Tuesday, January ,15, 1924
THE HEFPNER HERAtD, HEBPKER. OREGON
Page Five 1
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qcrbert Quick
SYNOPSIS
I N
CHAPTER I. Jennie Woodruff con
temptuously refuses to marry Jim Ir
win, young- tarm hand, because of his
financial condition and poor prospects.
He Is intellectually above his station,
nd has advanced ideas concerning the
Possibilities of expert school teaching,
lor which he is ridiculed by many.
CHAPTER II. More as a Joke than
finrwlse Jim Is selected as teacher of
the Woodruff district school.
CHAPTER Ill.Wlm. "in hls new poll
yon. its out t make stanch friends
of his pupils, especially two boys, New
ton Bronson and "Buddy" Simms, the
latter the son of a shiftless farmer.
Colonel Woodruff, Jennie's father, has
little faith In Jim's Ideas of improving
rural educational methods. He nick
names him the "Brown Mouse," in il
lustration of an anecdote.
CHAPTER IV. Jim's conduct of the
school, where he endeavors to teach
the children the wonders of nature
nd some of the iclentlllc methods of
farming, as well as "book learning,"
u condemned.
CHAPTER V Jennie Woodruff Is
nominted for the position of county
superintendent of schools. The school
board grows bitter In Its opposition
to Jim and his innovations.
CHAPTER VI. At a public meeting
Jim roundly condemns the methods of
teaching in the rural schools, and
makes no friend thereby.
CHAPTER VII. A delegation of
prominent women condemn Jim's meth
ods of teaching, but he is stoutly de
fended by his pupils, especially Newton
Bronson.
. CHAPTER VIII
Jennie Arranges a Christmas Party.
Miss Jennie Woodruff of the Wood
ruff district was a sensible country
girl. Being sensible, she tried to
avoid uppishness. But she did feel
some little sense of increased Impor
tance as she drove her father's little
runabout over the smooth earth roads,
In the crisp December weather, Just
before Christmas. The weather Itself
was stimulating, and In the little car,
visiting the one hundred or more rural
schools soon to come under her super
vision, she rather fancied the picture
of herself, clothed in more or less au
thority and queening it over her little
army of teachers.
Mr. Haakon Peterson was phlegmat
lcally conscious that she made rather
an agreeable picture, as she stopped
her car alongside his top buggy to talk
with him. She had bright blue eyes,
fluffy brown hair, a complexion
whipped pink by the breeze, and she
smiled at him Ingratiatingly.
"Don't you think father Is lovely?"
said she. "He is going to let me use
the runabout when I visit the schools."
"That will be good," said Haakon.
"It will save you lots of time. I hope
you make the county pay for the gaso
line." "I haven't thought about that," said
Jennie. "Everybody's been so nice to
me I want to give as well as receive."
"Why," said Haakon, "you will yust
begin to receive when your salary be
gins In Tanuary."
"Oh, no !" said Jennie. "I've re
ceived much more than that now! You
don't know how proud I feel. So many
nice men I never knew before, and all
my old friends like you working for
me In the convention and at the polls,
Just as if I amounted to something."
"And you don't know how proud I
feci," said Haakon, "to have in county
office a little girl I used to hold on my
lap."
Haakon was a rather richer man
than the colonel, and not a little proud
of his ascent to affluence. A mild
spoken, soft-voiced Scandinavian, he
was quite completely Americanized,
and his Influence was always worth
fifty to sixty Scandinavian votes in
any county election. He was a good
party man and conscious of being en
titled to his voice In party matters.
This seemed to him an opportunity for
exerting a bit of political influence.
"l'ennie." said he, "this man Yim
Irwin needs to be lined up."
"Lined up! What do you mean?"
"The way he is doing in the
school," said Haakon, "is all wrong.
If you can't line him up, he will make
you trouble. We must look ahead.
Everybody has his friends, and l'lm
Irwin has his friends. If you have
trouble with him, his friends will be
against you when we want to nom
inate you for a second term. The
county is getting close. If we go to
convention without your home delega
tion It would weaken you, and if we
nominate you, eery piece of trouble
like this cats down your wote. You
ought to line him up and have him do
right."
"But he Is so funny," said Jennie.
