The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-12-22
Brown Mouse

bow, should adOrn the homei"
"Boshp" Sneered Jennie, rather
pleased, all the same. suppose she
isn't fair, and hasn't any home!"
This question of adjoining a home
was no nearer settlement with Jennie
than 1t had eve been, though in
creasingly a matter of speculation.
There were two or three men-rather
good catches, tOo-who, IL they were
encouraged-but what was there to
any of them? This is what Jennie
asked her pa~per-weight as she placed
1t on a pile of unfinished examination
papers. And the paper-weight echoed,
mot a thing out of the ordinary I"
And then, said Jennie, "Well, you little
simpleton, who and what are you so
out of the ordinary that you should
sheer at Wilbur Smythe and Beckman
Fitield and such mem" And echo an
swered. '|WhatY'-and then the mall
carrier came in.
Down near the bottom of the pile
she found this letter, signed by a
southern state superintendent of
schools, but dated at Kirkville, Mis-
souri,:
Il am a member of a party of south
ern charlottesville superintendent
la the main-en tour Of the country
TO see what we can find of an instruc-
tive nature in rural school work.
Professor Withers of Ames suggests
that We visit you schools, and especial
ly the rural school taught by a young
man named Irwin, and | wonder If you
will be free on next Monday incoming,
If we come to your Office. to direct us
to the place? If you could accompany
us on the trip, and perhaps show US
some of your other excellent schools,
we should be honored and pleased"
And then came the shock-a party
of state officials were coming into the
county to study Jim Irwin's school
They would never come to study Will
bur Sinythe's law practice-never in
The world-or her work as county
Observation-Disclosures and Jim was
getting seyenty-fve dollars a month,
and had a mother to support, But
there could be no doubt that there was
something to Jim-the man was out
Of the ordinary. And wasn't that just
what she had been looking for in her
mindf
Jennie wired to her southerner for
the number Of his party, and secured
automobiles for the trip. She sent a
note to Jim Irwin telling Of the
prospective visitation. She would show
all concerned that she could do some
things, anyhow, and she would send
these people on with a good impress
sion Of her county.
She was glad of the automobiles the
next Monday morning, when at nine
thirty the train discharged Upon her
a dozen very alert, very up-to-date,
very inquisitive southerners, male and
female, most OF whom seemed to have
left their IRIS" in the gulf region. 1t
was eleven when the party parked
their machines before the schoolhouse
door.
There are visitors here before u.s."
said Jennie.
Seems rather like an educational
shrine" said Doctor Brathwayt of
Mississippi. How does he 'accommo-
date so many visitors in that small
ediice?"
II am not aware" said Jennie,
that he has been In the habit of re-
ceiving so very many from outside the
district. Well. shall we go in?"
Once inside, Jennie felt a queer re-
turn of her old aversion to Jim's
methods-the aversion which had
caused her to criticize him so sharply
on the occasion Of her first visit. The
reason for the return of the feeling
lay in the fact that the work going on
was the same sort, but Of a more In
tense character. 1t was so utterly I'M
like a school as Jennie understood the
group of educators with a little blush.
The school was in a sort of uproar.
Not that uproar of boredom and mis-
chief of which most Of us have famil-
lar memories, but a sort Of eager up
roar, in which every child was in
tensely interested in the same thing ;
and did little rustling things because
of this interest; something like the
hum at a football game or a dog
fight.
On one side OF the desk stood Jim
Irwin, and facing him was q smooth
stranger of the old-fashioned lightning
rod-sgent type-the shaflewer and lax
er sort OF salesman Of the kind whose
sole business is to get signatures ON
the dotted line, and let some one else
do the rest. In short, he was a
"closer."
Standing back of him in evident dis
tress was Mr.. Cornelius Bonner, and
grouped about were Columbus Brown,
B. B. Hamm, Ezra Bronson, A. B.
Talcott and two or three others from
outside the Woodruff district. With
envelopes in their hands and the light
of battle in their eyes stood Newton
Bronson, Raymond Simms, Bettina
Hansen, Mary Smith and Angie Tai
colt, the boys filed with delight, the
girls rather frightened at being en-
gagged in something like a debate with
the salesman.
(TO BE CONTINUED)