“Thankee,” said Mr. Simms gravely. “What Ah tell you-all is right, ladies and gentlemen. An’ what has made the change in we-uns, ladies and gentlemen? It’s the wuk of Mr. Jim Irwin with my boy Raymond, the best boy any man evah hed, and my gyuhl, Calista, an’ Buddy, an’ Jinnie, an’ with me an’ my ole woman. He showed us how to get a toe-holt into this new kentry. He teached the children what orto be did by a rentin’ farmer in Ioway. He done lifted us up, an’ made people of us. He done showed us that you-all is good people, an’ not what we thought you was. Outen what he learned in school, my boy Raymond an’ me made as good crops as we could last summer, an’ done right much wuk outside. We got the name of bein’ good farmers an’ good wukkers, an’ when Mr. Blanchard moved to town, he said he was glad to give us his fine farm for five years. Now, see what Mr. Jim Irwin has done for a pack o’ outlaws and outcasts. Instid o’ hidin’ out from the Hobdays that was lay-wayin’ us in the mountings, we’ll be livin’ in a house with two chimleys an’ a swimmin’ tub made outen crock’ryware. We’ll be in debt a whole lot—an’ we owe it to Mr. Jim Irwin that we got the credit to git in debt with, an’ the courage to go on and git out agin!” (Applause.) “Ah could affo’d to pay Mr. Jim Irwin’s salary mysr’f, if Ah could. An’ there’s enough men hyah to-night that say they’ve been money-he’ped by his teachin’ the school to make up mo’ than his wages. Let’s not let Mr. Jim Irwin go, neighbors! Let’s not let him go!”
Jim’s heart sank. Surely the case was desperate which could call forth such a forlorn-hope charge as that of Old Man Simms—a performance on Mr. Simms’ part which warmed Jim’s soul. “There isn’t a man in that meeting,” said he to himself, as he walked to the schoolhouse door, “possessed of the greatness of spirit of Old Man Simms. If he’s a fair sample of the people of the mountains, they are of the stuff of which great nations are made—if they only are given a chance!”
Colonel Woodruff was on his feet as Jim made his way through the crowd about the door.
“Mr. Irwin is here, ladies and gentlemen,” said he, “and I move that we hear from him as to what we can do to meet the offer of our friends in Pottawatomie County, who have heard of his good work, and want him to work for them; but before I yield the floor, I want to say that this meeting has been worth while just to have been the occasion of our all becoming better acquainted with our friend and neighbor, Mr. Simms. Whatever may have been the lack of understanding, on our part, of his qualities, they were all cleared up by that speech of his—the best I have ever heard in this neighborhood.”
More applause, in the midst of which Old Man Simms slunk away down in his seat to escape observation. Then the chairman said that if there was no objection they would hear from their well-known citizen, whose growing fame was more remarkable for the fact that it had been gained as a country schoolmaster—he need not add that he referred to Mr. James E. Irwin. More and louder applause.
“Friends and neighbors,” said Jim, “you ask me to say to you what I want you to do. I want you to do what you want to do—nothing more nor less. Last year I was glad to be tolerated here; and the only change in the situation lies in the fact that I have another place offered me—unless there has been a change in your feelings toward me and my work. I hope there has been; for I know my work is good now, whereas I only believed it then.”
“Sure it is!” shouted Con Bonner from a front seat, thus signalizing that astute wire-puller’s definite choice of a place in the bandwagon. “Tell us what you want, Jim!”
“What do I want?” asked Jim. “More than anything else, I want such meetings as this—often—and a place to hold them. If I stay in the Woodruff District, I want this meeting to effect a permanent organization to work with me. I can’t teach this district anything. Nobody can teach any one anything. All any teacher can do is to direct people’s activities in teaching themselves. You are gathered here to decide what you’ll do about the small matter of keeping me at work as your hired man. You can’t make any legal decision here, but whatever this meeting decides will be law, just the same, because a majority of the people of the district are here. Such a meeting as this can decide almost anything. If I’m to be your hired man, I want a boss in the shape of a civic organization which will take in every man and woman in the district. Here’s the place and now’s the time to make that organization—an organization the object of which shall be to put the whole district at school, and to boss me in my work for the whole district.”
“Dat sounds good,” cried Haakon Peterson. “Ve’ll do dat!”
“Then I want you to work out a building scheme for the school,” Jim went on. “We want a place where the girls can learn to cook, keep house, take care of babies, sew and learn to be wives and mothers. We want a place in which Mrs. Hansen can come to show them how to cure meat—she’s the best hand at that in the county—where Mrs. Bonner can teach them to make bread and pastry—she ought to be given a doctor’s degree for that—where Mrs. Woodruff can teach them the cooking of turkeys, Mrs. Peterson the way to give the family a balanced ration, and Mrs. Simms induct them into the mysteries of weaving rag rugs and making jellies and preserves—you can all learn these things from her. There’s somebody right in this neighborhood able to teach anything the young people want to learn.