"One of papa's breeding jokes," said Jennie. "He means a phenomenon in
heredity--perhaps a genius, you know."

"Ah, I see," replied the professor, "a Mendelian segregation, you mean?"

"Certainly," said the colonel. "The sort of mind that imbibes things from
itself."

"Well, he's rather wonderful," declared the professor. "I had him to lunch
to-day. He surprised me. I have invited him to make an address at Ames
next winter during farmers' week."

"He?"

Jennie's tone showed her astonishment. Jim the underling. Jim the off ox.
Jim the thorn in the county superintendent's side. Jim the country
teacher! It was stupefying.

"Oh, you musn't judge him by his looks," said the professor. "I really do
hope he'll take some advice on the matter of clothes--put on a cravat and
a different shirt and collar when he comes to Ames--but I have no doubt he
will."

"He hasn't any other," said the colonel.

"Well, it won't signify, if he has the truth to tell us," said the
professor.

"_Has_ he?" asked Jennie.

"Miss Woodruff," replied the professor earnestly, "he has something that
looks toward truth, and something that we need. Just how far he will go,
just what he will amount to, it is impossible to say. But something must
be done for the rural schools--something along the lines he is trying to
follow. He is a struggling soul, and he is worth helping. You won't make
any mistake if you make the most of Mr. Irwin."

Jim slipped out of a side door and fled. As in the case of the
conversation between Mrs. Bronson and Mrs. Bonner, he was unable to
discern the favorable auspices in the showing of adverse things. He had
not sensed Mrs. Bronson's half-concealed friendliness for him, though it
was disagreeably plain to Mrs. Bonner. And now he neglected the colonel's
evident support of him, and Professor Withers' praise, in Jennie's
manifest surprise that old Jim had been accorded the recognition of a
place on a college program, and the professor's criticism of his dress and
general appearance.

It was unjust! What chance had he been given to discover what it was
fashionable to wear, even if he had had the money to buy such clothes as
other young men possessed? He would never go near Ames! He would stay in
the Woodruff District where the people knew him, and some of them liked
him. He would finish his school year, and go back to work on the farm. He
would abandon the struggle.

He started home, on foot as he had come, A mile o