The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1923-09-06
Copyright by Tho Bobbs-Merrin Company

ITS all wrong" said Jim gently
"The farm ought to be the place fol-
the best sort of career-I love the
soil!''
I've been teaching for only two
years, and they say I'll be nominated
for county superintendent If I'll take
1t. OF course | won't-it seems silly
but If 1t were you, now, it would be
a first step to a life that leads to
something"
Mother and | can live on my wages
and the garden and chickens, and the
cow" said Jim. after / received my
teachers certificate, l tried to work
out some way of doing the same thing
on a country teachers wages. ]
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 end of the bench, and the
shrinking away of Jim as If he had
been repealed by some sort of negative
magnetism showed either sensitive
ness or temper.
1T seems as II 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 feld-hand, it
ought to be possible for him to save
money and buy a farm"
PAS land Is worth two hundred
dollars an acre. said Jennie. six
months Of your wages for an acre
sven If you lived on nothing"
mo-" he assented, "it 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. ]
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 nara
tive would not have been written.
you marryl Humph!"
Jim Irwin rose from the bench
tingling with the insult he found in
her tone. They had been boy-and-girl
sweethearts in the old days at the
Woodruff schoolhouse down the road,
and before the fatefuI 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 it
necessarily was from all companion
ship save that of his tiny home and
his fellOW-workers of the field, the
tender little love-story was the sole ro-
ance IF his life. Jennie's 3Humph p
this romance from circulation,
he felt. 1t showed contempt for the
Idea of his marrying. 1t relegated him
to a sexless category with other de-
fectives, and badged him with the cell
bacy OF a sort Of Twentieth-century
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
quiet summer night under the
linden-it was insupportable.
Good night" said Jim-simply be-
cause he could not trust himself to
say more.
Good night" replied Jennie, and
sat for a long time wondering just
how deeply she had Internationally
wounded the feelings of her fathers
f%eld-hand; deciding that if he was
driven from her forever, 1t would
solve the problem of terminating that
Did childish love affair which still per-
sisted In occupying a suite of rooms
all Of its wv in her memory; and
finally %repenting of the unpremedi-
thrust which might easily have
lurt too deeply so sensitive a man as
Jim Irwin. But girls are not usually
20 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
lonely, with a big mouth, and wide
ears, and a form stopped with labor.
He had fine, lambent, gentle eyes
WHICH, ilSlitcu up HIS lace WnoD he
He was not ugly. Jim Irwin
possessed charm. That is why little
Woodruff had asked him to
lelp with her lessons, rather oftener
han was necessary, In those old days
n the Woodruff schoolhouse when
wore her hair down her back.
But in spite of this homely charm
# personality, Jim Irwin was set off
rom his fellows of the Woodruff
leighborhood. He was different. In
ocal parlance, he was an off OK. He
vas as odd as Dicks hatband. He ran
n a gang by himself. He had always
lked to read, and had piles of liter
ture In his attic room which was
God, because it was cheap.
Very few people know that cheap
is very likely to be good, be-
ause it is old and unprotected by
opyright. Jim had Emerson, Thoreau,
q Encyclopedia of English Literature,
49, 1