The 
 
 By C, W G. Hyde,
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 SiATC NORMAL SCHOOL, 
 
 IlOS fi^GEiiES, Cnit.
 
 The Green Valley School 
 
 A Pedagogical Story 
 
 BY 
 
 C. W. G. HYDE 
 
 Editor of School Education 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 North-Western School Supply Co. 
 1907 
 
 . IS>08
 
 Copyright, 1907 
 By C. W. G. HYDE
 
 Education 
 Library 
 
 L 
 
 - 
 
 9 
 
 To the 
 
 TEACHING PROFESSION 
 This book is affectionately inscribed
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The New Principal I 
 
 II. The School Bully 8 
 
 III. The County Superintendent 22 
 
 IV*. Visitors' Day 33 
 
 V. The Stone Quarry 52 
 
 VI. A Modern Inquisition 62 
 
 VII. A Case of Discipline 75 
 
 VIII. A School Romance cjo 
 
 IX. Edmund Burke <)/ 
 
 X. James Learns a Valuable Lesson 106 
 
 XI. Heavitree 113 
 
 XII. The River Belle 125 
 
 XIII. Self Government 141 
 
 XIV. Awakening a Sluggard 146 
 
 XV. Euclid by Moonlight 154 
 
 XVI. The Fugitive 165 
 
 XVII. The Outcome 175
 
 C. W. G. HYDE 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The principal of the Green Valley School is still 
 living. He has had a long and varied experience 
 as teacher and has often been heard to say that if 
 lie were to begin a second life on earth, he would, in 
 view of that experience, choose the schoolroom as a 
 field in which to do service to humanity and win 
 that satisfaction which is the reward of a congenial 
 task well done. 
 
 The Green Valley School (names are of course 
 changed) is the one school of all in which he has 
 labored, whose memories are sweetest to him. One 
 of his greatest pleasures is in the occasional tidings 
 that come to him from his former pupils. It is still 
 his privilege to meet some of them face to face.
 
 Allie Harley has been something of a traveler. 
 Eva Black's principal work is now in the champion- 
 ship of the woman's suffrage movement. A recent 
 letter from her contains the following passages : 
 
 "What a flood of pleasant memories your letter 
 evoked and how the tears spring to the once 'mis- 
 chievous eyes' as I think of the dear old days. * * * 
 1 low delighted I was when you would come to my 
 seat and sit beside me a little while now and then. 
 ' f It does, indeed, seem strange to think of Calvin 
 Green (a son of Squire Green, a member of the school 
 ijcr.rd interviewed by Dr. Wakely in Chapter X) as 
 justice of the supreme court ; Judge Boyd of the su- 
 preir.e c.-urt of - - said to me that Judge Green 
 
 viiies the smoothest decisions of any judge of his 
 acquaintance. * * : 
 
 The picture of Mr. Harkins, county superinten- 
 dent of schools in Anita county, is based on memories 
 which linger in the mind of Rutledge Stockley. The 
 old gentleman grew more pedantic and lost none of 
 his geniality as the weight of years accumulated. He 
 lived to a ripe old age. 
 
 Mr. Stockley makes an occasional visit to Green 
 Valley and it has been a rare pleasure to him, five 
 ten twenty years after the cessation of his work in 
 the Green Valley School, to drop into Dan Lorin^'s 
 grocery store and talk with his old friend about the 
 days and the people of long ago. Poor Dan! he no 
 longer dispenses sugar and sunny smiles over the 
 grocery counter. He has gone "the way of all flesh" 
 and his son Stockley's old pupil succeeds him. 
 
 "The Green "Valley School" is the true record of 
 a real school. Its purpose will be accomplished if 
 they who read it derive as much pleasure from its 
 perusal as the author has experienced in committing 
 the principal's narrative to paper and if, in addition 
 to this, they are able to catch and utilize the spirit 
 which animated Rutledge Stockley and rendered his 
 administration of the Green Vallev School a success.
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE NEW PRINCIPAL 
 
 * * * e'en as just a man 
 As e'er my conversation coped withal. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Two men were climbing the plank sidewalk that 
 led from the main street of Green Valley to the white 
 school house on the hill. One was thirty-six to forty 
 years of age, rather richly dressed, whose clear eye and 
 handsome face emphasized the aristocratic bearing 
 which was evident in his voice and movements. The 
 other, who was fifteen to twenty years younger, was 
 slight and pale. He listened with deference to the 
 earnest words addressed to him by his elder compan- 
 ion as they walked briskly up the hill. 
 
 "Mr. Stockley," said the elder man," our corres- 
 pondence has given me a very favorable impression of 
 you, and I believe you are going to succeed." 
 
 "I shall do my best, Mr. Dow," replied Mr. Stock- 
 ley, " and with the support you have promised me on 
 the part of the board, I hardly see how I can fail if I
 
 2 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 show ordinary tact and ability." 
 
 "You can count on help from me in any reasonable 
 measure," returned Mr. Dow, " but you'll find some 
 rough boys and some troublesome girls. The two 
 Blazer boys are roughs; Eva Black and Allie Harley 
 will have all the fun they can with the new teacher and 
 Jim Wakeley will do whatever a sneak can do, to toss 
 thorns into your path. But on the whole, you'll find 
 the scholars well-disposed. Drop in and see me this 
 evening, and we will talk things over." 
 
 Rutledge Stockley, the new teacher of the Green 
 Valley School was a native of central New York who 
 had migrated to Minnesota for mixed hygienic and com- 
 mercial reasons. At the end of six months he took 
 account of stock. There were but few dollars in his 
 purse; he had not found a desirable business opening 
 in St. Paul; and a severe bilious attack had reduced 
 his flesh and strength. 
 
 At the suggestion of a friend he wrote to H. L. 
 Dow, director of the Green Valley two-department 
 school, applying for the principalship. Impressed with 
 the manly tone of Stockley 's letter and with the evident 
 intelligence and refinement of the writer,Mr. Dow wired 
 him to take the next train for Green Valley. This he 
 did, arriving on the first day of the term at 10 a. m., 
 an hour after the usual time for opening the school. 
 
 Although in his conversation with Mr. Stockley, 
 Mr. Dow expressed confidence in the ability of the 
 former to conduct the school with success, he had 
 some secret misgivings, for the would-be pedagogue 
 was very pale and very gaunt (he was just rallying 
 from the effects of his illness), and he was entirely des- 
 titute of experience as a teacher. For similar reasons
 
 THE NEW PRINCIPAL 3 
 
 Stockley shrank from the ordeal of making his first ap- 
 pearance as the master of forty lusty western boys and 
 girls, but he had the advantage of a well-founded be- 
 lief in his own ability and honesty and it was therefore 
 with a courageous heart that he followed the director 
 into the school room and encountered the eighty eyes 
 that were instantly focused upon him. 
 
 The pupils, knowing that the new teacher was ex- 
 pected on the 10 a. m. train, had been on the watch, 
 and on catching sight of Mr. Dow and a slim stranger, 
 had rushed into the room and scrambled for their 
 seats. 
 
 "Scholars," said Mr. Dow, from behind the teacher's 
 desk, "this is Mr. Stockley, your teacher for this fall 
 and winter. He will give you a good school if you will 
 do your part. I expect you all to study hard and behave 
 like ladies and gentlemen. If any of you make trouble, 
 you will find Mr. Stockley perfectly competent to 
 straighten you out, and I want yon to understand right 
 here that he will be backed up in such a case by the 
 board of trustees." 
 
 During the delivery of this speech, the new teacher 
 was quietly surveying the room. He did not make the 
 survey with the deliberate purpose to judge of the 
 character of the school in fact, he was not conscious 
 of attempting any estimate of the pupils, individually 
 or collectively. Nevertheless, a subconscious soliloquy 
 was taking place in his mind : "Rather a rough looking 
 group of boys over there in the back left-hand corner; 
 these two bright young ladies with saucy eyes, near 
 the front, wonder if they are Eva Black and Allie 
 Harley ; that red-haired brute in the rear center is prob-
 
 4 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 ably one of the Blazer boys big and ugly enough to 
 throw me out." 
 
 By the time the director's remarks to the school 
 were finished, the little heart flutter with which the 
 teacher had entered the door had quite subsided, and 
 a feeling of quiet confidence took possession of him. 
 This feeling was strengthened by M"r. Dow's leave-tak- 
 ing. Facing the teacher, the director heartily shook his 
 hand, saying: 
 
 "Mr. Stockley, you are the master in this room. If 
 any pupil ever has any doubt on that point though I 
 don't expect the doubt to arise the board will prompt- 
 ly set his misunderstanding at rest. Good day." 
 
 A moment later, the door had closed behind the 
 school officer and Stockley was alone with his school. 
 For nearly five seconds he was at sea without a rudder. 
 He had not thought to plan beforehand what should 
 be the first, the second, and the third thing to do in the 
 first hour of school. 
 
 Life insurance companies have a fund which accu- 
 mulates from year to year to secure the payment of 
 its policies. It is called a reserve. Every wise person, 
 young or old, accumulates from his reading, his study, 
 and his experiences, a reserve upon which he may draw 
 in time of need. Stockley had such a reserve of 
 
 knowledge, ability, and what the French call savovr 
 faire. It is something any person of ordinary ability 
 
 and small opportunity may have by taking the neces- 
 sary means for acquiring it. Stockley's reserve helped 
 him out of his dilemma. 
 
 He seemed to know instinctively that he must be-
 
 THE NEW PRINCIPAL 5 
 
 gin to act and that he must be the leader from the 
 very start. He remembered that at the district school 
 in old Peterville the first thing a new teacher "did was 
 to "take the names." 
 
 "Begin talking," said something from the reserve, 
 and accordingly he began talking. 
 
 "Scholars," he said, "we must try to get acquaint- 
 ed." 
 
 While saying this, he opened a drawer in the desk 
 in search of writing paper. Finding none, he asked, 
 "Have any of you some writing paper?" 
 
 Eva Black hastened to produce a tablet, which she 
 handed to the teacher. 
 
 "Thank you," said he. 
 
 He then folded several sheets and tore them into 
 oblongs. Passing along the aisles, he laid one of these 
 on each desk, talking as he did so : 
 
 "Mr. Dow has already told you my name. Perhaps 
 you did not all understand it. It is Mr. Stockley. Now, 
 in order that we may be on equal terms, I must know 
 your names. I shall have to record your names and 
 your ages on a register, and so I will ask each of you 
 to write on the paper I place before you your full name, 
 writing in full the given name by which you are gen- 
 erally known." 
 
 Continuing in a similar manner, he managed to 
 keep up a flow of words until the names had been writ- 
 ten and collected. He took up the papers himself, look- 
 ing at each pupil's face as he did so, in order to asso- 
 ciate the names with the faces. 
 
 The first half hour was thus successfully passed; 
 the ice was broken; a favorable impression had been
 
 6 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 made on the pupils; and both they and their teacher 
 felt at their ease. 
 
 The rest of the forenoon's work was easy. The 
 teacher learned by inquiry how the classes had been 
 organized the preceding year and thus had a basis on 
 which to organize them for the fall term. 
 
 By noon the school was in running order, and a 
 program was arranged which was followed with little 
 deviation in the afternoon. Stockley found that the 
 Excelsior Hotel would give him fair board at a rea- 
 sonable rate and to that_ hostelry his trunk was taken. 
 
 Stockley congratulated himself on finishing the first 
 day without serious friction. Two or three times when 
 his eye had casually fallen on Arthur Blazer's freckled 
 face, he had caught a stealthy wink and a malevolent 
 smile directed across the room to James Wakely. Both 
 boys, while exchanging significant looks, were furtive- 
 ly watching the teacher, and when his glance fell upon 
 them they had hurriedly bent their eyes upon their 
 books. 
 
 It was not in Rutledge Stockley's nature to borrow 
 trouble and he gave little thought to what he had 
 seen, yet a vague feeling of uneasiness stole over him 
 when his mind reverted to the evil looks of the two 
 boys, one of whom had been pointed out to him by 
 Mr. Dow as a rough and the other as a sneak. 
 
 That evening he called at Mr. Dow's house as he 
 had been invited to do. Mr. Dow gave him additional 
 information relating to conditions in the school and 
 in the community, which he afterward found useful 
 to him. He did not mention to the director his appre- 
 hension of trouble from Arthur and James, as it was
 
 THE NEW PRINCIPAL 7 
 
 not sufficiently defined in his own mind to warrant 
 serious attention. While the two men were conferring 
 in the library, Mrs. Dow entered the room, ostensibly 
 to find a book, in reality to inspect the new teacher. 
 
 "Mrs. Dow." said her husband, "this is Mr. Stock- 
 ley, our new principal." 
 
 "Very glad to meet you," said Stockley, rising. 
 
 Mrs. Dow bowed slightly, and smiled as she ut- 
 tered some conventional phrase. 
 
 Mrs. Dow was a handsome woman in form and 
 face. She was about twenty-five years of age, was be- 
 comingly and rather expensively dressed, and had the 
 air of one who aspired to social leadership. It can 
 hardly be said that she gave Stockley a cordial greet- 
 ing, but there was evident in her manner a desire to 
 impress him favorably. 
 
 Stockley was not a character reader, but in the 
 five minutes of Mrs. Dow's stay in the library, his 
 intellect, independently of his consciousness, formed 
 an estimate of her character which, though not clearly 
 defined, was true, as proved by subsequent develop- 
 ments. 
 
 She did not wear her heart upon her sleeve ; it ap- 
 peared, in spite of her, in her face. Her smile was 
 not cold she meant it to be warm; it was not mali- 
 cious she tried to make it gracious ; there was a flit- 
 ting, lurking, covert spirit of evil in it which is best 
 described by the word sinister. 
 
 After a few commonplaces regarding the weather, 
 the school, the community, and Mr. Stockley's ante- 
 cedents, she withdrew, and Stockley soon after bade 
 Mr. Dow good night.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE SCHOOL BULLY 
 
 Behold on wrong 
 Swift vengeance waits; and art subdues the strong! 
 
 Pope. 
 
 When school was dismissed at noon on the first 
 day, the pupils were hungry and they hastened home 
 for their dinners without lingering to discuss the new 
 teacher. When closing time arrived in the afternoon, 
 everyone had an opinion of him. At least half of the 
 children left the school grounds singly or in groups, in 
 animated chatter about their play, their studies, and the 
 various things that interest boys and girls. When James 
 Wakely stepped out of the front door, he found Ar- 
 thur Blazer waiting for him at the corner of the build- 
 ing. With a rearward twist of the head, the latter 
 signaled that he wanted James's company. The two 
 strolled together across a field, away from the other 
 pupils. 
 
 "Say, Jim," said Arthur, in a low tone, "how d'ye 
 like bein' bossed by a blasted dude?" These were not 
 Arthur's exact words. Should he read this record, we 
 trust he will be disposed to think leniently of the lib- 
 erty we take in euphemizing his language in order to 
 adapt it to the taste of the "gentle reader." 
 
 "I don't like it a little bit," was the reply, "but 
 what's a fellow to do? Old Dow said we'd all have 
 to toe the mark." 
 
 "Toe the blazes!" exclaimed Arthur, "if ye have
 
 THE SCHOOL BULLY 9 
 
 the spunk of a sick rabbit ye'll stand up for yer rights.*' 
 
 "I'm not afraid of him," said James, "but I won't 
 be a monkey to pull your chestnuts out of the fire; 
 I'm not afraid to do anything 1 you've got nerve to do." 
 
 "Not afraid, eh? Well, what're ye proposin' to 
 do? Didn't ye say ye wasn't goin' to study g'ogerphy 
 no more ? And now this bloomin' high stepper's goin' 
 to put ye into 'nother g'ogerphy class." 
 
 "Not if the court knows herself! Say, Art., if you'll 
 stand by me, I won't go into that geography class 
 tomorrow. Let's both refuse to go to recitation. He's 
 a poor, puny fellow and if we stand right up to him 
 he'll be as limp as a dish rag." 
 
 This was the proposal that Arthur had tried to 
 draw James on to make. Arthur was the school bully, 
 and he was ambitious to be regarded as a hero. If he 
 could bluff the master, well and good. If the master 
 should attack him, he would have an excuse for re- 
 sistance and he resolved, in that case, to win the ad- 
 miration of the school by throwing the dudish princi- 
 pal out of the door or the window as should be found 
 the more convenient. 
 
 Before the boys parted thej had entered into a 
 compact to refuse point-blank If Mr. Stockley should 
 insist upon their entering the geography class next 
 day. 
 
 Stockley arrived at the schoolhouse next morning 
 half an hour before nine. He carried the key of the 
 front door, which opened into his part of the build- 
 ing, the "grammar school department." The rear 
 room, which was occupied by the "primary depart- 
 ment," had an outside door on the side of the build- 
 ing. There was also a door opening from Stockley's
 
 IO THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 room directly into that of Miss Dix, the primary teach- 
 er. At about quarter before nine he saw a lady whom 
 he supposed to be Miss Dix, pass his windows and 
 enter her room. He had not met the primary teacher, 
 for Mr. Dow had given him to understand that altho 
 he was nominally principal, the primary department 
 was under the exclusive management of Miss Dix. 
 However, he made a brief call upon her, because, as he 
 told her, such near neighbors ought not to be entire 
 strangers. 
 
 The method of "calling school" and "calling the 
 roll" may seem an insignificant matter and hardly 
 worthy of being dignified by detailed description in 
 the history of the Green Valley School. Not so did it 
 seem to Rutledge Stockley. He had done much care- 
 ful thinking during his waking hours since the close 
 of school the day before. He had already become in- 
 terested in his work and a personal friendship for his 
 pupils had begun to germinate in his heart or mind or 
 soul the psychological reader may decide which. 
 
