The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-09-12
Copyright by The Bobbs-Merriu Company

the pest sort or career-l love the
soil -
I've been teaching for only two
years, and they say I'll be nominated
for county superintendent If III take
it. OF course | won't-it seems Silly
but IL 1t were you, now, it would be
a first step to a life that leads to
something"
Mother and l can live on my wages
and the garden and chickens, and the
cow said Jim. after | received my
teachers certificate, I tried to work
out some way of doing the same thing
on a country teachers wages. l
couldn't. 1t doesn't seem right"
Jim rose and after pacing back and
forth sat down again, a little closer
to Jennie. Jennie moved away to the
extreme cad of the bench, and the
shrinking away of Jim as II he had
been repealed by some sort of negative
magnetism showed either sensitive
ness or temper.
1T seems as If 1t ought to be pos
sible." said Jim, "for a man to do
work on the farm, or In the rural
schools, that would make him a liveli-
hood. If he is only a ield-hand, 1t
ought to be possible for him to save
money and buy a farm"
"Pa's land Is worth two hundred
dollars an acre." said Jennie. six
months of your wages for an acre
even If o lived or nothing"
NO" he assented, sit can't be done.
and the other thing can't, either.
There ought to be such conditions that
a teacher could make a living
''They do" said Jennie, "if they
can live at home during vacations. l
do"
but a man teaching in the country
ought to be able to marry"
Marry" said Jennie, rather unfeel-
ingly, 1 think. "You marry! !" Then
after remaining silent for nearly a
minute, she uttered the syllable-with-
out the utterance of which this narra-
tive would not have been written.
You marry Humph! !"
Jim Irwin rose from the bench
tingling with the insult he found in
her tone. They had been boy-and-glrl
s~weethearts in the old days at the
Woodruff schoolhouse down the road.
and before the fateful time when
Jennie went "off to school, and Jim
began to support his mother. They
had even kissed-and on Jim's side,
lonely as was his life, cut off as 1t
necessarily was from all companion
ship save that Of his tiny home and
his f~ellow-workers of the field, the
tender little love-story was the sole ro-
nance sf his life. Jennle's "Humph p
retired this romance from circulation,
ne felt. 1t showed contempt for the
idea of his marrying. 1t r~elegated him
TO a sexless category with other de-
fectiyes, and badged him with the cell
bacy of a sort of Notwithstanding
monk, without the honor of the priest
ly vocation. From another girl 1t
would have been bad enough, but from
Jennie Woodruff-and especially on
that quiet summer night under the
linden-it was insupportable.
Good night" said Jim-simply be-
NduSt lie IOulu lOI lIuSl HIMSELF 10
say more.
Good night" replied Jennie, and
sat for a long time wondering Just
how deeply she had unintentionally
wounded the feelings of her fathers
field-hand; deciding that If he was
driven from her forever, 1t would
solve the problem Of terminating that
old childish love affair which still per-
sisted In occupying a suite of rooms
all of its own in her memory; and
finally %repenting of the unpremedi-
tated thrust which might easily have
Jim Irwin. But girls are not usually
so made as TO feel any very bitter re-
morse for their male victims, and so
Jennie slept very well that night.
Jim Irwin was bony and rugged and
homely, with a big mouth, and wide
ears, and a form stopped with labor.
He had fine, lambent, gentle eyes
which lighted up his face when he
smiled. He was not ugly. Jim Irwin
possessed charm. That is why little
Jennie Woodruff had asked him to
help with her lessons, rather oftener
than was necessary, in those old days
In the Woodruff schoolhouse when
Jennie wore her hair down her back.
But in spite of this homely charm
of personality, Jim Irwin was set off
from his fellows of the Woodruff
neighborhood. He was different. In
local p%arlance, he was an off OK. He
was as odd as Dicks hatband. He ran
in a gang by himself. He had always
liked to read, and had piles of liter
allure in his attic room which was
good, because it was cheap.
Very few people know that cheap
literature is very likely to be good, be-
cause it is old and unprotected by
copyright. Jim had Emerson, Thoreau,
an Encyclopedia of English Literature,
some editions of standard poets in pa
per covers, and a few Ruskins and
Carlyles-all read to rags.
In fact, Jim had a good library of
publications which can be obtained
gratis, or very cheaply-and he knew
their contents. He baG q personal
philosophy, when while 1t had cost
him the world in which his fellows
lived. had given him one Of his own, in