The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-12-12
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- The -
Schoolmlaster
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BY HERMAN LEWIS.
Copyrighted. 1907. by E. c. PARCELS.

pVvVVVVvVVVVyVvVVVVyVVVvVA
There was no doubt that Farmer
Watkins was the richest man at Rob
inson's Corners, and there was no
doubt that his nineteen-year-old daugh-
ter was the best looking and best edu-
Gated girl for five miles around. In
one way that was saying much. for the
other farmers were poor and the other
girls rather plain and uneducated, but
in another way it amounted to very
little to an outsider The schoOlmaster
was an outsider. He had come from
a distance of fifty miles to teach the
winter term at the Corners. He was
a young man of twenty-three, slim and
pale faced, and the big boys" who
chuckled at sight of him. There were
half dozen who "reckoned" they
could stand him on his head if he got
too fresh.
1t was Farmer Watkins who engaged
the young man. He was president of
the school board, and what he said
went. 1t was his daughter Jennie
" AAO SNNAQCh Itl4l III AAiS kCAlC WdS Ills
only child, and he was a widower, and
what she said also went There were
also a dozen other applicants. and she
threw her influence for Walter Crane
for very curious reason. He was the
only one among the applicants who
had the manners of a gentleman and
the only one who appeared to her to
no ~, oH,
school didn't require and had never
had a gentleman for teacher 1t did
not require and had never had an edu-
Gated man.
The pupils were a rough and igno-
rant lot. attending when they pleased
and doing about as they pleased.
Sometimes the farmers sons Of eight
cen, strong as horses and rough as
bears. had broken up the school after
four weeks; sometimes they had let it
continue on until spring. Sometimes
the big girls had rushed the master
and rolled him in a snowdrift and shat
tered his dignity, and sometimes they
had been content to turn the school
room into a sewing bee and laugh at
him as he protested.
And now they were going to try
new teacher, and Jennie Watkins had
plans to make him trouble from the
very start. She had no particular dis
like, but she wanted to see him taken
down peg several pegs. He had too
much assurance-tOO much confidence
in himself Why, at the examination
@q g.
when Mr.. Crane had been asked what
ocean surrounded Switzerland he had
smiled and replied none at all, when
she knew as we'll as could be that it
was the Atlantic She didn't say any
thing then. but she saved it up for
some future time. She had always
spelled the word "dissipated" with one
IS but he went right at it and spelled
1t with two, and even produced q spell
ing book to show that he was right
She had always answered that the
Rocky mountains were in Kansas. and
when ne moved them farther west her
cheeks got red and she put a rod in
pickle for him. That young man was
pretending that he knew altogether too
much He was even condescending a
little TO her father. and he wasn't pay
ing half enough attention to her
Mr.. Crane secured board al the house
of farmers widow and opened his
school. He announced that it was TO
begin at Il. n. Heretofore it had be-
gun at almost any hour to suit the
scholars. He made this announcement
without consulting Farmer Watkins
and without Farmer Watkins consult
ing his daughter. This was another
sign IF his independence.
He insisted on having dry instead Of
green wood for the big box stove. and
he insisted on repairs to the stove to
carry the smoke away. There was no
blackboard, and he made and painted
one. Some of the benches were broken.
and he asked that they be repaired.
There were some panes Of glass need
ed in the windows a lock on the door