 In his utter lack of normal school training and ex- 
 perience as a teacher, he was compelled to draw upon 
 his common sense and that reserve to which reference 
 has already been made. He saw that he must not 
 again commit the error of going to his work without 
 a definite plan, which might be made to bend accord- 
 ing to circumstances. In the quiet of his room at the 
 hotel, he forecast the necessary, the probable, and the 
 possible events of the day, and adopted a flexible tho 
 not indefinite plan for dealing with them. The first 
 four things on his plan were to arrive at the school- 
 house at half past eight, to call on Miss Dix, to "call
 
 THE SCHOOL BULLY II 
 
 school," and to call the roll. He regarded nothing too 
 trifling for serious consideration that had a bearing on 
 the moral and mental development of his pupils. He 
 therefore planned just how he woui'd "call school," 
 and how he would call the roll. 
 
 He had set his watch at exactly the right time by 
 the regulator in the jewelry store. At precisely two 
 minutes before nine, he went to the front door and rang 
 a small hand bell he had found in a dusty closet. 
 Some of the pupils started at once for the door ; oth- 
 ers lingered to finish a game of ball or pull-away ; and 
 a few appeared indifferent to the call. 
 
 With a crayon in hand, the teacher took place at 
 the front blackboard, near the door. At exactly nine, 
 he gave a single tap with the bell and said : 
 
 "You may call in succession the numbers given you 
 yesterday, beginning with number one. I will place 
 on the board any numbers that are not called." 
 
 There was dead silence. "One," said the teacher, 
 as he placed the figure I on the blackboard. "One!" 
 shouted Tommy Ahlse, who through bashfulness and 
 uncertainty had failed to call his number at the right 
 time. There was a suppressed titter. 
 
 The teacher did not frown, he smiled. He knew 
 that Tommy was present. He might have said, "Be- 
 gin, Tommy," but to do that would have established 
 a troublesome precedent. He saw here an opportunity 
 to teach Tommy and the school a lesson of promptness 
 by training him to begin at the conventional signal, 
 which was the tap of the bell. 
 
 The roll-call proceeded: "two," "three," "four." 
 ''Five," said the teacher, placing the figure on the 
 board. When Jessie Nutting was calling ''twenty-
 
 12 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 nine," her voice was drowned or rather sand-bagged 
 by a bellowing "FIVE" from the rear-center of the 
 room. Arthur Blazer had purposely delayed his num- 
 ber "just for fun," and he now shot it at the teacher 
 to brace himself for the part he had promised to play 
 later in the day. A loud guffaw from James Wakeley 
 and two other boys greeted Arthur's sally. All eyes 
 were turned on the teacher to see how he would take 
 it. He said nothing, but placed an oblique cross beside 
 the figure 5 on the board, and the roll call proceeded. 
 Arthur and James were disappointed. When the last 
 number had been called, Stockley turned to address 
 the school. 
 
 One of the girls had her hand rained. 
 
 "What is it, Susie?" 
 
 "I called my number." 
 
 "What is your number?" 
 
 "Number twenty-three." 
 
 Stockley placed a cross by that number. 
 
 "Thirty-two," piped another girl. 
 
 The cross was properly placed. 
 
 "Is there any other pupil who was present at the be- 
 ginning of roll call," asked Stockley, "whose number Is 
 in this column without a cross beside it?" 
 
 There was no response. A few belated ones had 
 entered the room during roll call. 
 
 "Now scholars," said Stockley, "I want to have a 
 little family talk with you, for I hope that by Christ- 
 mas or before, I shall have for you, and you for me, 
 very much such a feeling as members of a good family 
 have for one another. I wish to believe that all of you 
 are here because you want me to help you to become
 
 THE SCHOOL BULLY 1$ 
 
 intelligent and noble young men and women. In the 
 first place, we must be patient with each other. I ask 
 you to be patient with me, for I shall make mistakes ; 
 but I shall wish all the time to do what is right by you. 
 I want to be patient with you and to believe that if any- 
 thing you do appears mean or vicious, it is only a 
 mistake, which you will correct when it is pointed out 
 to you. 
 
 Now I must not preach a sermon, but I will speak 
 of a few things about which we ought to have an un- 
 derstanding, in order to have the machinery of the 
 school run smoothly. 
 
 Every pupil was giving the closest attention. 
 Stockley's words appealed to their good sense and 
 their good sense responded to the appeal. He con- 
 tinued : 
 
 "The first thing I wish to speak of is how to call 
 you in from the play-ground. The time for opening 
 in the morning is 9 o'clock. I rang the bell two min- 
 utes before nine. Perhaps that allows you too little 
 time. What do you think?" 
 
 Allie Harley raised her hand, and, in response to 
 Stockley's nod, said: "It'd take anyone four or five 
 minutes to come from the farthest part of tne yard." 
 
 "Quite likely, and it is possible that five minutes 
 is hardly enough time. Suppose we try it right now, 
 and we can fix the time for ringing the bell accord- 
 ingly. I would like to have some one go to that scrub 
 oak I see just outside the school grounds and then 
 walk back and take his seat, walking about as fast as 
 he generally does in the street. I will time him from 
 the moment he leaves the tree. How will that do?"
 
 14 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 he asked, looking about the room. No one spoke, but 
 several of the girls and boys smilingly nodded their 
 heads. 
 
 This was a different way of beginning a term from 
 any they had ever experienced, and the idea pleased 
 them. 
 
 "Charlie Marfield, will you go?" 
 
 Charlie assented, and away he went. 
 
 "Allie," said Stockley, "will you come and help me 
 keep time?" 
 
 Allie looked around at the other girls with a half- 
 pleased grimace and took her place at the window 
 with the teacher, who held his watch in his hand. 
 Looking at the window, Charlie started at Stockley's 
 signal, just as the second hand began a circuit. Pres- 
 ently Charlie opened the door and walked to his seat. 
 
 "Allie may announce the time it took," said Stock- 
 ley. 
 
 "Forty-four seconds," was the report. 
 
 The pupils looked at one another with surprise and 
 incredulity, and at recess some of them taxed Charlie 
 with running "as tight as he could lick," but he stout- 
 ly declared he had walked at an ordinary gait. 
 
 "What do you think now," asked the teacher, "will 
 two minutes be enough time ?" 
 
 No objection being raised, it was decided that the 
 calling-in bell should be rung two minutes before the 
 time of beginning work in the morning and afternoon 
 sessions and after recess. 
 
 "Now," resumed the master, "there is another mat- 
 ter I would like to talk over with you, and this matter, 
 too, must be settled in a way that is best for your in-
 
 THE SCHOOL BULLY 1 5 
 
 terests, because this school is not supported for my 
 benefit. First, let me ask all who have come into the 
 room since we began roll-call to rise." Three pupils 
 rose. 
 
 "Please give me your number, Ole." 
 "Fourteen." 
 "Yours, Alice." 
 "Thirty-eight." 
 Yours, Calvin." 
 "Forty." 
 
 As the numbers were given, the teacher placed 
 some figures near them, and the pupils took their seats. 
 The numbers then appeared on the board like this : 
 X 1 
 
 X 5 
 
 11 14 
 17 
 
 X 23 
 
 X 32 
 
 35 
 
 5 38 
 4 40 
 
 "These numbers with an oblique cross at the left 
 do not really belong here," explained Stockley. "They 
 belong to pupils who were in their seats at 9 o'clock. 
 The small figures at the left of 14, 38, and 40 show 
 how many minutes after nine each one came in. Num- 
 bers 17 and 35 are still absent. The trustees require 
 me to keep a record of your attendance which shall 
 show three things each day: first, who are present; 
 second, who are absent; and third, who enter after 
 nine o'clock." At this point Mary Milligan raised 
 her hand.
 
 l6 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL ' 
 
 "What is it, Mary?" 
 
 "Is it called tardy," asked Mary, "if you come in a 
 minute or two after nine ?" 
 
 "It does not matter very much, what it's called," 
 replied the teacher; "is it after nine two minutes or 
 one minute after nine, or even two seconds or one 
 second after nine? If you wish to take a train to St. 
 Paul and you arrive at the station two seconds too late, 
 are you left? You would hardly ask the station agent 
 whether he calls it left." 
 
 "I can't always be here at nine o'clock," broke in 
 Henry Stular. 
 
 "There may be several of you situated like Henry," 
 said Stockley. "The record does not show whether 
 you are to blame or not ; it simply shows that you were 
 in your seats or that you were not, at a certain time." 
 
 "Yer watch's too fast," blurted out Arthur Blazer, 
 in an impudent tone. 
 
 "That is certainly possible," was the reply. "It was 
 set this morning 1 by Mr. Robinson's regulator, which 
 is corrected every day to show right time. There is 
 likely to be considerable difference in your clocks at 
 home, and I suggest that you aim to be here at least 
 five minutes before opening time. Now, we will begin 
 the lessons of the day. I will arrange later for some 
 regular opening exercises. You have assisted me very 
 much in settling some important points, and the time 
 consumed has not been thrown away." 
 
 The school exercises proceeded with the usual in- 
 cidents until the time for the geography class in the 
 afternoon.
 
 THE SCHOOL BULLY I/ 
 
 It would perhaps be better art to defer the incident 
 which follows to a later stage of the story. It may be 
 that in a properly constructed plot, it should be insert- 
 ed at about the end of the first two weeks of school. 
 The reason for relating it here is that it actually hap- 
 pened on this day, the second day of school. 
 
 Children's minds act with greater rapidity in the 
 formation of opinions than the minds of older people. 
 Their opinions also change more readily. It by no 
 means follows that children are more likely to err in 
 their opinions or estimates of a stranger's character 
 than are their elders. Rutledge Stockley had been 
 principal of the Green Valley school only a little more 
 than one day, yet it is not putting it too strongly to 
 say that he had already captured the school. There 
 was manifest in all he said and did the purpose to do 
 right. The scholars had adroitly been made to feel 
 that the school was theirs. The school-master had con- 
 sulted them, had taken them into his confidence, had 
 made them his co-partners in the direction of school 
 interests. There was already growing in them a sense 
 of responsibility for the maintenance of order and 
 good conduct. 
 
 Stockley did not sit behind his desk while hearing 
 recitations. He had a notion that it would promote 
 the good-fellowship relation he was anxious to estab- 
 lish with his pupils, to keep himself constantly in their 
 midst, and furthermore that to do so would forestall 
 the inception of the mischiefs small and great 
 which are so wasteful of the pupils' time, and so prej- 
 udicial to good order. 
 
 At half past two the fourth reader class was ex-
 
 l8 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 caused from the recitation seats and Stockley called, 
 "The geography class." 
 
 This was the moment to which Arthur Blazer and 
 James Wakely had looked forward all day, the latter 
 with faint-hearted apprehension, the former with per- 
 fect confidence in his ability to successfully defy the 
 master and inaugurate his own reign for the year as 
 the bully of Green Valley school. Arthur quickly 
 glanced at James to see if he was game, but the latter 
 avoided Arthur's eye. His jaw was slightly trembling 
 and he had a queer throbbing in his throat. Mean- 
 while the other members of the geography class were 
 passing to the recitation seats in front. When they 
 were seated Stockley noticed the absence of Arthur 
 and James. 
 
 "Arthur James," said he, "the geography class 
 has been called." 
 
 James looked down at an open book on his desk; 
 his mouth was getting dry; his face was pale; his 
 hands shook. Arthur stared at the master and said 
 nothing. 
 
 Stockley had but a moment for thought; he was 
 not sure of the best thing to say, but it would not 
 do to ignore the defiant conduct of the boys; he 
 must say something. Again his reserve of power 
 and good sense came to his aid. 
 
 "Arthur," he said, "do you remember that you 
 were put into the geography class?" It had not 
 taken him three seconds to see that Arthur was the 
 commander in chief of the rebellious force, and he 
 instantly decided to attack the citadel. 
 
 "I ain't goin' to study g'ogerphy," bellowed Ar-
 
 THE SCHOOL BULLY IQ 
 
 thur. 
 
 "Have you talked with your parents about it?" 
 
 "I don't haf to talk 'th 'em.' 
 
 "Arthur, if there is any good reason why you 
 should not enter the geography class, I will discuss 
 it with you later. But today, I wish you to come 
 into the class." 
 
 There was no reply from Arthur. 
 
 He leaned back in his 1 seat, his lips tightly closed, 
 an evil smile lurking at the corners of his mouth, 
 his head slowly turning from side to side as his eyes 
 made bids for admiration from under his lowered 
 eyebrows. Stockley was already pale and the little 
 color remaining in his face now left it. It was, how- 
 ever, with a firm tone that he said: 
 
 "Are you coming to the class, Arthur?" 
 
 "No !" roared the bully, his stubby hair bristling de- 
 fiance, as he braced himself for the shock of the battle. 
 But the shock did not come. 
 
 "Very well," said the teacher. "Mary, please 
 name the cotton states." The recitation proceeded as 
 if nothing had occurred to disturb the tranquillity of 
 the school. The girls, who had begun to look fright- 
 ened, grew calm and tried to resume their study. 
 The faces of some of the boys showed their disgust 
 at the timid way in which the teacher had backed 
 down. It was in the air that Stockley had lowered 
 himself in the estimation of the school, and he keen- 
 ly felt it. But he gave no outward s?gn of his feel- 
 ing. As the recitation progressed, he paced back and 
 forth along the aisles and in front of the class, 
 pausing a moment to partly open the front door as if
 
 2O THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 he needed more air, He had no book in his hand, 
 for he knew the lesson. His 1 path brought him be- 
 hind Arthur's seat, and the boy quickly turned as if 
 expecting 1 an assault. The teacher moved forward 
 past him without diverting his eyes from the pupil 
 who was reciting. 
 
 But while outwardly calm, his mind was in a fer- 
 ment. He seemed to have two brains which worked 
 independently of each other, one conducting the 
 geography class and the other thinking, thinking, 
 thinking out the problem that had been so Suddenly 
 sprung upon him. 
 
 "This boy is twice my size" so ran the thoughts 
 of brain number two "and has twice my strength; 
 if I attack him, he is likely to thrash the floor with 
 me or throw me out of the window; if I don't settle 
 this thing right here and now, my control over the 
 disorderly few is gone in fact my influence over 
 the entire school is ruined." Again he approached the 
 rear of Blazer's desk. At this point, Stockley was 
 dimly conscious that brain number one heard a pupil 
 saying: "Mobile, the metropolis of Alabama, is . 
 
 ." He heard no more; all the blood in his body 
 seemed to rush into his legs and his arms ; he had 
 the strength of three men; a rattling of seat hinges 
 sounded thru the room, and when the startled pu- 
 pils looked around, a muscular body crowned by a 
 bullet head was jumping and bounding and bump- 
 ing down the aisle, followed by a pale figure whose 
 hands clutched a strong coat collar. In less than ten 
 seconds both figures had disappeared thru the front 
 door which Stockley had, while pacing the floor,
 
 THE SCHOOL BULLY 21 
 
 opened for that purpose. At the moment Blazer 
 struck the earth outside, Stockley straightened him 
 u-p and looking into his eye while his finger pointed 
 to the road, said "GO!" The bully was not a fool. 
 He knew he had found his master and he went. 
 
 When Stockley returned to the room, he saw 
 several white faces. Some of the girls were crying. 
 Nearly all the pupils were standing and some had 
 rushed to the windows. He stood on the threshold 
 and looked around. An adult audience would have 
 applauded. The pupils testified their appreciation of 
 his leadership by quietly taking their seats. James 
 Wakely's eyes were bent upon his desk. 
 
 "James," said Mr. Stockley in a quiet tone. 
 James looked up. Without a word the teacher 
 pointed to a vacant place on the recitation seats, 
 and without protest, James sneaked forward and 
 took it. 
 
 It was a moral and not a physical victory that 
 the new teacher had won, and the school so under- 
 stood it.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 
 
 Some, for renown, on scraps of learning dote, 
 And think they grow immortal as they quote. 
 
 Young. 
 
 The outcome of the disturbance described in the 
 last chapter gave rise to no feeling of pride on Stock- 
 ley's' part. On the other hand he was not disturbed 
 with regret or shame for his own action in the mat- 
 ter. He would have preferred not to have such 
 an issue arise as was presented in Arthur's conduct, 
 but it was forced upon him, and in his method of 
 meeting it he followed the dictate of the best judg- 
 ment he possessed. 
 
 He learned by inquiry of Miss Dix at the close 
 of school, that Arthur's father was a blacksmith, and 
 having ascertained the location of his shop, he went 
 there immediately after the close of school. 
 
 He knew the story would begin to travel as s*oon 
 as the children reached their homes. He knew it 
 would take as many shapes as there were children to 
 tell it, and that as it spread through the community it 
 would take on fantastic forms and would grow like 
 a rolling snowball. He believed it important that 
 Mr. Blazer should hear the story from an original 
 source before any distorted version of it should 
 reach him. 
 
 Mr. Blazer was in his shop, but another man was 
 with him. Stockley introduced himself to the two
 
 THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 23 
 
 as tfie new teacher, saying- that as he would prob- 
 ably remain in Green Valley several months he 
 wanted to become acquainted with his neighbors, 
 and particularly with the parents of his scholars. 
 After a half hour's conversation on New York, Min- 
 nesota, Green Valley, St. Paul, the crops, and other 
 topics, the third man withdrew, and Stockley gave 
 Arthur's father a full account of the event of the 
 afternoon. 
 
