were scarcely twenty-five votes. The three
members of the board with their immediate friends and dependents could
muster two or three ballots each--and who was there to oppose them? Who
wanted to be school director? It was a post of no profit, little honor and
much vexation. And yet, there are always men to be found who covet such
places. Curiously there are always those who covet them for no
ascertainable reason, for often they are men who have no theory of
education to further, and no fondness for affairs of the intellect. In the
Woodruff District, however, the incumbents saw no candidate in view who
could be expected to stand up against the rather redoubtable Con Bonner.
Jim's hold upon his work seemed fairly secure for the term of his
contract, since Jennie had decided that he was competent; and after that
he himself had no plans. He could not expect to be retained by the men who
had so bitterly attacked him. Perhaps the publicity of his Ames address
would get him another place with a sufficient stipend so that he could
support his mother without the aid of the little garden, the cows and the
fowls--and perhaps he would ask Colonel Woodruff to take him back as a
farm-hand. These thoughts thronged his mind as he stood apart and alone
after his rebuff by the caucusing members of the school board.

"I don't see," said a voice over against the cooking exhibit, "what there
is in this to set people talking? Buttonholes! Cookies! Humph!"

It was Mrs. Bonner who had clearly come to scoff. With her was Mrs.
Bronson, whose attitude was that of a person torn between conflicting
influences. Her husband had indicated to the crafty Bonner and the subtle
Peterson that while he was still loyal to the school board, and hence
perforce opposed to Jim Irwin, and resentful to the decision of the county
superintendent, his adhesion to the institutions of the Woodruff District
as handed down by the fathers was not quite of the thick-and-thin type.
For he had suggested that Jennie might have been sincere in rendering her
decision, and that some people agreed with her: so Mrs. Bronson, while
consorting with the censorious Mrs. Bonner evinced restiveness when the
school and its work was condemned. Was not her Newton in charge of a part
of this show! Had he not taken great interest in the project? Was he not
an open and defiant champion of Jim Irwin, and a constant and enthusiastic
attendant upon, not only his classes, but a variety of evenin