Mrs. Haakon Peterson was a tall blonde woman who, when she spoke betrayed her Scandinavian origin by the northern burr to her “r’s,” and a slight difficulty with her “j’s,” her “y’s” and long “a’s.” She was slow-spoken and dignified, and Jim felt an instinctive respect for her personality. Mrs. Bronson was a good motherly woman, noted for her housekeeping, and for her church activities. She looked oftener at her son, and his friend Raymond than at the schoolmaster. Mrs. Bonner was the most voluble of the three, and was the only one who shook hands with Jim; but in spite of her rather offhand manner, Jim sensed in the little, black-eyed Irishwoman the real commander of the expedition against him—for such he knew it to be.
“You may think it strange of us coming after hours,” said she, “but we wanted to speak to you, teacher, without the children here.”
“I wish more of the parents would call,” said Jim. “At any hour of the day.”
“Or night either, I dare say,” suggested Mrs. Bonner. “I hear you’ve the scholars here at all hours, Jim.”
Jim smiled his slow patient smile.
“We do break the union rules, I guess, Mrs. Bonner,” said he; “there seems to be more to do than we can get done during school hours.”
“What right have ye,” struck in Mrs. Bonner, “to be burning the district’s fuel, and wearing out the school’s property out of hours like that—not that it’s anny of my business,” she interposed, hastily, as if she had been diverted from her chosen point of attack. “I just thought of it, that’s all. What we came for, Mr. Irwin, is to object to the way the teachin’s being done—corn and wheat, and hogs and the like, instead of the learnin’ schools was made to teach.”
“Schools were made to prepare children for life, weren’t they, Mrs. Bonner?”
“To be sure,” went on Mrs. Bonner, “I can see an’ the whole district can see that it’s easier for a man that’s been a farm-hand to teach farm-hand knowledge, than the learnin’ schools was set up to teach; but if so be he hasn’t the book education to do the right thing, we think he should get out and give a real teacher a chance.”
“What am I neglecting?” asked Jim mildly.