 "Now, Mr. Blazer," said he, "it must be under- 
 stood that Arthur is not expelled from school ; the 
 school is maintained for the benefit of every person 
 in the district of school age, and I would have no right 
 to expel him even if I desired to do so, which I do not. 
 The door is wide open for his return at any time." 
 
 "I'm mighty glad you done jist the way you did," 
 said Mr. Blazer ; "the boy shall go back tomor'r morn- 
 in' and beg y'r pardon f'r 'is behavior." 
 
 "No apology is required of Arthur," replied Stock- 
 ley. "Arthur's offence was more against himself than 
 against me. A teacher's dignity must be very flimsy 
 if it can't be maintained without an apology for ever}' 
 offence the pupils commit. The only requirement is 
 that he do the best for himself and that he keep from 
 disturbing the school. Suppose you tell Arthur to go 
 to school in the morning as if nothing unusual had 
 happened. If he wishes to do this, I shall not speak of 
 this trouble to him or to any one else except the mem- 
 bers of the board." 
 
 Mr. Blazer gladly assented to this disposition of 
 the matter, and Stockley never afterward referred to it, 
 except to Mr. Dow, whom he acquainted with the inci-
 
 24 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 dent that evening. It would be pleasant to record that 
 Arthur returned to school and became an exemplary 
 pupil. Unfortunately, however, he was so constituted 
 that his wounded vanity did not readily heal, and he 
 had not sufficient courage to endure the ordeal of 
 facing the school in whose presence he had been so 
 signally humbled. Two of his brothers continued in 
 school, and were models of good behavior. 
 
 In order to give legality to Stockley's contract with 
 the board of trustees, it was necessary for him to take 
 an examination before the county superintendent of 
 schools and obtain a certificate of qualification from 
 that officer. The public examination of the county 
 teachers had already taken place, but it was in the dis- 
 cretion of the superintendent to examine an applicant 
 privately for a small fee. Mr. Harkins, the superin- 
 tendent of Anita county, lived on a farm at Summer 
 Lake, twelve miles distant, but he frequently visited 
 Green Valley, which was the county seat. 
 
 Stockley's inquiries about Mr. Harkins always 
 elicited a smile from the Green Valley people. "He's 
 a queer old duffer," said Harry Dole. "Odd as Dick's 
 hatband;" "Ye'd think he'd swallered a dictionary to 
 hear 'im talk ;" "A very learned man ;" "Mighty good 
 man, but likes 'is toddy too well." These and similar 
 expressions were contributed gratuitously by a group 
 of men, young and old, who sat or lounged on boxes 
 and on the counter in Dan Loring's grocery store. Dan 
 was one of Stockley's earliest acquaintances in the vil- 
 lage. Going into the store for the purchase of some 
 trifle, he had been attracted by the grocer's jolly face
 
 THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 25 
 
 and the kindly and honest frankness that was appar- 
 ent in his conversation and manner. Dan had been 
 predisposed to respect Stockley by the account of the 
 Arthur Blazer incident coming to him thru his son 
 Charlie, whose reports of the new teacher's methods 
 had prepared his father to greet the stranger with cor- 
 diality. Stockley had dropped in to Loring's store 
 to inquire about the road to Summer Lake and to ask 
 some questions relating to the county superintendent. 
 His inquiry had elicited the remarks recorded above. 
 He learned from Dan that Harkins was a man of re- 
 markable intelligence, a constant reader of books and 
 newspapers, somewhat disposed to pedantic vanity, 
 but, withal, gracious to intelligent people who were sa- 
 gacious enough to listen with apparent intensity of in- 
 terest to his extended, monologues on literature, art, 
 history, and politics. 
 
 Dan further informed the teacher that the superin- 
 tendent spent his Saturdays at the county seat, and 
 that he "put up" at the Excelsior Hotel, so that it 
 would be unnecessary to make the trip to Summer 
 Lake. 
 
 On the third Saturday of Stockley's stay in Green 
 Valley, he met the county superintendent of schools. 
 He had just entered the hotel office after a chat with 
 Dan Loring. "Mr. Stockley," said Austin Black, the 
 landlord, "let me make you acquainted with Mr. Har- 
 kins. Mr. Harkins is the county superintendent." 
 
 While Mr. Black was talking, Stockley turned and 
 took a rapid survey of the educational magnate. What 
 he saw was a neatly dressed man of short stature with 
 a thin, intellectual face ; small blue eyes whose red and
 
 26 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 watery lids might indicate either studious or bibulous 
 tendencies ; thin, grayish hair ; a thin chest ; thin, bony, 
 and veiny hands ; thin legs ; and, as he soon discovered, 
 a thin voice. Stockley took the slender hand which 
 he saw extended toward him and uttered a brief con- 
 ventionalism to which Mr. Harkins listened with cour- 
 teous attention before delivering his own more cere- 
 monious greeting. He gave his head an almost imper- 
 ceptible oscillatory movement from side to side, which 
 subsided into a slight inclination to the left, as he said : 
 "Mr. Stockley, you may possibly recall the lines 
 written by the poet Shenstone on a tavern window : 
 
 Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, 
 Where'er his stages may have been, 
 
 May sigh to think he still has found 
 The warmest welcome at an inn. 
 
 "Let me assure you, sir, that such welcome to Anita 
 County as can be given in an inn I most heartily ex- 
 tend to you." 
 
 His manner was grave, and his consciousness of 
 saying something well worth hearing was manifest in 
 a pose and manner that were easy to interpret but dif- 
 ficult to describe. Stockley was at a loss how to reply 
 to a salutation so imposing. However, he managed 
 to thank the superintendent for his cordiality and to 
 intimate that he was a candidate for examination with 
 a view to obtaining a license to teach. 
 
 "The ceremony of examination, sir," said the super- 
 intendent, "is one which, by the statutes of the state, 
 is imperative. I have little faith in the modern vogue 
 of measuring a prospective teacher's brain by arith- 
 metical and linguistical interrogatories. However, un-
 
 THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 27 
 
 der present conditions, this form is a necessity, and 
 necessitas non habet legem." 1 
 
 The Latin quotation was delivered with the head- 
 oscillation and -tilting referred to above and a light em- 
 phasis on the words quoted as if in acknowledgment 
 that they were not original. Stockley had some doubt 
 as to the applicability of the quotation to the then 
 present conditions, but his classical lore was limited 
 to a very slight acquaintance with the writings of an 
 Asiatic slave by the name of Aesop, and he could not 
 be certain. 
 
 "Where will it be most convenient for you to take 
 the examination?" asked Stockley. 
 
 "I think, sir," replied Mr. Harkins, that we shall be 
 able to collogue more satisfactorily in some place 
 where we will not be subjected to the gaze of the vul- 
 gar. It is by no means desirable that we be 
 'Gorgonized . . . from head to foot 
 With a stony [rustic] stare.' 
 
 Let us retire to the sitting-room." 
 
 The sitting-room was vacant, and Stockley seated 
 himself at the center-table with a tablet and pencil. 
 
 "Mr. Stockley," began the superintendent, after 
 they were seated, "I lay no claim to clairvoyance by 
 chaomancy,.* onomancy,* or any other species of divin- 
 ation, but Lam impelled to say (and it is no flattery to 
 you to say it) that your face is a guarantee of your 
 scholarship, and even your name carries with it an as- 
 surance of culture. In order to comply with the lex 
 
 1 Necessity is not governed by law 
 2 Divination from appearances in the air 
 3 Divination from the letters of a name
 
 28 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 scripta, 1 however, I must apply the test of arithmancy, 
 You may work this problem if you please : 
 
 "What is the difference between six dozen dozen 
 and half a dozen dozen ?" 
 
 Stockley quickly gave the right answer without us- 
 ing his pencil. 
 
 "I am pleased with your proficiency in this science," 
 said Mr. Harkins, with gusto, "for altho too much 
 emphasis is given in our schools to so-called practical 
 work in arithmetic, such work being to a considerable 
 degree ad captandum vulgus 1 , still there is a high value 
 in mathematical exercises, when rightly conducted, 
 which manifests itself in increased power to cogitate 
 with exactness and to arrive at conclusions with pre- 
 cision. The Phenicians, in initiating the ancient 
 Greeks into the science of number, conferred upon Eu- 
 rope far more than the power to make commercial cal- 
 culations ; they laid the foundation of a mental culture 
 which contributed in no small measure to that refine- 
 ment which was Greece, that strength which was 
 Rome, that freedom which was to issue from the 
 womb of time under the name of England, and that 
 progress which was to characterize her lusty daughter, 
 America." 
 
 Stockley was interested in the remarks of the super- 
 intendent, but he feared that night would come be- 
 fore the conclusion of the examination. 
 
 "Mr. Harkins," he ventured, at the first pause, 
 "your reflections interest me very much, and it shall
 
 THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 29 
 
 be my en'deavor to profit by them. What further test 
 would you like to give me in arithmetic ?" 
 
 "No further test ; of arithmetic we have had qiian- 
 tum sufiicit 2 ; I am quite satisfied with the knowledge 
 you have displayed, and now we will turn to the con- 
 sideration of a subject which should occupy a large 
 place in all the schools of a democratic country. What 
 grammar have you studied, Mr. Stockley?" 
 
 "Goold Brown's, sir." 
 
 "You could not have done better. Goold Brown is 
 the legitimate successor of Lindley Murray, whose 
 great work has contributed more to the real greatness 
 of America than the wonderful inventions of Eli 
 Whitney and Robert Fulton, with which it was con- 
 temporary. Do you remember, sir, the words of Quin- 
 tilian on the title page of Brown's grammar? I see 
 them there distinctly, at this moment, a little below the 
 middle of the page." Here the little man's head oscil- 
 lated and settled into its quotation tilt as he softly rolled 
 out: "Ne quis igitur tanqua^n parva fastidiat Gram- 
 maticos elementa."* 
 
 He gave the young teacher time to recover from 
 the effect of the quotation before saying, "Will you 
 kindly repeat Brown's last rule of syntax ?" 
 
 This was the longest and, to Stockley, the most 
 obscure of Brown's rules, but he had committed it 
 when in school, word for word, and he now promptly 
 repeated it, from "A future contingency" to "requires 
 the indicative mood." 
 
 "Excellent!" was the superintendent's commenda- 
 
 "Enough 
 
 s Let no student of grammar, therefore, despise elementary 
 principles on the ground that they are of trifling importance
 
 3O THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 tion, "and now I will ask you to parse this passage 
 from a poet of merit, Thomas Hoccleve, who, in his 
 Letter of Cupid, ministered to the pleasure of no less 
 a monarch than the puissant Henry of England, fifth 
 of that name : 
 
 'O ! every man ought to have a herte tendre 
 Unto woman, and deem her honourable, 
 
 Whether her shape be either thick or slender, 
 Or she be bad or good, this is no fable.' " 
 
 The parsing was done to the satisfaction of the 
 superintendent, who, after impressing upon the exam- 
 inee the importance of grammar as cos ingeniorum* 
 as well as "a means of combating the vicious tendency 
 of the age to logodaedaly," 5 proceeded to test him in 
 history, orthography, "chirography," and reading. 
 The time given to these subjects was occupied, in the 
 main, by the examiner, himself, who, for the edification 
 of his interlocutor and the gratification of his own 
 vanity, drew upon the quaint treasures in the store- 
 house of his memory. 
 
 "And now, Mr. Stockley," he said, in conclusion, 
 "I trust you have not found our conference operose. 8 
 It is a veritable delight to me to introduce into our 
 educational coterie so erudite a person as yourself. It 
 may be leveful 7 to remark that, assuming the truth of 
 the proverb vultus est index animi* you have before 
 
 *A sharpener of the wits 
 
 A playing with words 
 
 'Tedious 
 
 Permissible 
 
 "The face is an index of the mind
 
 THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 3! 
 
 you a fruitful as well as a profitable career. You have 
 the scholarly vocation ; in exact proportion to your de- 
 votion as a teacher will be your progress as a scholar; 
 qui docet discit* Shrink from no burden which you 
 find in the line of your duty; leve'fit quod bene fertur 
 onus. 10 Relieve, quantum vis, 11 the tedium of your 
 labors by legitimate pleasure, for as Publius Syrus 
 tersely puts it 'The bow too tensely strung is easily 
 broken.' Avoid nugacity, 12 follow, foriter et recte ls 
 those inner promptings which you instinctively cognize 
 as true. 
 
 'And it must follow, as the night the day,' 
 that your success in your chosen profession is assured. 
 I will now prepare the document which shall be your 
 legal warrant for pursuing your work in this county." 
 
 So saying, he filled the blanks in a certificate of the 
 first grade which he took from his satchel, placing the 
 number 10 opposite the name of each branch. 
 
 Stockley was amazed. He had answered the simp- 
 lest questions in the "common branches," and no ques- 
 tions on the "higher branches" had been asked, yet he 
 saw on the margin of his certificate, "Geometry, 10," 
 "Physics, 10," etc. He made no protest. There was 
 much in Mr. Harkins's hortation (He could hardly 
 help thinking now in such latin words as he knew) 
 which he did not understand, but there was also much 
 that appealed to him as valuable. He therefore de- 
 
 'A person who teaches learns 
 
 10 A burden is lightened by being bravely borne 
 
 "As much as you choose 
 
 "Flippancy 
 
 "Bravely and honestly
 
 3^ THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 termined to profit by his superintendent's advice and 
 to cultivate his friendship. 
 
 Mr. Harkins soon bade Stockley good night, and he 
 retired to his bed a licensed teacher.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 VISITORS DAY 
 
 The lads and lassies in their best 
 
 Were dress'd from top to toe. Ransford. 
 
 When Rutledge Stockley applied for the principal- 
 ship of Green Valley School, he had no definite plan 
 for the future. It was "Necessity's sharp pinch" that 
 turned the scale in favor of teaching as a temporary 
 expedient, while he was deliberating on the ways and 
 means of maintaining himself thru a Minnesota 
 winter. At the close of his first week in Green Valley, 
 he liked his work ; at the end of a fortnight, he found 
 himself thoroughly interested in it ; and by the time six 
 weeks had passed he was seriously considering the 
 question of committing himself to the teacher's life. 
 He had never been in college and had not even finished 
 a preparatory course. He had once skimmed over 
 twenty or thirty pages of an elementary algebra in a 
 night school and had made a futile attempt, in old 
 Fateville Academy, to penetrate the mysteries of 
 Aesop's fables with the assistance of those worthies, 
 Andrews and Stoddard, so well known to the acad- 
 emy student of the nineteenth century. He had, at the 
 time our story begins, a certain polish resulting from 
 a half-dozen years of metropolitan life and heightened 
 by a few months of transatlantic travel. By general 
 reading, he had gathered the cream of English and 
 American literature ; had become, in a way, acquainted 
 with the fundamental propositions of religjous, moral,
 
 34 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 political, educational, and speculative philosophy; and 
 had picked up some surface knowledge of "science," 
 enough to render apparent to him his profound ig- 
 norance of its details and its principles.. He had 
 learned grammar, arithmetic, geography, rhetoric, and 
 logic by contact with business and business men, and 
 by reading good current literature. He had become 
 a good oral reader by absorbing, without knowing it, 
 the style of Wallack and Dyott, Edwin Forrest and 
 Macready, as exhibited in the theatres of New York, 
 or rather by imbibing the essential ideas out of which 
 their style grew, for Stockley was not a slavish imi- 
 tator. 
 
 The young teacher would have been found poorly 
 equipped for a rigid technical examination, given by 
 a superintendent of the microscopic order, but Mr. 
 Harkins had had the insight to see and the wisdom to 
 give recognition to his general fitness for his work 
 and his "promise and potency" of growth. In fact, 
 Harkins, soon after handing Stockley his certificate, 
 had said to Mr. Dow, with his lateral head-tilt, "I 
 am able to apply to your new teacher, sir, a line from 
 the third book of Edward Young's The Last Days: 
 There buds the promise of celestial worth.'" 
 
 It must not be understood, however, that Stockley 
 had made no special preparation for the close ques- 
 tioning he had expected from Mr. Harkins. " He had 
 "boned down" to special study for two weeks and had 
 twice surprised himself at work in the 
 
 " . . , . wee short hours ayont the twal." 
 
 A few months later, when he had become better 
 acquainted with his county superintendent, he told him,
 
 VISITORS DAY 35 
 
 laughingly, of his strenuous nocturnal labors in 
 preparation for climbing an examination-mountain 
 which had changed into a conversational mole-hill. 
 Whereupon that official cocked his head on one side 
 and said, with a pleasant twinkle of the eye: "I sus- 
 pect, sir, that you are in sympathy with the sentiment 
 expressed by Tom Moore in The Young May Moon-. 
 
 'And the best of all ways 
 To lengthen our days 
 
 Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear/" 
 As Stockley's desire to follow the teacher's life 
 grew stronger, there grew up beside it the determina- 
 tion to rank first-rate in that calling. To that end 
 he began reading professional books. It cannot be 
 said with truth that he laid out for himself a course 
 of professional reading. It might possibly have been 
 better had he done so, but right or wrong he plan- 
 ned for only one book at a time. When that was com- 
 pleted, he procured another, not because that was the 
 next one on a list that had been made up by himself 
 or by a reading circle, but because, for a reason that 
 was not always the same, it particularly attracted him 
 when he was ready for it. 
 
