“Me, too,” said Con Bonner.
There was a general chorus of assent. Jim had convinced his audience.
“He’s got the jury,” said Wilbur Smythe to Colonel Woodruff.
“Yes,” said the colonel, “and right here is where he runs into danger. Can he handle the crowd when it’s with him?”
“Well,” said Jim, “I think we ought to organize one, but I’ve another proposition first. Let’s get together and pool our cream. By that, I mean that we’ll all sell to the same creamery, and get the best we can out of the centralizers by the cooperative method. We can save two cents a pound in that way, and we’ll learn to cooperate. When we have found just how well we can hang together, we’ll be able to take up the cooperative creamery, with less danger of falling apart and failing.”
“Who’ll handle the pool?” inquired Mr. Hansen.
“We’ll handle it in the school,” answered Jim.
“School’s about done,” objected Mr. Bronson.
“Won’t the cream pool pretty near pay the expenses of running the school all summer?” asked Bonner.
“We ought to run the school plant all the time,” said Jim. “It’s the only way to get full value out of the investment. And we’ve corn-club work, pig-club work, poultry work and canning-club work which make it very desirable to keep in session with only a week’s vacation. If you’ll add the cream pool, it will make the school the hardest working crowd in the district and doing actual farm work, too. I like Mr. Bonner’s suggestion.”