"He likes you," said Haakon. "Tou
can line him tip."
Jennie blushed, and to conceal her
slight embarrassment, got out for the
purpose of cranking her machine.
"But If I cannot line him up?" said
she.
"I tank," said Haakon, "If you can't
line him up, you will have a chance
to rewoke his certificate when yoa
take oflice."
Jennie thought of Mr. Peterson's
suggestion as to "lining up" Jim Irwin
as so thoroughly sensible that she
gave It a good deal of thought that
day. To be sure, everybody had al
ways favored "more practical Milieu-
0MMOFSE
1
tiou, ana Jim b inrm arnnmeuc,
farm physiology, farm reading and
writing, cow-testing exercises, seed
analysis, corn clubs and the tomato,
poultry and pig clubs he proposed to
have In operation the next summer,
seemed highly practical ; but to Jen
nie's mind, the fact that they Intro
duced dissension in the neighborhood
and promised to make her official life
vexatious seemed ample proof that
Jim's work was visionary and Imprac
tical. Poor Jennie was not aware of
the fact that new truth always comes
bringing, nut peace to mankind, but a
sword.
"Father," said she that night, "let'a
have a little Christmas party."
"All right," said the colonel. "Whom
Bhall we invite?"
"Don't laugh," said she. "I want to
Invite Jim Irwin and his mother, and
nobody else."
"All right," reiterated the colonel.
"But why?"
"Oh," said Jennie, "1 want to see
whether I can talk Jim out of some
of his foolishness."
"You want to line him up, do you?"
said the colonel. "Well, that's good
politics, and incidentally, you may get
some good Ideas out of Jim."
"Rather unlikely," said Jennie.
"I don't know about that," said the
colonel, smiling. "I begin to think that
"Talk Jim Out of Some of His Fool
ishness." Jim's a Brown Mouse. I've told you
about the Brown Mouse, haven't I?"
j "Yes," said Jennie. "Y'ou've told
me. But Professor Darbisliire's
brown mice were simply wild and in
corrigible creatures. Just because It
happens to emerge suddenly from the
I forests of heredity, It doesn't prove
i that the Brown Mouse Is any good."
"Justin Morgan was a Brown
Mouse," said the colonel. "And he
founded the greatest breed of horses
In the world."
I "You say that," said Jennie, "be
cause you're a lover of the Morgan
I horse."
' "Napoleon Bonaparte was a Brown
Mouse," said the colonel. "So was
George Washington, and so was Peter
I the Great. Whenever a Brown Mouse
appears he changes things In a little
way or a big way."
! "For the better, ' always?" asked
Jennie,
i "No," said the colonel. "The Brown
Mouse may throw back to slant-headed
savagery. But Jim . . . some
, times I think Jim is the kind of
; Mendelian segregation out of which
j we get Franklins and Edisons and
; their sort. You may get some good
ideas out of Jim. Let us have them
here for Christmas, by all means."
I There Is no doubt that on Christ
I mas day Jennie Woodruff was Justi
i Ded in thinking that they were a
queer couple. They weren't like the
j Woodruffs, at all. They were of a
different pattern. To be sure, Jim's
clothes were not especially note
worthy, being Just shiny, and frayed
at cuff and instep, and short of sleeve
and leg, and Ill-fitting and cheap.
Jim's queerness lay not so much In his
clothes as In his personality.
On the other hand, Jennie could not
help thinking that Mrs. Irwin's queer
ness was to be found almost solely In
her clothes. The black alpaca looked
nndenlably respectable. Jennie felt
It must have a story a story In which
the stooped, rusty, somber old lady
looked like a character drawn to har
monize with the period Just after the
war.
But Jennie had the keenness to see
that if Mrs. Irwin could have had an
up-to-date costume she would have
become a rather ordinary and not bad
looking old lady. What Jennie failed
to divine was that if Jim could have
Invested a hundred dollars In the serv
ices of tailors, haberdashers, barbers
and other specialists In personal ap
pearance, and could have blotted out
his record as her father's field-hand,
he would have seemed to her a distinguished-looking
young man. Not
handsome, of course, but the sort peo
ple lOus. liter ana itniim. -
"Come to dinner." said Mrs. Wood
raff, wbo at this Juncture had a hired
girl, but was yoked to the oar never
theless when It came to turkey and
the other fixings of a Christmas din
ner. "It's good enough, what there Is
of it, and there's enough of it such as
it is but the dressing in the turkey
would be better for a little more
sage !"