 He became a member of the Teachers Reading 
 Circle for Anita County, and he faithfully pursued the 
 line of reading and study planned by the State Teach- 
 ers Reading Circle Board. At the meetings of the 
 Circle in the Green Valley section of the county, he 
 was the tacitly acknowledged leader. While unavoid- 
 ably subconscious of his mental superiority, his modest 
 demeanor and his hearty co-operation in all exercises
 
 36 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 forestalled jealousy and made him a favorite with the 
 members of the Circle. 
 
 But while he entered cordially into the prescribed 
 plans of the Reading Circle, he was so constituted or 
 thought he was that he could secure the greatest 
 benefit by proposing to himself some easily attainable 
 end, and pushing on, when that end was reached, to 
 something higher, and so on and on and on. He was 
 not ignorant of the sentiment expressed by Browning 
 in The Inn Album: 
 
 "Better have failed in the high aim, as I, 
 Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed," 
 
 nor of Pope's epigrammatic line : 
 
 "Not failure, but low aim is crime," 
 but he believed that a low aim might be as worthy as a 
 high one, and that he who would reach the high peaks 
 of excellence should aim first to ascend the foothills, 
 leaving in temporary abeyance the question of climbing 
 the greater heights. His happiness was in the present 
 and in constant upward progress. His felicity was not 
 contingent on ascending "Fame's ladder" to a given 
 height. His favorite passages touching this question 
 were those from Chaucer (The Frankeleine's Pro- 
 logue} : 
 
 "Truth is the highest thing that man may keep," 
 and Longfellow (The Ladder of St. Augustine) : 
 
 " we have feet to scale and climb 
 
 By slow degrees, by more and more, 
 
 The cloudy summits of our time." 
 
 Stockley made a wise selection in choosing his first 
 pedagogical reading. 
 
 "A guardian angel o'er his life presiding" 1 guided 
 him to Page's Theory and Practice of Teach- 
 
 1 Samuel Rogers Human Life,
 
 VISITORS DAY 37 
 
 ing. From this work, which pulsated with the life 
 blood of a true teacher, there came to him an inspira- 
 tion which remained with him to the end of his peda- 
 gogical career. This was followed by a book on 
 School Management, another on Methods of Teaching, 
 and still another on Psychology as Applied in Teaching. 
 
 Rutledge Stockley's mind tended to the practical. 
 When he read anything that referred to his work as a 
 teacher, he asked himself, "Does that apply to my 
 work?" and "How can I make that precept apply in 
 my school?" He rejected or deferred the application 
 of some principles as not adapted to his conditions, 
 and those which seemed to him applicable he modified 
 so as to fit them for use in his school. The words 
 WHY and HOW presented themselves in capital letters 
 on every page of his professional reading. A work on 
 Method, for example, stated that "The most effective 
 work can be done with a class only when each mem- 
 ber is attentive to the matter in hand." "Why is it," 
 he asked himself, "that Attention is a basis for all ef- 
 fective work?" When that question had been satis- 
 factorily answered, the next one arose : "How can I 
 secure Maude Clarke's and Mary Milligan's attention 
 in the geography class?" He worked fne problem out 
 in his own room at the Excelsior Hotel, and tested 
 his conclusions in the geography class the very next 
 day, altering them, when necessary, to suit the nature of 
 Maude Clarke and Mary Milligan. 
 
 Stockley had seen in his educational paper an ac- 
 count ol how Visitors Day had been observed in the 
 rural schools of some county, and he determined to 
 try how a Visitors Day would work in Green Valley.
 
 38 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 Wednesday, November 7, was the day he selected. On 
 Tuesday of the preceding week, he announced his plan 
 to the pupils. 
 
 "Please invite your parents," he said to them just 
 before closing school, "to come Wednesday afternoon 
 of next week, and see how you are progressing in 
 your studies. We will begin at half-past one that 
 afternoon, instead of one o'clock, so as to give them 
 all an opportunity to be here when we begin work." 
 
 He noticed that Fannie Vose had her hand raised. 
 
 "Well, Fannie?" 
 
 "Won't there be any speaking or reading or any- 
 thing?" 
 
 "No, we will do only regular school work. I shall 
 change the program so as to have Arithmetic and 
 Grammar come in the afternoon, with Geography and 
 Reading, and the exercises v/ill wind up with a spelling 
 contest. We will make further arrangements about it, 
 but I'll tell you this now and I wish you would let 
 your parents know about it there will be no special 
 drill on particular examples or pages or words or maps. 
 I want your friends to see just what we are trying to 
 do. If we fail before them we will try to work so as 
 not to fail next time. But we are not going to fail 
 are we?" 
 
 A general pressing-together of lips and shaking of 
 heads was sufficient negative. 
 
 "Our recitations next Wednesday," continued the 
 teacher, "will be either on the regular lesson assigned 
 for the day or on what we have gone over this term. 
 You may prepare as much as you wish by reviewing all 
 the lessons we have had this term, but I don't know
 
 VISITORS DAY 39 
 
 yet what work I shall give you on Visitors Day, and 
 1 may not know until the time comes. Of course, we 
 want to make the best showing we can that afternoon, 
 but there will be no secret preparation, and you are 
 at liberty to tell your parents and friends anything I 
 have said to you about it." 
 
 By night the next day, Visitors Day was a com- 
 mon topic of conversation. The Green Valley Argus 
 announced it, and by the time of opening on the after- 
 noon of the designated day, all the seats, including a 
 large number of chairs that had been brought in for 
 the occasion, were filled. Many of the mothers of the 
 children and a few of their fathers were in the chairs. 
 Quite a number of them had never before visited the 
 school. Mr. Dow, Mr. Dundonald, and Squire Green, 
 the members of the school board, occupied seats on the 
 platform. At exactly half past one, the teacher tapped 
 the bell, and the roll call began. Charlie Loring en- 
 tered the room just after his number had been placed 
 on the blackboard. He had not been late before in 
 that term. His number was placed on the board and 
 a figure / was written at the left of it to show that he 
 was tardy one minute and not absent for the half-day. 
 
 "Mr. Stockley," said Mr. Dow in a courteous man- 
 ner but with the ring of authority in his tone, "Charlie 
 Loring ought not to be counted tardy ; he was here be- 
 fore the end of roll-call." Stockley bowed slightly but 
 made no reply. 
 
 "Ladies and gentlemen," said Stockley, at the con- 
 clusion of roll-call, " our exercises this afternoon will 
 represent the regular work of the school. The only 
 deviation from our usual program is the omission of
 
 4O THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 some of our afternoon work and the substitution oi 
 one or two recitations that usually come in the fore-? 
 noon. I am glad so many of you are here, and I 
 shall try to show you what your children are doing in 
 their everyday school work. I will not occupy your 
 time with any further explanation. The grammar 
 class." The members of the class rose and quietly 
 moved forward to the recitation seats. 
 
 The teacher asked, in quick succession, a number 
 of questions in review, calling- for definitions, rules 
 for the formation of plurals and possessives and for 
 the comparison of adjectives and adverbs, rules of syn- 
 tax, etc. This consumed most of the time allowed to 
 grammar. He then requested that some member of 
 the board would select a passage for parsing and 
 analysis. After a little delay, Mr. Dow selected from 
 the grammar these sentences : 
 
 "Fitz James saw the panther in the tree." 
 and 
 
 "To see him die, across the waste 
 
 His son and heir doth ride posthaste." 
 
 Stockley wrote the sentences on the blackboard 
 where all in the class could see them. 
 
 "Maude Clarke may begin the analysis." 
 
 Maude rose. 
 
 " 'Fitz James saw the panther in the tree' is -i 
 simple declarative sentence," she began. "The subject 
 is Fitz James; the predicate is saw the panther in the 
 tree." 
 
 "Eva Black may continue the analysis," interrupt- 
 ed the teacher. 
 
 "I want to hear how Maude would dispose of the 
 rest of the sentence," broke in Mr. Dow.
 
 VISITORS DAY 4! 
 
 Stockley was a little nettled. He had called on a 
 different pupil because that was his usual way of 
 doing, and he wanted to show the everyday work 
 of the school. It seemed to him, besides, that it would 
 have been a matter of ordinary courtesy for the direc- 
 tor to express his wish in the torm of a request and 
 address it to him, the teacher. He wished to be cour- 
 teous to the visitor and to avoid offending- the director. 
 At the same time he was determined to retain in his 
 own hands the direction of the recitation. His re- 
 serve of wit came to his aid, and, turning to the direc- 
 tor, he politely said, "Certainly, Mr. Dow, Maude 
 shall have an opportunity a little later. Go on, Eva," 
 he continued, turning to the class. 
 
 Mr. Dow's face flushed slightly, but he said no 
 more, and Eva began : 
 
 "The predicate verb is saw and it has the noun 
 panther for its object. Saw is modified by the adverb- 
 ial phrase in the tree." Here, Eva took her seat. 
 
 "Do all agree to the analysis as it has been given?" 
 asked the teacher. 
 
 One of the boys, Charlie Marfield, looked up with 
 a half smile of doubt, and hesitatingly asked, "Doesn't 
 the phrase in the tree modify the noun panther?" 
 
 Mr. Dow's lips parted as if he were about to 
 speak, but he checked himself as Stockley replied, "I 
 can't answer that question for you ; does it seem to 
 you to modify the meaning of the verb saw or of the 
 noun panther?" 
 
 "I think it modifies panther," said Charlie. At 
 this, several hands were raised. 
 
 "Let everyone read the sentence carefully and try 
 to get the exact meaning of it and of every element in
 
 42 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 it. Either Charlie or Eva is wrong. Everybody is 
 liable to error, and both of you, I believe, would rather 
 learn something new by owning up frankly to a mis- 
 take than hold onto an error by refusing to acknowl- 
 edge it. Wouldn't you, Charlie?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, I would," said Charlie. 
 
 "Wouldn't you, Eva?" 
 
 "O, I don't know, perhaps so," said Eva. There 
 was a general laugh. 
 
 "Now," said the teacher, "we cannot decide this 
 question by a majority vote, but I want all who have 
 any opinion to commit themselves. You may all rise." 
 
 The class rose. 
 
 "All who see in the phrase in the tree a modifier 
 of panther may be seated." 
 
 Seven of the eleven pupils in the class took their 
 seats. 
 
 "Those who see in it a modifier of saw may be 
 seated." 
 
 Three more took their seats and Eva Black alone 
 remained standing. 
 
 "How do you see it now, Eva?" asked Stockley. 
 
 "I'm all mixed up over it," she replied, "and I don't 
 know what it modifies." This was said with a saucy 
 but not impudent twinkle of the eye, and again- there 
 was a laugh in which the master joined. 
 
 "I am very glad you have the courage to say you 
 don't know," said he. "You are in just the right 
 condition to learn. Maude," he continued, "Mr. Dow 
 wishes to hear your opinion. Please state what you 
 think the phrase modifies, giving your reason." 
 
 "The phrase in the tree tells where he saw some-
 
 VISITORS DAY 43 
 
 thing," said Maude, "so it modifies saw, which is a 
 verb, and anything that modifies a verb is an adverb. 
 That's why I think in the tree is an adverbial phrase." 
 
 "You're right, Maude," volunteered Mr. Dow. 
 "All authorities agree on that. Now take the other 
 sentence." 
 
 "One moment," said the teacher. "I have a book in 
 my desk that contains the passage from which the 
 first sentence is taken. If I read the entire sentence, 
 we may get additional light." 
 
 Having found the place in the book, he read, 
 " 'Both hunters were prone upon the ground ; Fitz 
 James saw the panther in the tree, but the panther 
 on the ground was concealed by the underbrush.' Let 
 me ask three questions for you to think about. You 
 may give me your answers tomorrow. I have my 
 opinion as to what in the tree modifies, but I will re- 
 serve it until tomorrow because I wish you to decide 
 according to the meaning as you understand it.without 
 being influenced by me. Now for the three questions : 
 
 "What does on the ground modify? 
 
 "Do the two phrases modify the same kind or dif- 
 ferent kinds of words? 
 
 "What do you finally conclude that in the tree mod- 
 ifies? 
 
 "We have omy a few moments for the next sent- 
 ence, just time for considering one element. What 
 is the construction of across the waste? You may 
 rise when your answer is ready." 
 
 In a short time, every pupil had risen. 
 
 "Isaac Dexter," said Stock-ley. 
 
 Isaac promptly answered, "Across the tvaste modi-
 
 44 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 fies the verb die, and it is therefore an adverbial 
 phrase." 
 
 "How many agree with Isaac?" 
 
 Every hand was raised. 
 
 "You are all wrong," Stockley dared to say, although 
 he had heard an exclamation of approval from Mr. 
 Dow when Isaac's answer was given. "In this case 
 there is no room for difference of opinion. The com- 
 ma sets off the first phrase from the one we are dis- 
 cussing. The mark of punctuation would not have 
 been inserted to separate a modifier from the word it 
 modifies. The meaning is not die across the -waste, 
 but ride across the waste. This is a case in which the 
 grammatical construction is placed absolutely beyond 
 doubt by the use of a comma. The phrase across the 
 ivaste, by poetic license, is made to precede its verb, 
 instead of follow it according to the usual arrange- 
 ment. This transposition obscures the meaning at 
 first sight." As the teacher spoke, those pupils who 
 had taken the opposite view nodded their heads, one 
 after another ; thus showing that they had changed 
 their view. 
 
 The grammar class was then dismissed and the 
 arithmetic class was called. 
 
 When Stockley turned to take an arithmetic from 
 his desk, he discovered the county superintendent, Mr. 
 Harkins, who had quietly entered the room about the 
 time when the class began the analysis of the two 
 sentences. 
 
 The arithmetic lesson was a review of fractions. 
 There were both easy and difficult problems to solve, 
 and, in the main, the pupils acquitted themselves with
 
 VISITORS DAY 45 
 
 credit. The characteristic features of their work were 
 the explanation of the problems in such a manner as 
 to indicate an acquaintance with the fundamental 
 truths on which the computations were based, and 
 the accuracy of the calculations. 
 
 The teacher had remembered, and his pupils had 
 profited by, Superintendent Harkms's statement that 
 the. right study of arithmetic tends to cultivate exact- 
 ness and precision. 
 
 The geography class drew the "grand divisions'" 
 on. the blackboard : Europe, Asia, Africa, and the 
 Americas being sketched free-hand by different mem- 
 bers of the class. 
 
 The reading of the fifth reader class presented lit- 
 tle that was remarkable. The teacher had followed a 
 definite plan in teaching the class and had set up an 
 ideal toward which he was laboriously threading his 
 way, satisfied if, at a month's end, he could see that 
 the pupils read more distinctly and with some improve- 
 ment in expression. He made no apology or explana- 
 tion to the audience, but called the spelftng class. 
 
 "Let them choose sides and spell down," said Mr. 
 Dow, in a tone that was more than half dictatorial. 
 
 "Certainly," said Stockley, suppressing his irrita- 
 tion at the director's unwarranted assumption of au- 
 thority, "we sometimes do that ; Allie Harley, will you 
 choose on this side, and Charlie Marfield, will you 
 choose on this?" 
 
 Allie and Charlie took their places, and in a short 
 time all the pupils in the room stood facing one an- 
 other in two lines, the best spellers, of course, being 
 near the "head," next to the choosers.
 
 46 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 Before beginning the spelling exercises, the teacher 
 explained his method of conducting a class in oral 
 spelling. 
 
 "I will not consume the time," he said, "by giving 
 reasons for our plan, which is this: 
 
 "I pronounce a word once, and only once, giving 
 it as distinctly as possible; 
 
 "Words are to be spelled in a way that will indi- 
 cate their proper division into syllables ; 
 
 "If a word is incorrectly pronounced or spelled, 
 I at once say wrong, and the pupil 'goes down.' The 
 word is never passed to 'next.' 
 
 "Only one trial is given to a word. 
 
 "If I pronounce a word missed and the speller 
 thinks he was correct, the question is referred to the 
 head of the opposite side, and his decision is final. 
 
 "Our plan is a little different when all stand in 
 one line. Then, the best spellers 'go up' toward the 
 head, and those who miss remain in the class." 
 
 The exercises then began. The first one to "go 
 down" was Jimmy Stone, who failed on conduit. Jane 
 Heth was offered confectionery but preferred confec- 
 tionary, which the master would not allow ; Millicent 
 Risley might have remained stationary if stationary 
 had not had greater attraction for her ; and fatal gave 
 a fateal blow to the orthographical aspirations of 
 Charlie Loring. 
 
 In seven minutes there were only four standing 
 on Allie Harley's side and three on Charlie Marfield's. 
 
 "Before going further," said Stockley, addressing 
 the survivors, "let us recall the principle we have 
 adopted: 'We can better afford defeat than loss of
 
 VISITORS DAY 47 
 
 trust in ourselves as persons of honor and truth ; the 
 heads of these sides may be called on to decide for or 
 against themselves." 
 
 He then recommenced "putting out" words. 
 Myrrh, vies, vise, and knurly were correctly spelled, 
 and the word supersede came to Lura Fuller. 
 
 Lura was confident and spelled rapidly. "Su per 
 sede : s u p e r c e d e." So the teacher understood 
 her. 
 
 "Wrong," he announced. 
 
 "I think I was right," said Lura. 
 
 "How did you spell the word?" 
 
 "Su per sede : s u-p e r-s e d e." 
 
 "Did you understand her so, Charlie?" address- 
 ing the head of the opposite side. 
 
 "Yes, sir," was the reply. 
 
