of the mold of women
of whom warriors are born--their faces approached, and Jim recognized a
crisis in the fact that Bettina's mouth was presented for a kiss. Jim met
the occasion like the gentleman he was. He did not leave her stung by
rejection; neither did he obey the impulse to respond to the invitation
according to his man's instinct; he took the rosy face between his palms
and kissed her forehead--and left her in possession of her self-respect.
After that Bettina Hansen felt, somehow, that the world could not possibly
contain another man like Jim Irwin--a conviction which she still cherishes
when that respectful caress has been swept into the cloudy distance of a
woman's memories.

Pete, Colonel Woodruff's hired man, was watering the horses at the trough
when the trouble shooter reached the Woodruff telephone. County
Superintendent Jennie had run for her father's home in her little
motor-car in the face of the shower, and was now on the bench where once
she had said "Humph!" to Jim Irwin--and thereby started in motion the
factors in this story.

"Anything wrong with your phone?" asked the trouble man of Pete.

"Nah," replied Pete. "It was on the blink till you done something down the
road."

"Crossed up," said the lineman. "These trees along here are something
fierce."

"I'd cut 'em all if they was mine," said Pete, "but the colonel set 'em
out, along about sixty-six, and I reckon they'll have to go on
a-growin'."

"Who's your school-teacher?" asked the telephone man.

The county superintendent pricked up her ears--being quite properly
interested in matters educational.

"Feller name of Irwin," said Pete.

"Not much of a looker," said the trouble shooter.

"Nater of the sile," said Pete. "He an' I both worked in it together till
it roughened up our complexions."

"Farmer, eh?" said the lineman interrogatively. "Well, he's the first
farmer I ever saw in my life that recognized there's education in the
telephone business. I'm goin' to teach a class in telephony at the
schoolhouse to-morrow."

"Don't get swelled up," said Pete. "He has everybody tell them young ones
about everything--blacksmith, cabinet-maker, pie-founder, cookie-cooper,
dressmaker--even down to telephones. He'll have them scholars figurin' on
telephones, and writin' compositions on 'em, and learnin' 'lectricity from
'em an' things like that"

"He must be some feller," said the lineman. "And who's his star pupil?"

"Didn't know he