The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-09-19
I--Continued.

?
Jim picked it up and showed him
the nodules on its roots-little white
knobs, smaller than p%inheads.
Ever hear of the use of nitrates
to enrich the soil"
"Ain't that the stuff the old man
used on the lawn last spring."
"Yes," said Jim, 'your father used
some on his lawn. We don't put it on
our fields in Iowa-not yet; but If it
weren't for those white specks on the
clover-roots, we should be obliged to
do so-as they do back east"
How do them white specks keep
us from needin' nitrates?"
"It's a long story said Jim. you
see, before there were any plants big
enough to be visible-if there had
been any n to see them-the world
was full of little plants so small that
there may be billions of them in one
of these little white specks. They
knew how to take the nitrates from
the air
Air. calculated Newton. "Nitrates
III TIE dlI! lOu Ie crazy
mo" said Jim. There are tons of
nitrogen in the air that press down on
your head-but the big plants can't
get ii through their leaves, or their
roots. They never had to learn, be-
cause the little plants-bacteria-lo-
Gated on those roots and tapped them
for the sap they needed-began to get
their board and lodgings off the big
plants. And in payment for their hotel
bills, the little plants took nitrogen
out of the air for both themselves and
their hosts"
what dye mean by hosts"
'Their hotel-keepers-the big plants.
And now the plants that have the
hotel roots for the bacteria furnish
nitrogen not only for themselves, but
for the crops that follow. Corn can't
get nitrogen out of the air; but
clover can-and that's why we ought
to pillow down clover before a crop of
corn"
"Gee!" said Newt. "If you could get
to teach our school, I'd go again."
ut would interfere with your pool
playing"
what business is that o. yours?'
Intercepted Newt defiantly.
well. get busy with that shovel, y
suggested Jim, who had been working
steadily, driving out upon the fill oc-
occasionally to unload. On his return
from dumping the next load, Newton
seemed, in a superior way, quite
amiably disposed toward his workfel-
low-rather the habitual thing in the
neighborhood.
"Tll work my old man to vote for
you for teacher" said he.
"Those school directors" replied
Jim, "have become so bullheaded that
they'll never vote for any one except
the applicants they've been voting for"
1.-The old man says he will have
Prue Foster again, or he'll give the
school a darned long vacation, unless
Peterson and Bonner join on some one
else. That would beat Prue, of
course"
"And Con Bonner won't vote for
n one but Maggie Gilmartin," added
Jim.
And" supplied Newton. "Haakon
Peterson says he'll stick to Herman
Paulson until the Hot Springs freeze
over"
And there you are" said jim. you
tell your father for me that 1 think
he's a mere mule-and that the whole
district thinks the same"
"All right" said Newt. I'll tell him
that while I'm working him to vote
for you"
Jim smiled grimly. He had re-
manned a peasant because the Amer
lean rural teacher is placed econom-
ically lower than the peasant. He
gave Newton's chatter nc consldera-
ton. But when, in the afternoon, he
hitched his team with others to the
big road grader, and the gang became
concentrated within talking distance,
he found that the project of heckling
and chatting him about his eminent fit
ness for a scholastic position was TO
be the real entertainment of the oc-
caslOn.
"JimS the candidate to bust the
deadlock" said Columbus Brown, with
a wink. "Just like Garfield in that
Republican convention he was NOM
mated inch, Conf"
Con- was Cornelius Bonner, an
Irishman, one of the deadlocked school
board, and the captain of the road
grader. He winked back at the path
master.
"Jim's the gray-eyed man O. des-
tiny" he replied, eff he gets two
votes in that board"
You'd vote for me, wouldn't you,
CONF" asked Jim.
IN try anything vance," replied
Bonner.
TRY voting with Ezra Bronson once,
for Prue Foster" suggested Jim.
"She's done good work here"
Opinions differ" said Bonner, IAN
when you try anything just for
vance, it shouldn't be an %lrrevocable
shtlp, me bye"