 "I was wrong," said the teacher, "I understood you 
 to begin the last syllable with c." 
 
 There was no further error until Eva Black turned 
 e out of the last syllable of superintendent filling the 
 vacancy with a, and was pronounced "wrong." 
 
 "What is the right spelling ?" asked Eva. 
 
 Stockley told her, and she tacitly acknowledged her 
 error by taking her seat without protest. 
 
 By this time, interest in the contest was intense. 
 Heads were tilted forward ; necks were craned toward 
 the teacher and toward the pupils alternately; hands 
 were concaved and placed behind ears as sounding 
 boards; every pupil's as well as every visitor's eye 
 was eager. 
 
 The teacher was about to pronounce the next word 
 when Mr. Dow's voice was heard.
 
 4l THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 "Mr. Stockley," said he, "I think quite a number of 
 these scholars have spelled down because they didn't 
 understand the words. Suppose you let some one else 
 pronounce words." 
 
 Mr. Dow's proposition was not prompted by any 
 ill will to Stockley. He liked the schoolmaster, not- 
 withstanding the hint the latter had given him to 
 mind his own business. He was willing and even 
 anxious to have Stockley acquit himself creditably, 
 but his dominant desire was to bring H. L. Dow into 
 prominence as. the main pillar of the Green Valley 
 school. He was very desirous that the school should 
 be a success that year because its success would reflect 
 credit on the school officer who was instrumental in 
 securing the services of so promising a principal as 
 the present one. 
 
 "I shall be much pleased," was Stockley's reply, 
 "to accept your suggestion. Will you not do me the 
 favor of taking my place for the rest of the time ?" 
 
 This was just what Mr. Dow had had in view in 
 proposing a change of pronouncers. He stepped for- 
 ward and took the spelling book. 
 
 "Va' ga ry," he pronounced, looking at Allie 
 Harley. 
 
 Allie looked a little confused and turned her eyes 
 to the teacher, who only smiled in return. She pro- 
 ceeded: "Va ga' ry: Va ga ry." 
 
 "Wrong," said Mr. Dow. "You spelled it right 
 but your pronunciation was wrong." 
 
 "I think I was right," said Allie, timidly, for it was 
 the banker and school director with whom she was
 
 VISITORS DAY 4Q 
 
 taking issue. She looked across to Charlie Marfield 
 for he was, under the rules, the one to decide. 
 
 "We'll consult the dictionary," said Mr. Dow. 
 Finding the word in the unabridged, he looked at it 
 with care ; bent nearer and examined it closely ; turned 
 a leaf as if he expected to find on another page some 
 way out of the trouble ; looked back at the word ; and 
 finally looked up and asked Allie, "Where did you 
 put the accent?" 
 
 "On the second syllable." 
 
 "Well," he slowly admitted, "that's the way it 
 seems to be in the dictionary, but I think there's some 
 mistake about it, for I never heard it that way. But 
 we won't call it wrong, Allie," he kindly added. 
 
 "Hy~ po chon' dri ac," he pronounced to Charlie 
 Marfield. 
 
 "Hyp o chon' dri ac," corrected Charlie, and 
 spelled the word. 
 
 While the next few words were being spelled the 
 pronouncer sauntered carelessly to the dictionary and 
 opened it in an abstracted manner to the page contain- 
 ing words which begin with Hypochon , . . He 
 soon closed the dictionary without comment on what 
 he had discovered, and a quiet smile went round the 
 room. 
 
 When he passed the word "dis put' a ble" to Isaac 
 Dexter and Isaac passed it back as being dis' pu ta ble, 
 one of the visitors, Harry Dole", tittered. 
 
 "How do you pronounce dispute?" Mr. Dow 
 demanded of Charlie. 
 
 "Dis pute," was the reply. 
 
 "Then isn't disputable dis put' a ble ?"
 
 50 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 "I think not," said Charlie. 
 
 "/ think it is ; we'll see." 
 
 When Mr. Dow slammed the dictionary shut, after 
 investigation, there were three giggles from as many 
 girls (visitors) who formed a group in one corner. 
 The pupils would have laughed if they had not been 
 discouraged by repressive glances from the teacher's 
 eyes. Mr. Dow learned the pronunciation of sev- 
 eral other doubtful words, and, on the whole, took his 
 lesson good naturedly, but he shut the spelling with 
 alacrity at the close of the period. 
 
 In response to the principal's invitation he made 
 a short address, in which he commended the work of 
 the school as s'hown on Visitors Day, gave some 
 good advice to the pupils, and referred humorously 
 to his own attempt to play the schoolmaster. 
 
 "We are fortunate in having our county superin- 
 tendent present," said Stockley, "and I hope he will 
 favor us with a few remarks." 
 
 Superintendent Harkins came forward slowly, with 
 his head bent as if thinking how he should begin. 
 Having reached the front of the platform, he looked 
 up. The oscillation of his head was only momentary, 
 being arrested by a faint, jerky movement which gave 
 it the quotation tilt. 
 
 "There is much," he began, "which I am impelled 
 to say to express my appreciation of the excellent 
 showing made by the pupils of the Green Valley 
 school, today, a showing which has been made pos- 
 sible by the learning, the ability, and the skill of your 
 teacher. But I am restrained by a consideration which 
 is aptly expressed by the incomparable Homer in the
 
 VISITORS DAY 51 
 
 tenth book of the Iliad, and which Alexander Pope 
 renders in these lines: 
 
 'Praise from a friend or censure from a foe, 
 Are lost on hearers that our merits know.' 
 
 I am your teacher's friend; you all know his merits; 
 and praise from me 'would, consequently, be a mere su- 
 perflux. The poet Cowper in The Task, alludes to 
 
 'Those golden times 
 And those Arcadian scenes that Mlaro sings.' 
 
 These, my friends, are better than 'golden times'; 
 they are times of learning, of achievement, and of im- 
 proved pedagogical methods. No longer is the youth- 
 ful learner seen: 
 
 'Creeping, like snail, unwillingly to school.' 
 where an efferous master lies in wait to birken him 
 with birchen rod. Every cogitabund individual re- 
 joices that pedagogic ferocity is passing into desue- 
 tude. To the benevolous people of our time the school 
 methods of the sixteenth century would be cataphysical 
 and abhorrent. 
 
 Yours, my young friends, is a happy lot. All 
 things favor you. Golden opportunity is yours but 
 you should bear in mind the precept of which the elder 
 Pliny reminds us, that opportunities lost can never be 
 regained. Let me, in conclusion, commend to you 
 a precept found in Samuel Johnson's ode on Winter: 
 'Catch, then, oh catch the transient hour; 
 
 Improve each moment as it flies! 
 Life's a soft summer, man a flower; 
 He dies alas! how soon he dies.'" 
 He took his seat, and the teacher, after express- 
 ing his hope that another Visitors ' Day would show 
 improvement in the school, dismissed the pupils and 
 the visitors dispersed.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE STOKE QUARRY 
 
 Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous. Shakespeare. 
 
 When Arthur Blazer appeared on the main street 
 of Green Valley about ten o'clock in the forenoon 
 of the day following his ejection from the schoolroom, 
 he found himself running a gauntlet of derisive smiles 
 and bantering jokes. 
 
 "Hullo, Arthur," called out Harry Dole from tha 
 doorway of John McMillan's hardware store. "Ain't 
 ye a little late for school? Ef ye hurry along, p'r'aps 
 ye'll git there'n time fur the g'ogerfy class, he, 
 he, he!" 
 
 The bystanders joined in the laugh. 
 
 "You shut up!" growled Arthur as he passed on 
 in front of Dan Loring's grocery. Here he encount- 
 ered another group of which Garry Leroy was the 
 spokesman. 
 
 "Say, Art," laughed Garry, "bound Africa for us. 
 I understand you bounded good and strong, yester- 
 day, when the schoolmaster had hold of your coat 
 collar!" 
 
 A loud guffaw from the crowd greeted Garry s 
 witticism, and Arthur hurried along only to encounter 
 Hank Medart, the burly proprietor of "Medart's Sa- 
 loon." 
 
 "You fellers let Art alone," shouted Medart. 
 "The perfesser gin it to ? im plenty 'thout yen pickin'
 
 THE STONE QUARRY 53 
 
 on 'im. It's a darn shame fer a great hulkln' hunderd 
 pound ruffin like Stockley to jump onto a puny little 
 hunderd 'nd eighty pound boy like you be! Say, 
 y'orter git yer sister to go'n pound th' yeverlastin' 
 gizzard out 'f 'im!" 
 
 "You fellers can all go to ," snapped the bad- 
 gered boy, now thoroly enraged and overwhelmed 
 with mortification. He lumbered around the corner 
 at a quickened gait and sought a less frequented 
 street. 
 
 His life wfas a burden to him that day. He was 
 kept continually dodging across the street and behind 
 buildings to avoid meeting persons who would be sure 
 to "guy" him. Even grave citizens appeared to look 
 sideways at him with an amused smile as they passed 
 him. Ladies glanced at him furtively, and his sen- 
 sitive ear caught fragments of their audible whisper- 
 ings: 
 
 " threw him out " 
 
 " Stockley " 
 
 " geography class " 
 
 " served him right " 
 
 When he went home to his dinner at noon, he was 
 surly and irritable. In the afternoon he remained 
 about the house, dreading ridicule if he should ven- 
 ture upon the street. His solitude was as much of a 
 strain upon him as the jeering and deris'on of the 
 streets. He resisted all attempts of his parents and 
 brothers to draw him into conversation on the subject 
 of what he regarded as an ignominious defeat. He 
 had been the school bully ; he was now a butt of scof- 
 fing to the little boys and girls. He had been cock
 
 54 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 of the walk; he was now a plucked and bedraggled 
 fowl. 
 
 He went to the cow barn and climbed to the hay 
 loft where he could be alone. As he brooded over his 
 disgrace, a feeling of fierce resentment took possession 
 of him. "Who done this?" he muttered without ar- 
 ticulating the words, "who do I owe for this?" As 
 the questions took form in his mind, his wrath gather- 
 ed force. He half rose from his bed on the hay 
 and shook his fist in the direction of the schoolhouse. 
 
 "You, by ! you ! you f you ! and by I'll git even 
 
 with you!" He subsided upon the hay and lost him- 
 self in as deep thought as was possible in the turbid 
 condition of his uncultivated brain. In half an hour 
 he rose with a more settled look in his face. When 
 he appeared at the supper table he seemed almost 
 cheerful and took his accustomed share in the family 
 conversation. 
 
 The next morning he announced to his father his 
 intention of "looking for a job," for he wai, not lazy, 
 and work was vastly more attractive to him than 
 idling about home or the village. In three days he had 
 secured work as a section hand on the railroad. Every 
 day thereaftei ht accompanied the section boss and 
 other hands with their hand car on their working 
 and inspection trips over the section, often taking his 
 noon luncheon with him from home. 
 
 About a week after his work on the railroad began, 
 the section crew lunched at a stone quarry to which 
 a spur track had been built from the main line. This 
 quarry was situated about two miles from the village. 
 After finishing his luncheon, Arthur strolled about
 
 THE STONE QUARRY 55 
 
 the quarry, looking idly at the derricks, the piles of 
 rock, the heaps of broken stone, and the various ob- 
 jects connected with quarrying which appealed to his 
 curiosity. A row of vertical holes sunk in a shelf of 
 rock arrested his attention. 
 
 "What's them holes for?" he asked of a quarry- 
 man. 
 
 "They're holes for blasting." 
 
 "How d'ye blast with them holes?" 
 
 "We put blasting powder into them, then fill up the 
 hole with sand and clay, and then touch it off." 
 
 "How can ye touch off the powder when it's all 
 covered up with sand 'n' clay?" 
 
 "Why, we use a fuse." 
 
 "What's a fuse?" 
 
 "See here!" said the quarryman, "you're firing 
 questions at me like I was a witness in a 'salt 'n' bat- 
 tery trial. What do you want to know so much for?" 
 
 "O, nothin'," replied Arthur, "I was kind o' 
 curis, that's all." He started to Walk away, but 
 turned back. 
 
 "Say," he began again, "that blastin' powder must 
 be allfired strong to break off them big rocks." 
 
 "Yes, it's pretty strong." 
 
 Arthur again walked slowly away for he saw the 
 other section men placing their lunch pails on the 
 hand car. The quarrymen had recommenced drilling 
 the holes that had excited the young man's curiosity 
 and he turned several times to watch their work. All 
 that afternoon he seemed abstracted. In every inter- 
 val of work he fell into a brown study. Two or three 
 times when all the men were expected to lift or pull
 
 56 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 together, the section boss had to speak sharply to 
 bring him back from his woolgathering. 
 
 "Say, look here," said the boss at last, "what's the 
 matter of ye ? Be ye sick or anythin' ?" 
 
 "No, I ain't sick ; I was jest thinkin' what if Num- 
 ber 3 should go thru that bridge over Lumber Crick." 
 
 He roused himself and became more attentive to 
 his work but his companions noticed that his eyes 
 had a far-away look and that he several times half 
 closed them and nodded his head as if he had reaahed 
 some conclusion. 
 
 The next day the section crew was aga : n at the 
 quarry. This time, Arthur sought out the foreman 
 and asked for a job. A laborer was needed to assist 
 in loading cars with stone. The foreman was pleased 
 with the young man's muscular build and arranged 
 with him to begin work as soon as he could get his 
 "time" from the railroad. In two days, Arthur Blazer 
 had developed out of the section hand and into the 
 quarryman stage of existence. He generally walked 
 to his work in the morning, but he sometimes caught 
 a ride on the engine that ran out to do switching at 
 the quarry. He was little given to conversation with 
 the other laborers but he did not withdraw himself 
 from them at lunch time. While munching his corned 
 beef and bread, his eye would sometimes run over the 
 scraps of paper his luncheon was wrapped in, resting 
 on accounts of accidents and crimes. One day he read 
 about the wreck of the ocean steamer Bristol and the 
 loss of eighty-four passengers. Another time he be- 
 came interested in the escape of a murderer from Min- 
 neapolis, where the crime of which the fugitive was
 
 THE STONE QUARRY 57 
 
 accused had been committed, his special interest be- 
 ing due to the fact that the fugitive had thick, red 
 hair, like himself, that his size and build were like 
 his own, and that reports showed him to be heading 
 for the heavily wooded swamp that bordered Run 
 River, not far from Green Valley. The pursuit, cap- 
 ture, and hanging of two notorious horse-thieves by a 
 posse of Wyoming cowboys was the literary delicacy 
 on which he feasted the next day. One of his co-labor- 
 ers ventured once to hint remotely at Blazer's trouble 
 in school, but the danger signal in the ex-bully's eyes 
 checked him, and the experiment was never repeated. 
 Notwithstanding the aversion to study which Ar- 
 thur had always exhibited in school, he now became 
 a diligent student of everything pertaining to his new 
 line of industry, and particularly of the process of blast- 
 ing. Without apparent eagerness to learn about it, 
 he asked many questions from time to time and in this 
 way he laid up a store of information regarding drills 
 and drilling, kinds of powder used, the adjustment of 
 time in the use of time fuses, etc. The foreman 
 praised him moderately for his faithful work and 
 advised him to learn the trade of quarrying. Blazer 
 received the praise stolidly, making little reply. He 
 seldom mentioned his work at home. He had become 
 an habitual smoker but he had never been a frequenter 
 of saloons. His father noted with satisfaction Ar- 
 thur's steady devotion to his work, and a conversation 
 with the foreman of the quarry led him to believe that 
 his son had found an employment that, should it prove 
 to be permanent, would result in industrious habits 
 and a reputable life.
 
 58 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 One evening when Arthur left the house after 
 supper it was only after dark that he now ventured 
 upon the street he asked his mother to loan him her 
 pocket Bible. She gladly let him take the book and 
 ventured to express the hope that he would read it 
 carefully and that it would be a means of doing him 
 good. The boy made no reply, but slipped the book 
 into his pocket and went out. He soon met James 
 Wakely. 
 
 "Hello, Jim," said Arthur. 
 
 "Hello, Art." 
 
 "Say, Jim, I want to talk with ye." 
 
 "All right," replied Jim. He went with Arthur 
 around a corner out of the light of the stores and 
 saloons. A walk of two blocks brought them to the 
 river bank, remote from any building. Neither boy 
 had spoken during the walk, for Arthur had become 
 habitually taciturn, and James felt, in the presence of 
 his stronger companion, a certain timidity which de- 
 terred him from taking the lead in conversation. 
 When they were seated on a boulder by the river, Ar- 
 thur spoke, after looking about carefully to assure 
 himself that they were quite alone. 
 
 "How ye gittin' along in school now days?" 
 
 "Pretty well, why?" 
 
 "What made ye go back on me that day?" asked 
 Arthur, ignoring Jim's question. 
 
 "Why, Art," whined James, "I didn't have any 
 chance. It wouldn't been any use for me to light on 
 him after you'd left the room." James carefully 
 avoided any hint that Arthur had been thrown out. 
 
 "All right ; I ain't kickin'. I s'pose yer boss makes
 
 THE STONE QUARRY 59 
 
 ye stand 'round pretty lively, don't he? You conic 
 when he whistles 'n' jump when he hollers?" 
 
 "No, I don't; I do just as I please; I'm not his 
 nigger." 
 
 "Ye're gittin' to like 'im first rate, ain't ye? To 
 hear Clint talk" (Clinton was a younger brother of 
 Arthur's, who remained in school.) "ye'd think all 
 the girls was in love with 'im 'nd all the boys was 
 ready to black 'is boots." 
 
