! Elder Concannon declared
loudly, in the post office one day, that if the school had been good
enough for the fathers of the community, and for the grandfathers as
well, it should be good enough for the present generation of scholars.
Truly, an unanswerable argument, it would seem!

Yet there was now a stir of new life in Poketown. There was a spirit
abroad among the people that had never before been detected. Walky
Dexter hit it off characteristically when he said:

"Hi tunket! does seem as though that air reading-room's startin' up has
put the sperit of unrest in ter this here village. People never took
much int'rest in books and noospapers before in Poketown. Look at 'em,
now. I snum! they buzz around that readin'-room for chances to read the
papers like bees around a honey-pot.

"An' that ain't all--no, sir! 'Most ev'rybody seems ter be
discontented--that's right! Even folks that git their 'three squares' a
day and what they want to wear, ain't satisfied with things as they is,
no more. I dunno what we're all comin' to. 'Lectric street lights, and
macadamized roads, and all sech things, I s'pose," and Walky chuckled
over his flight of imagination.

"Wal, I dunno," said the druggist, argumentatively, "I'm free ter
confess for one that a different system of street lightin' wouldn't hurt
Poketown one mite. This here havin' a lot of ile lamps, that ain't
lighted at all if the almanac says the moon ought ter shine, is a
nuisance. Sometimes the moon acts right contrary!"

"My soul an' body!" gasped Walky. "You say that to Elder Concannon, and
Mr. Cross Moore, and ol' Bill Jones! They say taxes is high 'nuff as
they be."

"And school tax, too, I s'pose?" demanded another idler in the drug
store.

"Wal," said Walky, "I b'lieve we _could_ give the little shavers a
better chance to l'arn their A, B, C's. And that old schoolhouse can't
be het on re'l cold days. And it's as onhandy as it can be----"

"I believe you're goin' in for these new-fangled notions, too, Walky,"
declared the druggist.

"Guess I be, on the school question, anyway. My woman says she sha'n't
let our Helen go ter school again this winter, for she's got one cold
right on top of another las' year. It's a plumb shame."

It was from talks such as these in the village stores that the fire of
public demand for a new school building--if not for a new system of
education--finally burst into open flame.

Usually, when there was a public meeting, the b