The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-09-26
HE EVENING STORY
he SchooImaster..
(By Herman Lewis. J

watkins was the richest man at Rob-
insons Corners, and there was no
doubt that his nineteen-year-old
daughter was the best looking and best
educated 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 unedu-
Gated, but in another way it amounted
to very little to an outsider. The
schoolmaster was an outsider. He had
come from distance of fifty miles to
teach the winter term at the corners.
He was young man of twenty-three,
slim and pale faced, and the big
boys" who were to attend the term
smiled and chuckled at sight OF him.
There were half a dozen who reck-
oned' 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 VINO
decided him in this. She was his only
child and he was widower, and what
she said also went. There were also
dozen other applicants, ana she Threw
her influence for Walter crane Tor
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 be her SUI
perior in education. The school didn't
require and had never had gentle
man for teacher. 1t did not require
and never had had an educated man.
The pupils were a rough and ignor-
ant lot, attending when they pleased
and doing about as they pleased
Sometimes the farmers sons or e1gh-
teen, strong as horses and rough as
bears, had broken up the school af-
ter four weeks; sometimes they had
let it continue until spring. Some
times the "big girls had rushed the
master and rolled MIN IN snowdri1t
and shattered his dignity. and some
times they had been content to turn
the schoolroom into a sewing bee and
laugh at him as he protested.
And now they were going to try a
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 a peg-severaI pegs. He had
too much aSSurance-toO much conf
dence in himself. Why, at the exam
ination of candidates at her fathers
house. when Mr.. Crane had been
asked what ocean surrounded Switz-
er1and he smiled and replied none at
all, when she knew as well as could be
that it was the Atlantic. She didn't
say anything then, but she saved 1t up
for some future time. She had always
spelled the word 'dissipated' with one
s." but he went right at it and
spelled it with two, and even produced
a spelling book to show that he was
right. She had always answered that
the Rocky mountains were in Kansas,
and when he moved them further west
her cheeks got red and she put rod
in pickle for him. That young man
was pretending that he knew alto
descending a little to her father. and |
he wasn't paying half enough atten- |
ton to her.
Mr.. Crane secured board at the |
house of a farmers widow and opened !
his school. He announced that it was |
IN a m
begun at almost any hour to suit the |
scholars. He made this announce
ment without consulting farmer Wat !
5ins, and without farmer Watkins con- |
sulting his daughter. This was an
other sign of 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 re-
paired. There were some panes of
glass needed in the windows, lock on
he door and a new tin water pail, and
before school actually opened the
eacher was being looked upon as
living curiosity.
He had gone through the neighbor-
lood and made brief call at every
house to ascertain how many scholars
lie would have and to form their ac-
luaintance in advance. His call did
lot last longer at the Watkins house
han elsewhere. He was gentlemanly,
and a ready talker
Ind Jennie had just begun to wonder
f she wouldn't like him after all, when
lie picked up some poetry she had
,een writing and had left where he
vas certain to see it, and criticised
Ter rhymes and the spelling of three
,r four different words. He did worse
lie suggested that she attend school.
md failing IN that, he would assist her
# an evening now and then. The girl
estrained herself from killing him on
he spot, but she said to herself that
lis career would be brief and full of
She went to her father
or sympathy, but after she had stated
Ter case her surprise was unbounded ]
o hear him reply:
well. mebbe you do make a mis-
AXE here and there. This eddecatfon
S such a tangled up thing that I can't
ee how anybody ever spells cat twice
like. I guess that young Teller sorter
.nows what he's about
The custom in district schools all
yer America is to give a new master a
week hefc re proceeding to let him un-
erstand who runs that schoolhouse.
he rule was followed in this case.
here were those who thought there !
would be no outbreak. Miss Jennie
Watkins was not one of them. She
admit exactly conspired, but she had
ad something to say to several of the !
ig boys and girls. Just a week and !
hen five or six gaunt and overgrown
iris rushed" the master. He took It
s a joke, and it was the girls who !
yere buried in the snowdrifts Mr..
rane said that he would dismiss
,hool any day for fifteen minutes to
nable the pupils to indulge in ath-
tic exercises Mis- Jennie was in
ignant when one of the bedrageled
iris came along and stated the result le
{ the rush. She went to her father
bout it, and after thinking it over he /
nswered:
"Mebbe it wasn't the most dignifed- t
It thing that ever happened, but I
it,s 70 a. a..--l =