The bountiful meal piled mountain
high for guest and hired help and fam
ily melted away in a manner to de
light the hearts of Mrs. Woodruff and
Jennie. The colonel, in stiff starched
shirt, black tie and frock coat, carved
with much empresseraent, and Jim felt
almost for the first time a sense of
the value of manner.
"I had bigger turkeys," said Mrs.
Woodruff to Mrs. Irwin, "but I thought
it would be better to cook two turkey
hens Instead of one great big gobbler
with meat as tough as tripe and
stuffed full of fat."
"One of the hens would 'a been
plenty," replied Mrs. Irwin. "How
much did they weigh?"
"About fifteen pounds apiece," was
the answer. "The gobbler would 'a'
weighed thirty, I guess. He's pure
Mammoth Bronze."
"I wish," said Jim, "that we could
get a few breeding birds of the wild
bronze turkeys from Mexico."
"Why?" asked the colonel.
"They're the original blood of tpe
domestic bronze turkeys," said Jim,
"and they're bigger and handsomer
than the pure bred bronzes, even.
They're a better stock than the North
ern wild turkeys from which our com
mon birds originated."
"Where do you learn all these
things, Jim?" asked Mrs. Woodruff.
"I declare, I often tell Woodruff that
It's as good as a lecture to have Jim
Irwin at table. My intelligence has
fallen since you quit working here,
Jim."
There came Into Jim's eyes the
gleam of the man devoted to a Cause
and the dinner tended to develop
Into a lecture. Jennie saw a little
more plainly wherein his queerness
lay.
"There's an education in any meal,
if we would Just use the things on the
table as materials for study, and fol
low their trails back to their starting
points. This turkey takes us back to
the chaparral of Mexico"
"What's chaparral?" asked Jennie,
as a diversion. "It's one of the words
I have seen so often and know per
fectly to speak It and read It but
after all It's Just a word, and nothing
more."
"Ain't that the trouble with our edu
cation, Jim?" queried the colonel, clev
erly steering Jim back into the track
of his discourse.
"They are not even living words,"
answered Jim, "unless we have clothed
them in flesh and blood through some
sort of concrete notion. 'Chaparral'
to Jennie is Just the ghost of a word.
Our civilization is full of Inefficiency
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
hefted and handled and tested and
heard."
CHAPTER IX
The Brown Mouse Escapes.
Jennie looked Jim over carefully.
His queerness was taking on a new
phase-r-and she felt a sense of sur
prise such as one experiences when
the conjurer causes a rose to grow
into a tree before your very eyes.
"I think we lose so much time In
school," Jim went on, "while the chil
dren are eating their dinners."
"Well, Jim," said Mrs. Woodruff,
"every one but you is down on the
human level. The poor kids have to
eat !"
"But think how much good educa
tion there is wrapped up in the school
dinner If we could only get it out."
Jennie grew grave. Here was this
Brown Mouse actually introducing the
subject of the school and he ought
to suspect that she was planning to
line him up on this very thing if lie
wasn't a perfect donkey as well as a
dreamer. And he was calmly wading
into the subject as if she were the
ex-farm-hand country teacher, and he
was the county superintendent-elect!
"Eating a dinner like this, mother,"
said the colonel gallantly, "Is an edu
cation In itself and eating some oth
ers requires one; but Just how 'lam
in' ' is wrapped up In the school lunch
is a new one on me, Jim."
"Well," said Jim, "In the first place
the children ought to cook their meals
as a part of the school work. Prior to
that they ought to buy the materials.
And prior to that they ought to keep
the accounts of the school kitchen.
They'd like to do these things, and It
would help prepare them tor life on
an Intelligent plane, while they pre
pared the meals."
"Isn't that looking rather far
ahead?" asked the county superintendent-elect
"It's like a lot of other things we
think far ahead," urged Jim. "The
only reason why they're far off is be
cause we think them so. It's a thought
and a thought is as near the mo
ment we think It as It will ever be."