 James had really conceived a liking for his teacher 
 but he lacked courage to acknowledge it in the face of 
 Arthur's taunts. Moreover, Arthur's bold nature 
 dominated the weaker one and James now began to 
 think he had been too compliant in yielding to the 
 spirit of good order which pervaded Mr. Stockley's 
 schoolroom. He therefore spoke no word of defense 
 for his teacher in reply to Arthur's sneers. 
 
 "Now you just look here, Mr. James Wakely," 
 said Arthur with energy, turning towards James and 
 emphasizing his words by vicious blows of his right 
 fist upon his left palm, "ef you're yer mamma's pet 
 darlin' little Sunday School scholar, and don't dare to 
 say anythin' above a whisper fer fear Stockley'll hear 
 of it 'n' give ye a lickin', why then that's all I've got to 
 say to you, Mr. Wakely." He started as if to rise. 
 
 "Hold on, Art," James hastened to say; "what is 
 it you want, anyway?" 
 
 "I wont t'know, fust off, ef you're a goin' to go 
 and blab to anybody 'bout our talkin' together." 
 
 "No, I ain't." 
 
 "Now, I wan' t'know whether ye've got the spent 
 of a baby rabbit, when a stinkin' little dude jumps on
 
 60 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 ye 'n tries to skin ye 'live!" 
 
 "Of course I have," answered James, straightening 
 himself up and trying to look valiant. His answer 
 was very nearly true. 
 
 "D'ye mean what ye say, or be ye goin' to play the 
 baby act when that teacher o' yourn begins to talk soft 
 to ye?" 
 
 "Why, of course I mean just what I say; I'm not 
 a blabber." 
 
 "Ef ye mean business ye jes' 's soon take an oath 
 not to tell anythin' I say to ye. Now, what I want to 
 know is, be you GAME?" 
 
 This was proposing a step a little beyond what 
 James was really willing to take, but he could hardly 
 refuse to back up what he had so emphatically as- 
 serted. He therefore signified his willingness to bind 
 himself by an oath, not to reveal anything Arthur 
 might communicate to him. 
 
 "Stand up!" commanded Arthur. 
 
 James stood up. 
 
 "Take off yer hat!" 
 
 James removed his hat. 
 
 "Raise up yer right hand!" 
 
 James obeyed. 
 
 "Drop yer hat 'n take holt o' this bible with yer 
 left hand !" 
 
 James complied, after hesitating a moment and 
 glancing at Arthur's stern countenance. 
 
 "Say T". It was done. 
 
 "Repeat your full name." James repeated it in a 
 low tone, and with a slight quaver in his voice.
 
 THE STONE QUARRY 6l 
 
 "Now, say these words after me and don't you 
 skip a single word." 
 
 Arthur then administered to the trembling boy be- 
 fore him an oath modeled on a form such as he had 
 heard was employed in some secret society, but con- 
 taining several imprecations of his own invention and 
 sundry allusions to coffins, graves, torn livers and 
 bloody daggers which no freemason or odd fellow 
 had ever dreamed of. When James had pronounced 
 the final imprecation calling down upon himself awful 
 penalties if he should ever tell about his meetings 
 with Arthur, he was shaking as if in an ague fit and it 
 was with bloodless lips that he obeyed Arthur's sol- 
 emn command, "James Morgan Wakely, kiss the 
 holy bible !" 
 
 "Now, Jim," said Arthur at the conclusion of the 
 ceremony, "I ain't got nothin' more to say to ye to- 
 night. I'll let ye know when I want ye again, and 
 don't you fergit that I have a way of knowin' ef ye 
 ever break yer oath." 
 
 James slept very little that night, and both his 
 teacher and his parents noticed frequently thereafter 
 that an absent-minded look would come over him in 
 the midst of his study, his play, and his work.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 A MODERN INQUISITION 
 
 We will answer all things faithfully. Shakespeare. 
 
 It would not have been difficult for Rutledge Stock- 
 ley to establish himself as a social lion in Green Valley. 
 He was intelligent and courteous, a good singer and a 
 good story-teller. He possessed an art that is exceed- 
 ingly rare in both polite and impolite society, the art 
 of listening, and the practice of this art endeared him to 
 long-winded old men and garrulous old ladies. He 
 never, in society, spoke in deprecatory terms of anyone, 
 nor did he make the affairs of the school a topic of 
 common conversation in parlors, in stores, or on the 
 street. He attended church sociables and other social 
 functions, and even went occasionally to a dancing 
 party held at G. A. R. Hall. 
 
 He frequently met Mr. and Mrs. Dow at social 
 gatherings, and as they were both singers his own mu- 
 sical talent tended to a closer relationship with them 
 than would have existed were it not that the subtle cen- 
 tripetence of "Music's golden tongue" drew them to- 
 gether. 
 
 One evening when Mr. Dow was reading his paper 
 in the sitting room, his wife addressed him on a sub- 
 ject she had been revolving in her mind for several 
 days. 
 
 "Dow," she said. She never called him Hiram, or 
 Mr. Dow. Her husband looked up. 
 
 "I've been thinking about having Stockley come and
 
 A MODERN INQUISITION 63 
 
 live with us." Mrs. Dow never took the trouble to con- 
 struct conversational approaches to any subject she 
 wished to introduce to her husband's attention. She al- 
 ways came directly to the point, which she expected to 
 carry and which she never failed to carry, without the 
 trouble and delay of a regular siege. She was willing 
 to consult him on domestic questions, so much she 
 conceded to convention, but it was tacitly understood 
 by both partners in this connubial firm, that any propo- 
 sition advanced by its petticoat member was as secure 
 against veto as an act of the British House of Com- 
 mons. It was in harmony with Mrs. Dow's nature to 
 speak of Iwving instead of asking the teacher to be- 
 come an inmate of her house, and she could never have 
 plebeianized her household by having any one board 
 there. 
 
 "It seems to me, Mary," replied Mr. Dow, "that we 
 are quite comfortable as we are. Gran'ma and Winnie 
 are good company, and a family of four is large enougn 
 for comfort." 
 
 "Yes," assenjted Mrs. Dow, "mother and Win are 
 all right, and it isn't because I'm dying for Stockley's 
 society that I want him to come. I want him here on 
 your account." 
 
 "On my account! I don't see how his being here 
 would do me any good." 
 
 "Dow," said- his wife, "you ought to be the real di- 
 rector on that school board, now you're only called 
 director. You ought to be the director of the school 
 You know very well that you're not. Stockley sets 
 himself uf to be director, and he takes good care to lee 
 everyone know it. See how he just sat down ^n you on
 
 64 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 that 'Visitors Day.' You couldn't say A thing without 
 his snubbing you, just to let everybody know that he 
 couldn't be bossed by you." 
 
 "But I don't see, Mary, how all that has anything to 
 do with Mr. Stockley's coming here to board." 
 
 "It has just this to do with it," explained Mrs. Dow : 
 "if Stockley comes here you'll have more chances to 
 talk with him and your talks will come c.bout more 
 naturally. You won't seem to be trying to get control 
 over him as you would if you had to look him up at 
 the hotel or ask him into the back office at the bank 
 every time you wan,t to see him. Besides, if he was 
 here, we would treat him particularly well, and he 
 would feel under obligations to do as you ask him to. 
 He would think twice before he tried to put you down 
 in public as he did at the schoolhouse the other day." 
 
 Mr. Dow laughed as he recalled his part in the events 
 of Visitors Day. "Mr. Stockley," he said, "was en- 
 tirely within his rights, in conducting his own classes 
 in his own manner, and I don't feel hard toward him 
 for letting me know my place. He was very gentle- 
 manly about it. Still, there is something in your sug- 
 gestion. Stockley is young ; he has had very little expe- 
 rience; and he needs advice from some level-headed 
 person." 
 
 "Can't you speak to Stockley some time tomorrow 
 about it?" asked Mrs. Dow. 
 
 "I think so. When do you want him to come ?" 
 ''He can come any time, tomorrow, if he wants to. ' 
 "Very well, I'll speak to him tomorrow." 
 The next day Mr. Dow introduced the subject to 
 the teacher, suggesting that altho the Excelsior Hotel
 
 A MODERN INQUISITION 6$ 
 
 was an excellent house, the surroundings could hardly 
 be as agreeable as those of a private family. His 
 own home, he added, was pleasantly situated and quiet, 
 and in view of Stockley's uncongenial associations at the 
 hotel, it would give Mrs. Dow and himself pleasure tj 
 have him make his home with them. He named a price 
 for board, which, while a little less than he had been 
 paying at the hotel, was high enough to make Stockley 
 feel that he would not be a charity boarder. 
 
 Stockley had been by no means dissatisfied with the 
 hotel, but the plan of living in a family of a leading 1 
 citizen was attractive to him, and before long he was 
 installed in the banker's home. 
 
 Mrs. Dow had not mentioned to her husband the 
 principal consideration that led to her desire to have 
 the principal in her family. She cared for the distinc- 
 tion that would come from having her husband known 
 as prominent or supreme in local political and educa- 
 tional affairs, but she cared vastly more for recognition 
 of herself as the leader of the highest and most exclus- 
 ive social set in the community. Wealth was one qual- 
 ification, but not the only one for membership in this 
 set. Stockley's intellectual acumen and his possession of 
 what Green Valley society called "culture" had opened 
 the doors of the "best society" to him. Mary Dow be- 
 lieved that if the new social lion would submit to wear- 
 ing her collar and allow himself to be led about by hei 
 chain, the end of her own ambition would, thereby, be 
 more certainlv attainable. 
 
 Since Visitors Day some rumors had reached 
 Stockley's ears concerning dissatisfaction on the part
 
 66 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 of patrons of the school. One afternoon he called at 
 the bank to tell Mr. Dow that the school needed a sup- 
 ply of crayon. He found the banker alone in his pri- 
 vate office. After attending to the matter of business, 
 he determined that he would ascertain from the direc- 
 tor, if possible, what foundation there was for the ru- 
 mors he had heard. 
 
 "Mr. Dow," he said, "I have heard remarks here 
 and there, that seem to indicate dissatisfaction with the 
 school. I have made little or no reply to those who 
 have repeated these things to me, but I come to you as 
 a friend, hoping that if you know of anything wrong 
 you will tell me frankly, so that I may apply the rem- 
 edy." 
 
 "I'm not sorry you came to me," replied Mr. Dow, 
 "altho I believe that the best way to treat false 
 reports about the school or stories which show ignor- 
 ance of your methods and aims is to pay no attention 
 to them until they are brought to your notice by some 
 person of standing in the community." 
 
 "If I wait for that," said Stockley, "I may never 
 have an opportunity to set myself right." 
 
 "Never fear ; keep your own counsel ; examine your 
 own record honestly, as if you were investigating the 
 conduct of another person; if you find your ship has 
 sprung a leak, run it into dry dock and repair it. Don't 
 make the mistake of taking offense when you are crit- 
 icised. If I were /talking to one of the village censors, 
 I would caution him to be absolutely certain of his facts 
 before saying anything, and then to say very little. 
 But we are looking at your side now. Ever} r active 
 member of any community is exposed to criticism.
 
 A MODERN INQUISITION' 6? 
 
 However reluctant one may "be, through self-conceit, to 
 admit it, it is, nevertheless, true, that when one's acts 
 are called in question, there is as great probability of 
 his being wrong, as there is of his critic's being in error. 
 Perhaps it is better to say that whenever a criticism is 
 made, there is ground for it, though the ground may 
 be untenable. It is wise for the object of the criticism 
 to examine his position and see whether he is, himself, 
 on tenable ground. If his ground is not tenable, he 
 should shift his position. When any fair-minded per- 
 son tells you of anything for which you are censured, 
 tell him the absolute truth; explain, if necessary, the 
 reasons for your action. The truth will then begin to 
 spread just as the error did, if, indeed, there was an 
 error. Truth is a ferret ; it drives lies out of their holes 
 into the light, and the light kills them." 
 
 "I can see the force of what you say," said Stock- 
 ley, "and if my management of the school is open to 
 criticism as it must be when I have had so little exp-j- 
 rience I want to set it right. Have you heard any 
 fault found?" 
 
 "Yes; several people think you ought not to have 
 left that question undecided in the grammar class on 
 Visitors Day, and some of them profess to think you 
 left it over so that you could look it up yourself before 
 committing yourself and running the risk of exposing 
 your ignorance." 
 
 Stockley's face flushed. "The stupid fools " wero 
 the words which formed themselves in hi r mind, but, 
 in the exercise of the disposition he had cultivated to 
 look at both sides, he stifled his first thought and, a f tcr 
 a moment's hesitation, said something quite different.
 
 68 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 "I can easily see," he said, "how that inference might 
 fairly be made. The truth is, however, that there was 
 absolutely no question in my mind as to the propjf 
 disposition of the phrase under discussion. There was 
 no room for opinion, because opinion is less than knowl 
 edge, and I knew. Now, why didn't I tell the pupils 
 what I knew, as they were there to learn? It was simp - 
 ly because a mere knowledge of the fact we were 
 searching for would have been utterly worthless to 
 them. To know, on the authority of a teacher, that 
 the phrase in the tree modifies a certain element in a 
 sentence would not fit the pupils to be better citizens or 
 housewives. But, on the other hand, to form *he habit 
 of analyzing the language in which other people ex- 
 press their thoughts has, it seems to me, a very im- 
 portant bearing on their value as citizens. Is it not 
 because of inability to perform such analysis that the 
 ignorant are so often made the dupes of the smooth- 
 tongued? I will go still further, Mr. Dow, and ask 
 whether to tell a child a fact connected with his studies 
 which he may reasonably be expected to discover for 
 himself is not positively injurious to him. Does it not 
 encourage his tendency to rely on other people to fon-i 
 his opinions for him a tendency which, if unchecked, 
 must result in failure to our experiment of government 
 by the people ? By thinking out independently the rela- 
 tion in question, the pupils placed themselves in the line 
 of thought development which would be of service to 
 them, it seemed to me, in business, in society, in every 
 activity of life." 
 
 Mr. Dow smiled. "Your explanation would hardly 
 be intelligible," he said, "to the person who reported to
 
 A MODERN INQUISITION 69 
 
 me what people are saying on this point, but I think- 
 most intelligent people would understand." 
 
 "What other criticism have you heard?" asked 
 Stockley. 
 
 "Well, you know Arthur Wildon, who runs the 
 lumber yard ?" 
 
 "Yes, I have met him." 
 
 "Well, he thinks that you have the boys go too 
 much into the explanation of their examples in arith- 
 metic. He doesn't see the use of having them give or 
 even trying to have them understand the reason for 
 everything they do. They ought to learn to reckon 
 rapidly and without making mistakes. That's Wildon's 
 notion, and I don't believe," added Mr. Dow, "he's 
 altogether wrong." 
 
 "Nor do I," assented the teacher. "I have read 
 that one very important use of arithmetic study is to 
 cultivate the power of rapid and accurate computation, 
 and that it has a high value for training the mind to 
 reason from step to step in a series of dependent prop- 
 ositions, but perhaps I need to emphasize more the 
 other phase of number drill." 
 
 "Seems to me," remarked Mr. Dow, "that you show 
 considerable familiarity with pedagogical principles for 
 one who has never taught school before. Where did 
 you pick up so much professional knowledge ? I think 
 you told me you had never attended a normal school ?" 
 
 "I'm glad I do not appear entirely ignorant. No, 
 I have had no professional training. I hope to remedy 
 this defect if I remain in the work. But I have alreadv 
 read a few professional books, one on Theory and 
 Practice of Teaching, another on Systematic Method-
 
 7O THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 ology, a third on Common School Education, and still 
 another on School Management." 
 
 "Do you try to follow everything you find in these 
 books ? Isn't there a great deal in them that is only 
 theoretical and has no practical application?" 
 
 "To your first question I reply that I do not, for 
 not everything is at present applicable to my work. As 
 to your second question, it seems to me every good the- 
 ory has some practical application. Is not an excellent 
 theory sometimes condemned because some bungler has 
 misinterpreted it or has made a fizzle by trying to apply 
 it under conditions to which it is not suited ? When I 
 read books on teaching, I regard the principles dis- 
 cussed in them as merely suggestive, and I have al- 
 ready had opportunity to apply several of them in ways 
 
 not mentioned in the books Are there any mor^ 
 
 counts in the indictment against me?" 
 
 "There certainly are," Mr. Dow replied with mock 
 gravity. "I am told that certain friends of the Blazers 
 are trying to make Arthur's parents believe that he was 
 unjustly treated." 
 
 "How are these friends succeeding?" 
 
 "Not brilliantly. Mrs. Blazer is a very religious 
 and a very conscientious woman. She can see that Ar- 
 thur put himself in the wrong, but her maternal affec- 
 tion naturally disposes her to take his part. Mr. Blazer 
 thinks no teacher ever lived with half your wisdom and 
 sense of fairness. Then, there are a few narrow- 
 minded people who think you dress too well and that 
 you 'put on airs !' " 
 
 Stockley was amused at this. His everyday suit 
 was his best one, and its ten months of faithful service
 
 A MODERN INQUISITION 71 
 
 had made it quite shiny and somewhat threadbare. But 
 he was one of the men we sometimes see who give to 
 cheap and ancient apparel an appearance of elegance, 
 and whose every movement is suggestive of gentle- 
 manly courtesy. 
 
 "I must try to live that notion down," said he. "Nov 
 if there is anything more, let me hear it. I want to 
 know the worst." 
 
