“Of course. You don’t think that worthless scamp that’s been drawin’ the pay and not teachin’ any could get the job unless he’d elected a trustee, do you? But leave that to us mounting folks. You jest say you’ll take the school an’ we’ll elect you a trustee.”
“But the schoolhouse!” Florence had remonstrated. “It’s bad enough now—flies, and all that—but in cold weather it would be impossible.”
Ransom’s face had clouded. “Can’t be helped none, I reckon. They hain’t no funds fer hit. Doors and windows cost a heap, havin’ to be brought in as they do. Us mounting folks are most terrible poor, most terrible.”
The two girls had considered the proposition seriously. They were not yet through the University. It seemed a little hard to give up the first half of their school year. They caught visions of great buildings, swarming students, laughing faces, books, libraries, all the good things that go to make University life a joyous affair. Yet here was an opportunity for an unusual service. Could they afford to refuse? They had talked it over. In the end Florence had said to Ransom:
“If you can manage the trustee and we can get some money to fix up the schoolhouse, we will stay.”
To this Marion had given hearty assent and Ransom Turner had gone away happy.
Money for the new school! It had been their desire for just this that had put Florence in her present strange and mysterious predicament.
It had been a very unusual proposition that Mr. John Dobson of the Deep Rock Mining Company had made to them, a proposition that held great possibilities.
They had gone to him to ask him to help them with money for the school. He had told them that his company had no fund for contributions such as they asked. He had not, however, turned them away entirely without hope.
“The company, of which I am President,” he had said, “is a comparatively small one. The stock is not owned by any one rich man, or by a group of rich men. It is owned by a number of men who own a little property and who hope to improve their position by wise investment. These men look to me to bring about the success they hope for. Unfortunately, at the present time we are short of coal lands. The railroad up this way has been built for several years. The coal land that lies along it has been bought up by rich companies, principally the Inland Coal and Coke Company, which is so large that it has come to be looked upon as virtually a monopoly in these parts.