"I guess that's so to a wild-eyed
reformer," said the colonel. "But go
on. Develop your thought a little.
Have some more dressing."
"Thanks, I believe I will," said Jim.
"And a little more of the cranberry
sauce. No more turkey, please."
"I'd like to see the school class that
could prepare this dinner," said Mrs.
Woodruff.
"Why," said Jim, "you'd be there
showing them how! They'd get cred
its In their domestic economy course
for getting the school dinner and
h'd brin their mothers Into It to
neip tnem stand at tne neaa 01 mm
classes. And one detail of girls would
cook one week, and another serve.
The setting of the table would coma
In as a study flowers, linen and all
that And when we get a civilized
teacher, table manners!"
"I'd take on that class," said the
hired man, winking at Selma Carlson,
the maid, from somewhere below the
salt "The way I make my knife feed
my face would be a great help to the
children."
"And when the food came on the
table," Jim went on, with a smile at
his former fellow-laborer, who had
heard most of this before as a part
of the field conversation, "Just think
of the things we could study while
eating it. The literary term for eat
ing a meal Is discussing It well, the
discussion of a meal under proper
guidance Is much more educative than
a lecture. This breast-bone, now,"
said he, referring to the remains on his
plate. "That's physiology. The cran
berry sauce that's botany, and com
merce, and soil management do you
know, Colonel, that the cranberry
must have an acid soil which would
kill alfalfa or clover?"
"Read something of it," said the
colonel, '.'but it didn't interest nie
much."
"And the difference between the
types of fowl on the table that's
breeding. And the nutmeg, pepper and
coconut that's geography. And every
thing on the table runs back to geog
raphy, and comes to us linked to our
lives by dollars and cents and they're
mathematics."
"We must have something more than
dollars and cents In life," said Jen
nie. "We must have culture."
"Culture," cried Jim, "is the ability
to think In terms of life Isn't It?"
"Like Jesse James?" suggested the
hired man, who was a careful student
of the life of that eminent bandit.
There was a storm of laughter at
this sally amidst which Jennie wished
she had thought of something like
that. Jim joined In the laughter at
his own expense, but was clearly suf
fering from argumeutative shock.
"That's the best answer I've had on
that point, Pete," he said, after the
disturbance had subsided. "But if the
James boys and the Youngers had had
the sort of culture I'm for, they would
have been successful stock men and
farmers. Instead of train robbers.
Take Raymond Simms, for instance.
He had all the qualifications of a mem
ber of the James gang when he came
here. All he needed was a few ex
asperated associates of his own sort,
and a convenient railway with unde
fended trains running over it But
after a few weeks of real 'culture'
under a mighty poor teacher, he's de
veloping into the most enthusiastic
farmer I know. That's real culture."
"It's snowing like everything," said
Jennie, who faced the window.
"Don't cut your dinner short," said
the colonel to Pete, "but I think you'll
find the cattle ready to come In out of
the storm when you get good and
through."
"I think I'll let 'em in now," suld
Pete, by way of excusing himself. "1
expect to put In most of the duy from
now on getting ready to quit eating.
Save some of everything for me, Sel
ma I'll be right back !"
"All right, Pete," said Selma.
Mrs. Woodruff and Jim's mother
went into other parts of the house on
research work connected with their
converse oa (HmirMii; ctuauuij, uv
colonel withdrew for an Inspection of
the live stock on the eve of the
threatened blizzard. And Jim was left
alone with Jennie in the front parlor.
Scanning him by means of her back
hair, Jennie knew that in another
moment Jim would lay his hand on
her shoulder, or otherwise advance to
personal nearness, as he had done the
night of his ill-starred speech at the
schoolhouse and she rose In self
defense. Self-defense, however, did
not seem to require that he be kept
at too great a distance; so she
maneuvered hiin to the sofa, and seat
ed him beside her. Now was the time
to line hiin up.
"It seems good to have you with us
today," said she. "We're such old, old
friends."
"Yes," repeated Jim, "old friends.
. . . We are, aren't we, Jennie?"
He readied over and possessed him
self of her hand. She pulled It from
him gently, but he paid no attention
to the little muscular protest, and ex
amined the hand critically. On the
hack of the middle finger lie pointed
out a scar a very tiny sear.
