was very important to him, whether they were greatly concernedabout it or not.

  Such being her family history, Jennie was something of a politicianherself. She was in no way surprised when approached by party managers onthe subject of accepting the nomination for county superintendent ofschools. Colonel Woodruff could deliver some delegates to his daughter,though he rather shied at the proposal at first, but on thinking it over,warmed somewhat to the notion of having a Woodruff on the county pay-rollonce more.