 "There is just one more charge against you," said 
 Mr. Dow, with a suspicion of a smile lurking about his 
 eye, "and I bring that charge myself." 
 
 " 'Haste me to know it,' " said Stockley, bracing 
 himself, " 'and my firm nerves shall never tremble.' 
 
 "You stated, before beginning your spelling exer- 
 cise, the other day, that you would not then consume 
 time by giving reasons for vour olan of conducting the 
 exercise. Some of your rules seemed unfaii to me, and 
 I'd like to hear you explain them to me. Why do you 
 refuse to pronounce a woid the second time if the pupil 
 doesn't understand it ? Why should the pupil be made 
 to suffer for your carelessness?" 
 
 "That's a good question, Mr. Dow, and I will try 
 to give you a good answer. In the first place, I do not 
 see that the pupil suffers. If he does not understand, I 
 give him the next word in the book, and he has his 
 Chance just the same. Perhaps he ought to suffer, for 
 his failure to understand may be due to inattention. 1 
 am very particular to pronounce each word with great 
 distinctness, and if I am conscious of failure to do so, 
 I pronounce it again without waiting to see whether 
 the pupil understands. Under the present plan, a pupil 
 could feign not to understand a difficult word in hop.-
 
 72 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 that the next one would be easy. In the second place, 
 this rule places a premium on attention instead of 
 placing it upon inattention as under the old plan." 
 
 "I see what your point is," said M'r. Dow, "but I'*n 
 not sure your plan is best. But why don't you give the 
 next pupil a chance to spell a word that has been 
 missed? Words that are missed are likely to be the 
 hard ones the very ones they need to learn but your 
 rule throws them out of the lesson altogether." 
 
 "I admit that my rule is defective as it was stated 
 the other day. In practice I pronounce the misspelled 
 words again before the end of the recitation. My rea- 
 son for not passing a misspelled word to "next" is 
 that "next" would have two trials which would often 
 be two guesses on the spelling; the third one would 
 have three, and so on. For example, suppose a pupil 
 spells the word seize, s i e z e. The next pupil thinks 
 that spelling right until the teacher says "wrong." He 
 then guesses at another spelling which happens to be 
 right, and so appears to an advantage that doesn't really 
 belong to him. For a similar reason, only one trial is 
 permitted on a given word. A pupil either knows how 
 to spell it or he does not. The second trial is often a 
 mere guess." 
 
 "I'm a little doubtful about these rules," said the di- 
 rector, "for they are, to say the least, revolutionary; 
 but how can you justify leaving the question of whether 
 a word is missed to the leader of the opposite side ? In 
 doing this you deliberately place a pupil or a side at the 
 mercy of the enemy. Why not appoint an umpire?" 
 
 Stockley hesitated before replying, and when he fin- 
 ally spoke, his manner seemed to Mr. Dow somewhat
 
 A MODERN INQUISITION 73 
 
 apologetic. As he continuued, however, his tone had 
 the ring of confidence. 
 
 "If the opposite side were in reality 'the enemy, ' he 
 replied, "your criticism would be just. To appoint an 
 umpire would be to assume that both leaders are dis- 
 honest, that they consider it the chief end of the exer- 
 cise to beat by any means which they can make seem 
 right, and that they are incapable of recognizing justice 
 in anything which clashes with their selfish interest for 
 the time being. That is my pet rule. I would rather 
 give up any of the other^for, altho it is based on a 
 theory of my own, which will doubtless seem Quixotic 
 to a 'practical' mind, I have already tested it and am 
 disposed to believe in its soundness. My thought is 
 this : I want to inspire every pupil with the sentiment 
 said to have been expressed by Henry Clay in one of 
 his speeches on the compromise measures of 1850. 
 'Sir/ he said, 'I would rather be right than be Presi- 
 dent.' It is, to my mind, of much more consequence to 
 fill these girls and boys with a zeal for truth, honesty, 
 honor, than to make them zealous partisans or good 
 spellers. I did not introduce this part of the plan at the 
 first or second 'spelling-down' they were not ready for 
 it then. But one day when Eva Black and Isaac Dexter 
 had been appointed to choose sides, I proposed this plan, 
 leaving it to the scholars to adopt or reject it. 'The 
 merit of the plan/ I explained to them, 'depends on 
 your opinion of one another. If you think, Isaac, that 
 Eva would tell a falsehood for the sake of beating, and 
 if you, Eva, have that opinion of Isaac, this plan will 
 not do.' This was a view they had never before taken, 
 and it appealed to them. There is now growing in
 
 74 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 the school a sentiment in favor of fairness and truth- 
 fulness that extends to the playground and into the 
 athletic exercises. I don't claim that all the scholars 
 are angels yet, but they are progressing in the direction 
 of manly boyhood and womanly girlhood." 
 
 "Well," said Mr. Dow, cordially, "your ideas are 
 new ones here, but I believe that you are, in the main, 
 on the right track and I shall be interested in knowing 
 what your methods have accomplished by spring." 
 
 At this point, a customer of the bank appeared in 
 the office door and the teacher withdrew.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 A CASE OF DISCIPLINE 
 A few strong instincts and a few plain rules. Wordsworth. 
 
 On the day following Stockley's interview with 
 M'r. Dow, in the bank parlor, he dropped into the gro- 
 cery store to have a chat with Dan Loring. Dan's 
 greeting was decidedly cool, and he did not respond as 
 usual when the teacher, according to his custom, salut- 
 ed him with a jocose remark. Stockley had been in the 
 grocery frequently and had felt at every visit of late, 
 as if Dan's cordiality were gradually cooling. The fact 
 was that ever since Visitors Day Dan had had a griev- 
 ance against Stockley, which, at first, appeared so small 
 that he had been ashamed to hold it, and he had about 
 succeeded in forgetting it when a busybody had put it 
 into his head that the new teacher was an upstart who 
 bowed down before the aristocracy of Green Valley and 
 held himself aloof from common people. Another had 
 asserted that the children of lawyers, doctors, and 
 wealthy people were favored in school, at the expense 
 of the children of laborers, mechanics, "and grocery- 
 men," was added for Dan's benefit. Just before Stock- 
 ley's call, here recorded, busybody number two had 
 spent a gossipy half-hour in the grocery and had taken, 
 to clinch his former assertions, the fact of Stockley's 
 incorporation into the banker's family. "Ef that ain't 
 proof enough for ye," he declared, with a side-nod, 
 "then, by gol, I dunno what is." This suggestion com- 
 pleted the process by which his pimple of grievance had
 
 70 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 grown into a raging carbuncle. Stockley determined 
 to have it out with Loring then and there. 
 
 "Are you sick, Mr. Loring?" said he. Stockley had 
 not adopted the familiar style of addressing grown 
 men by their given names, either whole or nicked. This 
 fact, together with his custom of using a Mr. when ad- 
 dressing a man, strengthened the popular notion that 
 he was "stuck up." 
 
 "No, I'm not sick," said Loring. He took a hammer 
 and began opening a barrel of sugar. 
 
 "Why, Loring," said the teacher, "you act almost as 
 if you had some grudge against me. What's the mat- 
 ter?"
 
 A CASE OF DISCIPLINE 77 
 
 "Oh, nothing very particular, I guess. You've got 
 a lot of stylish friends now and it don't make any dif- 
 ference to you what I think." 
 
 "It does make a difference, I assure you. Now, 
 look here, Mr. Loring, if you really mean what your 
 manner and words seem to imply, and that is that you 
 have some secret grievance against me and that you 
 don't propose to allow me to defend myself against it or 
 even to know what it is if that is your position, I tell 
 you plainly I have no use for the friendship or com- 
 panionship of such a man, be he stylish or not stylish. 
 But I don't want the matter settled that way. You 
 were one of my first friends here, at least, I supposed 
 you were, and I put it to you as a fair-minded man, 
 whether it is just to try, judge, and condemn me with- 
 out a hearing?" 
 
 Loring whirled around and faced his visitor. 
 
 "All right, professor," he said, his voice trembling 
 with excitement, "if my Charlie had been a banker's 
 son, would you have been in such an almighty hurry 
 to mark him tardy as you were before all my neigh- 
 bors on your 'Visitors Day'?" 
 
 "'Oh, sits the wind in that corner?'" thought 
 Stockley. Aloud, he said, "Your question is a fair 
 one, and I'll give it a straight answer. You seem to be 
 under two errors, and I have enough confidence in your 
 sense of fairness to believe that you will correct them 
 if I show you that they are errors. Now, in the first 
 place, I was not in an 'almighty hurry' to mark Charlh 
 tardy. The roll is always called briskly, and I probably 
 wrote his number on the board as quickly as I could. 
 Now, honor bright, Mr. Loring, do you think that when
 
 78 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 his number was reached in the roll call, I ought to have 
 omitted placing his number on the board, on the ground 
 that he was a grocer's son, or because you were a very 
 kind and considerate friend of mine ?" 
 
 "No, I don't, of course not, but a well, it seems 
 like as long as he came into the room about three sec- 
 onds after his number was called it ought not to be 
 scored up against him. Qiarlie has laid himself out not 
 to have a tardy or absent mark. He thinks the world 
 and all of you, and it's mainly on that account he tries so 
 hard to be on time. Why, since school began he has 
 left his meals half finished and run all the way to school 
 so as not to be tardy. I care more for the way Charlie 
 feels about it than anything else." 
 
 "So do I," was the reply, "but for all that, it is en- 
 tirely out of my power to alter the fact. Here, suppose 
 I should hold this red-hot poker against your cheek 
 three seconds by my watch, it would leave a scar, 
 wouldn't it? I would not 'score it up' against you 
 that you had been burned, but the scar would be there, 
 and my excusing you for having been burned could not 
 change the fact that you were burned. Charlie is en- 
 titled to great credit for his punctuality, but I know 
 you are too honest a mai. to claim that my record 
 should be falsified to save Charlie'* pride/' 
 
 "Of course not," assented Dan. The light was 
 breaking in upon him, under Stockley's presentation of 
 the case. 
 
 "Ihere is another consideration," resumed tbcs 
 teachtr. ' It would have been an injustice to Charlie 
 io caii him present under the circumstances." 
 
 - 1 don't see it," said Dan,
 
 A CASE OF DISCIPLINE 79 
 
 "It's like this : if I make my record say that a pupil 
 is present when he is absent, or if I make it say that he 
 is not tardy when he is tardy,! tell a falsehood, and I 
 am training the pupil to expect that whenever he gets 
 into a tight place, his friends will falsify to help him 
 out of it. If it is right for them to lie him out of a dif- 
 ficulty it is right for him to lie out of it. Honestly, Mr. 
 Loring, wouldn't both you and Charlie prefer to have 
 him stand on a true record the one he actually makes, 
 rather than on one I have falsified for him?" 
 
 "To be sure, I would. I don't want anything that 
 isn't right, and Charlie don't either." 
 
 "There was something in your first question that I 
 will answer if you wish me to. It has absolutely no 
 bearing on my treatment of Charlie, and I don't like to 
 think it necessary for me to tell you whether, if Char- 
 lie had been a banker's son " 
 
 "Hold on! hold on!" exclaimed Dan, grinning and 
 throwing up his hands. "Don't shoot ! I surrender. I 
 hope the Lord'll forgive me for making such a bloom- 
 ing idiot of myself. If you'll take me back on the old 
 terms we'll call off the strike. By jolly, Stockley, if 
 you teach the boys and girls half as well as you've 
 taught me this afternoon, you're doing a mighty good 
 job, and I'll fight for you till the sun freezes solid." 
 
 The two men clasped hands. They were both in 
 good humor ; their relations now were in statu quo ante 
 bellum; and that afternoon marked the beginning of a 
 warmer friendship based on mutual respect, a friend- 
 ship which came to Stockley's aid when, later in the 
 year, he found himself in a "peck of troubles". 
 
 While Stockley's gallant bark sailed on, wafted by
 
 8O THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 the favoring gales of friendship, the busybodies contin- 
 ued their infamous work, even as tfm Earth-shaker, 
 Poseidon, "gathered clouds and stirred the deep, start- 
 ing tempests from every side," when Odysseus set 
 forth in his broad-beamed raft from Calypso's isle. 
 
 It was one of the regulations in the Green Valley 
 School that every pupil should pass out of doors at re- 
 cess. If any of them wished to re-enter the room im- 
 mediately after passing out, they were at liberty to do 
 so, altho the teacher tried and with considerable suc- 
 cess to encourage out-of-door exercise. Some dis- 
 order in the vestibule had occasioned the requirement 
 that no playing or any kind of scuffling should take 
 place there. Accordingto his custom, Stockley had pre- 
 sented this matter to the school in such a light that the 
 pupils could see the reasonableness of the requirement, 
 and they virtually made it themselves. It was several 
 weeks before anyone presumed to violate the self-im- 
 posed rule. One day, during the afternoon recess, 
 Stockley heard a loud scuffling of feet in the vestibule. 
 At first he paid no attention to it, but the noise became 
 louder, and several bumps and thuds seemed to indi- 
 cate the progress of a wrestling bout. Opening the door 
 the teacher discovered James Wakely scuffling with 
 Lizzie Dalny. He was trying to put Lizzie out of 
 doors, and- she was resisting. Stockley hoped his pres- 
 ence would end the contest, but James continued his 
 efforts to eject the girl, who was strong and nearly as 
 large as he. 
 
 Stuping behind James, Stockley seized him by the 
 collar and jerked him sharply backward, in order to
 
 A CASE OF DISCIPLINE 8l 
 
 separate the two. He at once released his hold on 
 James, who stumbled backward, striking his elbows on 
 the floor. He rose, whimpering and holding his right 
 elbow in the opposite hand. 
 
 During the remainder of the afternoon, James was 
 quiet, but thoughtful. 
 
 "Here's a chance," so he said to himself, "to get 
 back on Stockley. I know my elbow's bleeding some, 
 for it feels moist. I'll show it to mother bloody 
 shirt-sleeve and all and she'll have father bring Mr. 
 Teacher up standing." When school was dismissed, 
 James took the nearest route for home. 
 
 Mrs. Wakely was a stout, florid wioman, with force 
 in her manner and vigor in her temper. The pink and 
 white in her face, and the somewhat showy elegance of 
 her attire attracted attention to her wherever she ap- 
 peared. She possessed a powerful voice of soprano 
 range and quality which of itself would have given her 
 the entree into society circles had it not been that her 
 turbulent temper often betrayed her into brilliant and 
 forcible character sketches of her neighbors. These 
 sketches often had the merit of truth, but always the 
 disadvantage of being distasteful to their subjects, who 
 received them direct from the factory. It was under- 
 stood by those who had caught glimpses behind the 
 domestic curtain, that Doctor Wakeley was a henpecked 
 husband. 
 
 Doctor Wakeley was a tall man, of large frame, 
 weighing, perhaps, a score of pounds over two 
 hundred. He was well educated, skillful in his 
 profession, and was recognized as the leading- 
 physician of his section of the state. He was of
 
 82 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 genial disposition, and this, with a fund of anec- 
 dote and a ready tongue, made him a favorite with both 
 sexes in all classes. The general respect for him was 
 qualified, however, by a proneness to bluster, which, 
 like the Neapolitan volcano, had seasons of rest fol- 
 lowed by periods of activity. The Doctor's cronies had 
 noticed the singular fact that his most violent eruptions 
 of boast fulness were synchronous with the visits he 
 made to Jake Rice's saloon ; and it was further noted, 
 by his next-door neighbors, that such a visit was the 
 invariable finale to a Wakely operatic exhibition, the 
 predominant features of which were impassioned solos 
 and duets rendered by a high soprano and a basso 
 profundo. 
 
 These were the immediate ancestors of the boy 
 whom we left hastening homeward, with the intent of 
 rousing the maternal lioness. Dr. Wakeley had been 
 very cordial to the new teacher, and had expressed his 
 pleasure at the progress his son appeared to be making 
 in his studies. 
 
 "Where's mother?" James bawled to his sister, 
 Nellie, whom he found in the front yard. 
 
 "She's in the parlor; why?" 
 
 James made no answer, but rushed into the house. 
 Pausing a moment in the hallway, he caught the in- 
 jured elbow in his left hand, contorted his face with 
 simulated pain, and entered the parlor, his body bent 
 with an agony he did not feel. His mother looked up. 
 
 "Why, James," she cried, starting forward, "what's 
 the matter?" 
 
 "O, mother! my elbow is awfully hurt?" 
 "Why, James ! how did you hurt it ?" 
 "I (Kdn't hurt it ; Stockley did it."
 
 A CASE OF DISCIPLINE' 83 
 
 "Stockley, eh ? Let me see it." 
 
 "Oh, I don't believe I can get my coat off; it is 
 awful." 
 
 "Let me help you off with your coat." 
 
 "O, mother, I can't straighten my arm out; I'm 
 afraid there's a bone broken." 
 
 "What's the matter," said a deep voice. Dr. Waka- 
 ley stood in the door. 
 
 "Here's some more of Stockley's work. He drove 
 Arthur Blazer out of school, and now he has begun on 
 James," wrathfully exclaimed Mrs. Wakely. 
 
 The Doctor came forward. "Are you hurt?" he 
 asked. "Your elbow, is it? Here let me get your 
 coat off." 
 
 "Ouch!" yelled James, as his father, straightened 
 out the arm", "you hurt." 
 