"Do you remember how you got
that?" lie asked.
Because Jim clung to the hand, their
heads were very close together as
she Joined in the examination.
"Why, I don't believe I do," said
she.
"I do," he replied. "We you and I
unl .Mary Forsythe were playing
mumble-peg, and you put your hand
on the grass Just as I threw the knife
It cut you, and left that sear."
"I remember, now!" said she.
"How such things come back over the
memory. And did It leave a scar
when I pushed you toward the red-hot
stove In the schoolhouse one bllzzardy
dsv like this, and vou peeled the skin
OP INTEREST TO THE
LADIES
For the latest and best In
MILLINERY, CORSETS
and WOMEN'S WEAK
See
Mrs. L.G. Herren
Phone S62
err your wrist wnere 11 uruc& uie
stove?"
"Look at it," said he, baring his
long and bony wrist "Right there!"
And they were off on the trail that
leads back to childhood. They had
talked long, and Intimately, when the
shadows f the early evening crept
Into the corners of the room. Jennie
recalled the time when the tornado
narrowly missed the schoolhouse, and
frightened everybody In school nearly
to death.
"Everybody but you, Jim," Jennie
remembered. "You looked out of the
window and told the teacher that the
twister was going north of us, and
would kill somebody else."
"Did I?" asked Jim.
"Yes," said Jennie, "and when the
teacher asked us to kneel and thank
God, you said, 'Why should we thank
God that somebody else is blowed
away?" She was greatly shocked."
"I don't see to this day," Jim as
serted, "what answer there was to
my question."
In the gathering darkness Jim again
took Jennie's hand, but this time she
deprived him of It
He was trembling like a leaf. Let
It be remembered In his favor that
tnls was the only girl's hand he had
ever held,
"You can't find any more scars on
it," she said soberly.
"Let me see how much It has
changed since I stuck the knife In
It," begged Jim.
Jennie held it up for Inspection.
"It's longer, and slenderer, and
whiter, and even more beautiful,"
said he, "than the little hand I cut;
but It was then the most beautiful
hand in the world to me and still is."
"I must light the lamps," said the
county superintendent-elect, rather
flustered, it must be confessed.
"Mamma! Where are all the
matches?"
Mrs. Woodruff and Mrs. Irwin came
In, and the lamplight reminded Jim's
mother that the cow wns still to milk.
IT PAYS TO READ
Forehanded
People
Inside of the vault of the bank are located
the individvual Safe Deposit Boxes main
tained for those forehanded people who want
the BEST OF PROTECTION for their
valuables. Bonds, stocks, insurance policies,
mortgages, records, receipts, jewelry, trink
ets, etc, deserve better protection than they
receive when kept in an office safe, tin box
or hidden away somewhere.
This bank has these Safe Deposit Boxes
for rent at the rate of two dollars a year and
up, according to the size of the box., It offers
you the opportunity to keep your valuables
where iV keeps its own. Rent a Safe Deposit
Box today, for the number now vacant is
limited.
Farmers and Stockgrowers
National Bank
HEPPNER,
Tho
OUR STORE is head
quarters for seasonable
merchandise.
We can feed and clothe the whole
family from soup to nuts and
from hats to shoes
See our line of
Suits and Overcoats
for Men and Boys
"Remember How You Got That I
ana mat tne cnicKens mignr need ar
tentlon. The Woodruff sleigh cama
to the door to carry them home; but.
Jim desired to breast the storm. Hej
felt that he needed the conflict. Mrs.'
Irwin scolded him for his foolishness,
but he strode off into the whirling
drift, throwing back a good-by for
general consumption, and a pathetic
smile to Jennie
"He's as odd as Dick, hatbanaV
Raid Mrs. Woodruff, "tramping oft In
a storm like this."
"Did you line him up?" asked the
colonel of Jennie.
The young lady started and blush'e&
She had forgotten all about the poli
ties of the situation.
"I I'm afraid I didn't, impa,"- aha
confessed. . , "
"Those brown, mice of ProfesaoT,
Darblshire's," said the colonel, 'w.er
the devil and all to control.''
(To be continued)
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