 Paying little attention to the protests of his youthful 
 heir, the Doctor rolled up the shirt sleeve and looked at 
 the elbow. He found a slight abrasion, from which 
 a little blood had oozed, staining the white shirt sleeve. 
 "His arm literally bathed in blood," was Mrs. Wake- 
 ley's description of the injury to a neighbor, that even- 
 ing. 
 
 Dr. Wakely's surgical sense told him that the 
 scratch was not serious enough to be spoken of as an 
 injury, and he had seen enough of malingering to know 
 that James's agony was wholly feigned. He was about 
 to say something to that effect when he checked himself 
 and called for bandages and liniment. .- He knew from 
 experience that to oppose his wife's view ci the serious 
 character of the case would ring up the curtain on a 
 domestic comic opera, in which he would be made to
 
 84 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 appear as a tyrant husband, abusing a delicate wife who 
 is trying to protect her innocent child from his bru- 
 tality. 
 
 "Now, Doctor Wakeley," said his wife, when he had 
 finished bandaging the arm, "I want to know what 
 you're going to do about this. Are you going to call 
 that ruffian to account, or have I got to go and do it ?" 
 
 "I don't know yet how it happened," said the Doc- 
 tor. "How was it, James?" 
 
 In a feeble voice, interrupted by catchings of the 
 breath, and spasmodic movements of the elbow to in- 
 dicate paroxysms of pain, James told his father how 
 Lizzie Dalny had caught hold of him in the school 
 house entry; how Stockley had rushed at him, seized 
 him by the throat, pushed him over and then pounded 
 him up and down on the hard floor until every joint in 
 his body was sore and his elbow felt as if the bone was 
 broken; how Stockley had yanked him up from the 
 floor and made him go to his seat, when he could just 
 drag one foot after the other ; how he had suffered such 
 awful pain that he couldn't study; and how he had just 
 strength enough to crawl home when school was out. 
 
 The Doctor listened to the lying tale without com- 
 ment, recognizing its essential falsity, and when his 
 irate spouse demanded that he should, that very night, 
 visit condign punishment upon the "brute" who had 
 "almost killed" his child, he muttered that he would 
 see the teacher and "straighten the matter out." At 
 supper he was silent, while his wife entertained the 
 family with tirades against "beggarly upstarts, that set 
 themselves up as professors" and "people that call 
 themselves men and haven't courage enough to pro-
 
 A CASE OF DISCIPLINE 85 
 
 tect their own children." As soon as the meal was 
 finished, the Doctor put on his hat and went out. 
 
 He walked slowly down town. He found himself 
 involved in a serious dilemma. If he were to act on 
 his own judgment, he would seek the teacher; 
 would tell him that he had heard of his trou- 
 ble with James and assure him that if the boy had 
 misbehaved, he would co-operate with him, the 
 teacher, in disciplining him ; and would then hear 
 Stockley's version of the trouble. On the other hand, 
 he realized that he would be held to a strict account of 
 his interview with the schoolmaster and that his 
 home would be made a place of torment to him unless 
 he were able to report that he had "licked" or, at 
 least, thoroughly bullied him. 
 
 In the midst of his doubts, his eye caught the red 
 sign on the glass door of Jake Rice's saloon. There 
 was that inside which would calm his nerves and blunt 
 the mental pain he was enduring. He entered and or- 
 dered a glass of whisky. Taking it to a table, he sat 
 and sipped it. In less than a minute, an agreeable 
 sensation of warmth stole over him. By the time the 
 glass was empty, his wife's view of the case seemed 
 a little less unreasonable to him. He ordered his glass 
 replenished. In two minutes it was again empty. The 
 liquor had warmed "the cockles of his heart." To t*> 
 sure, he thought, James had not been seriously crip- 
 pled, but what right had a stranger to come to a 
 peaceful town and begin abusing the young people 
 whose parents were trying to give them an education ? 
 It wasn't at all likely that Stockley was a saint who 
 couldn't do wrong and that James was a little fiend, 
 who couldn't tell the truth. "What motive," he asked
 
 86 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 himself, "what motive that's where it is what mo- 
 tive could that poor boy possibly have for lying about 
 his teacher?" He felt that he was beginning to take 
 a healthy, a reasonable view of the case. He struck 
 the table with his fist and ordered a third glass. 
 
 "Fill it up full," he ordered. 
 
 His sips were now larger and more frequent. As 
 the level of the liquor lowered, the matter that had 
 troubled him gradually took a different form, and ap- 
 peared in a clearer light. The lying spirit of Alcohol 
 fastened its grip upon him. It whispered to him that 
 his wife's maternal instinct was unerring; that at all 
 events, she was his wife; she had always been true to 
 him ; she was the mother of his boy and that boy was 
 his child, and "by the great horn spoon," no rascally 
 upstart should come into his family and club his child- 
 ren (here a parental tear filled his eye ) with impunity. 
 He had reached the fighting stage of intoxication. He 
 had sense enough to know that another glass would be 
 too much and that he must act quickly before his 
 courage should ooze away. It would have taken a 
 close observer to note any unsteadiness in his gait as 
 he emerged from the saloon. 
 
 He inquired of the first man he met on the street 
 if he had seen anything of Professor Stockley, and 
 was informed that the man he sought was then in the 
 office of the Excelsior Hotel. Proceeding thither, he 
 saw his victim through the glass front. He opened the 
 door and called to him. "Professor," he said, "may I 
 speak to you a moment outside?" Stockley had stop- 
 ped in passing, to speak with Austin Green, the young 
 landlord, for the two had become excellent friends
 
 A CASE OF DISCIPLINE 87 
 
 during the teacher's stay at the hotel. He stepped out 
 on the piazza. He conjectured the object of the Doc- 
 tor's call, and his olfactory sense informed him of his 
 visitor's condition. 
 
 "Good evening, Doctor," said he, "what can I do 
 for you?" 
 
 "You can't do anything for me, you've done too 
 much already, you've been beating my boy, and I'm 
 here (here he raised his voice) to know what you 
 mean by it." 
 
 "You are in error," replied Stockley, "I did not 
 beat James." 
 
 "Yes, you did, and you needn't try to lie out of it. 
 I know all about it. I've heard the whole story and 
 you can't throw any dust in my eyes and I've come 
 here to have this thing out with you right here with- 
 out any palaver, and it's no use for you to say that 
 you didn't intend to hurt the boy, for you did, you 
 did. I'm not going to do anything rash without giving 
 you a chance t' mention any 'xtenuating circumstances 
 if th'r are any, but you've got to speak almighty quick. 
 Now, young man, have you got anything to say for 
 yourself?" 
 
 Without Stockley's knowledge, Austin Black had 
 sent his burly hostler out of a back door, with instruc- 
 tions to pass around to the front, post himself behind 
 a pillar, and "sail in" if the Doctor should lift his arm 
 against the teacher. For the same purpose, Black had 
 placed himself at the office door, which he held a lit- 
 tle ajar, listening to the conversation. 
 
 "You have a perfect right to inquire, in a gentle- 
 manly way about my treatment of James," replied
 
 88 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 Stockley, "and I will be glad to explain this matter to 
 you" (he was about to say, "when you have sobered 
 off," but refrained,) "at some other time." 
 
 "Some other time won't answer. I want your ex- 
 planation right here, if you have any to offer, and it 
 must be straight and satisfying to th' intellect of any 
 man, woman 'r child and-a no p'varication n'r foolish- 
 ness. Never b'fore has 't fall'n to my lot to find fault 
 'th a teacher's treatment 'f a child 'f mine, but I want 
 it und'stood th't no int'loper c'n come into this peace- 
 ful c'mun'ty and abuse my child w'th im-p'r-tun'ty. 
 I've a good mind to lick you right here." 
 
 The peculiarity of the Doctor's language was not 
 due to lack of intelligence, but to that thickening of 
 the tongue and that partial loss of control over the 
 mental processes which characterize the stage of in- 
 ebriety he had then reached. As he grew more in- 
 coherent and more belligerent, the office door opened 
 a little wider, and a burly form edged almost into 
 view around the pillar which concealed it. The Doc- 
 tor's threat stirred Stockley's fighting blood, but keep- 
 ing in mind the unfortunate condition of his antago- 
 nist, as well as the friendly spirit he had hitherto shown, 
 he did not attempt to reason with him. His reply was 
 brief and pointed. 
 
 "Doctor Wakely," he said, quietly and firmly, "you 
 are a larger man than I, and can perhaps 'lick' me, 
 but you cannot frighten me. If James continues in 
 school, he will be under my authority. If you're go- 
 ing to lick me, begin now, for I have other business to 
 attend to." 
 
 The Doctor was dazed. The affair was taking- a
 
 A CASE OF DISCIPLINE 89 
 
 different turn from what he had expected. He was 
 passing out of the fighting and into the depressed stage 
 of intoxication. After waiting a few seconds without 
 receiving a reply, Stockley re-entered the hotel. The 
 Doctor went home, where he reported that he had fixed 
 "that fellow" so that he wouldn't want to "monkey 
 with James any more." 
 
 The effect this report had on James's subsequent 
 conduct in school will be related in another chapter.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A SCHOOL ROMANCE 
 
 A mighty pain to love it is, 
 
 And 't is a pain that pain to miss ; 
 
 But of all pains, the greatest pain 
 
 It is to love, but love in vain. Cowley. 
 
 "Will you please help me with this example in 
 percentage ?" 
 
 Stockley supposed all the pupils had passed out of 
 the room, and was making up his daily attendance rec- 
 ord when he heard these words in a soft voice at the 
 side of his desk. He had become quite familiar with 
 the tones, for he had several times, within the past two 
 weeks, heard them preferring a similar request. Ur- 
 line Simpton was a quiet and studious girl of seven- 
 teen or thereabout, with brown hair, a high forehead 
 surmounting full cheeks tinged with red and sparingly 
 sown with freckles which were invisible except to a 
 close observer. The sadness in her large, light-blue 
 eyes always impressed strangers and led them to won- 
 der what sombre history was written in their depths. 
 Urline was often the last pupil to leave the school at 
 night, and altho Stockley's duties usually detained him 
 after the pupils had gone, he had frequently over- 
 taken her and had walked some distance with her on 
 his homeward way. Of late, she had had many diffi- 
 culties with her studies, and had asked his help in 
 overcoming them. In his glances about the room 
 while the school was in session he had frequently 
 found her great eyes bent upon him, with a sorrow-
 
 A SCHOOL ROMANCE 9! 
 
 ful expression which impressed him in a peculiar man- 
 ner, and which he was unable to interpret. On this 
 evening, when he heard her request for assistance, the 
 expression of her face, as he looked up, was a revela- 
 tion to him. Her head was ever so little inclined to 
 one side, and the ghost of a melancholy smile faded 
 away as his eyes rested on her 
 
 "Can it be," flashed into his mind, "that the girl is 
 in love with me?" 
 
 His manner was almost brusque as he rendered the 
 desired help. As soon as he had given it he rose and 
 took his hat from its peg, preparatory to passing out. 
 Urline turned away with what Stockley fancied to be 
 a grieved expression, and as soon as she had started 
 for the village he walked away in the opposite direc- 
 tion. 
 
 When the teacher entered the schoolroom me next 
 morning, Urline was at her desk, bending over a book, 
 while half a dozen other pupils were sitting or walking 
 about, in lively conversation. On the teacher's desk 
 lay a small, square envelope, addressed in a neat, fem- 
 inine hand to 
 
 <Js4.a.4fe*t4.a^. <-%.. c-Sw 
 
 "Urline Simpton!" was his first thought. He laid 
 the envelope to one side, took his seat, and commenced 
 writing. After a minute or more had passed, he 
 looked up and glanced slowly about the room. When 
 his eye at last rested on Urline, he was at once struck 
 with the intensity of her study, and this, with the 
 scarlet in her usually pale forehead confirmed his sus-
 
 92 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 picion that she was the correspondent. It was not un- 
 til the last student had departed that evening, and he 
 had carefully locked the door on the inside, that he 
 broke the seal of the little missive. The contents were 
 slightly amusing and decidedly embarrassing to him. 
 This is what he read : 
 
 TO MY GUIDE AND FRIEND 
 
 At morning-tide I sit me down 
 'By the bright brooklet's gurgling stream, 
 And muse, far from the noisy town, 
 On mem'ries sweet, which ever seem 
 
 To be of thee, 
 
 Only of thee. 
 
 'At eve's still hour I walk beside 
 The darksome river's treach'rous flow, 
 And think how like its turbid tide 
 Would be the blackness of my woe 
 
 Bereft of thee, 
 
 Ah me, of thee! 
 
 O, when I stem, from shore to shore, 
 The torrent deep which lies between 
 The now and the forevermore, 
 Still, still my heart will swell, I ween, 
 
 With thoughts of thee, 
 
 Sweet thoughts of thee. 
 
 Fortunately or unfortunately, Rutledge Stockley 
 was so constituted that the funny side of an experience 
 like this was the first to present itself. He laughed 
 audibly at the picture of Urline Simpton dragging her 
 skirts thru the wet grass on the banks of streams of as- 
 sorted sizes, depths, and turbidness, and mooning on 
 his account. But his mood quickly changed. Urline 
 was a faithful student and a good girl. Moreover, 
 although her lines indicated a morbid mental condition 
 they were not entirely destitute of merit. A half-
 
 A SCHOOL ROMANCE 93 
 
 hour's rumination matured a plan, which he success- 
 fully carried out, to renovate the poor girl's diseased 
 mentality with healthful thoughts from his own super- 
 abundant vigor. 
 
 The next morning, Stockley was at the school- 
 house half an hour before the time for opening. He 
 was not mistaken in his expectation that Urline would 
 be one of the early comers. An opportunity soon pre- 
 sented itself for speaking to her in the presence of 
 other girls. Seeing Eva Black and Allie Harley near 
 her desk, he walked briskly thither, with an open smile 
 on his face and her poem in hand. 
 
 "Urline," he said, taking no pains to conceal his 
 words from the other girls, who at once discontinued 
 their conversation and listened, "Urline, your poem is 
 really very good. I suppose you wanted me to know 
 about your poetic talent. I had not suspected it. It 
 came to me as a very agreeable surprise. The im- 
 aginary guide and friend (or is he a real one?) to 
 whom you address it may well feel complimented. 
 You ought to cultivate your talent for rhyme and 
 measure, Urline." 
 
 "What! Urline writing poetry?" exclaimed Eva; 
 "can't we read it?" She made a movement as if to take 
 it from Stockley 's hand. 
 
 "O, Mr. Stockley !" cried Urline, springing forward 
 with a crimson face. 
 
 The teacher put the paper behind him. "You need 
 not fear, Urline," said he, "no one shall see it with- 
 out your permission; but you must not be so modest. 
 I think we must look to you for an original poem to be 
 read by you at our next Friday afternoon rhetoricals.
 
 94 
 
 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 Now, girls," he laughed, addressing Eva and Allie, 
 "with your permission, I'm going to ask our poetess to 
 grant me the favor of a private audience." The girls 
 good-naturedly retired and the teacher, after making
 
 A SCHOOL ROMANCE 95 
 
 some suggestions to Urline en minor points relating to 
 language and construction, returned to nis desk. 
 
 Urline's sensitive soul was wounded. She had con- 
 ceived for Stockley a vague and dreamy but none the 
 less intense passion such as girls of her temperament 
 sometimes form for their favorite teachers. She had 
 not attempted to analyze her feeling; she was simply 
 conscious of a sadly sweet sentiment, too sacred to be 
 revealed to anyone but its object, which filled her 
 soul, and was to be she firmly believed the domi- 
 nant influence in her life. Stockley's light treatment 
 of the matter was a shock to her. It showed the fu- 
 tility of hoping for any response to her sentiment. But 
 while it grieved and humiliated her, it began a work 
 of disillusion and planted seeds which, under the 
 watchful care of the teacher, developed, in time, into 
 a healthful growth. By the end of the year, she had 
 outgrown her sentimental weakness and had passed 
 into a stage of normal activity. When the pain in- 
 duced by the teacher's kindly rebuff had sufficiently 
 subsided, she composed, at his suggestion, a little 
 poem which was read in public on a Visitors Day, in 
 the early spring. It spoke of river and brook, as her 
 former poem had done, and perhaps she designed it to 
 inform her teacher of the new viewpoint from which 
 she looked upon life. While the latter poem was, pos- 
 sibly, no better than the other from a literary point of 
 view, its tone indicated a more normal habit of 
 thought.
 
 96 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 THE SINGING STREAMS 
 
 The bounding, dancing, purling streams 
 
 Sing blithesomely all day; 
 And filled with joy, with rapture, seems 
 
 Their merry roundelay. 
 
 The river adds its deep, full bass; 
 
 A glad duet they make; 
 And laughter brightens Nature's face 
 
 In meadow, hill, and lake. 
 
 But when I list the choral song 
 
 Of river, brook, and mead. 
 My soul responds with courage strong 
 
 For noble thought and deed. 
 
 Thus pleasantly, tho strenuously, did the young 
 teacher pursue his 
 
 "Delightful task, to rear the tender thought, 
 To teach the young idea how to shoot." 
 
 If his guardian angel brought him any warning of 
 threatened disaster, the premonition was unheeded and 
 even unheard.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 EDMUND BURKE 
 
 Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor. 
 A subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious. 
 
 Gorgias Leontinus. 
 
 The next morning after Dr. Wakely's futile attempt 
 to bully the schoolmaster, the latter was smilingly 
 accosted by two or three friends on his way to the 
 school. John McMillan stood in the door of his hard- 
 ware store when the teacher came along. 
 
 "Good morning, Stockley," said John, laughing, 
 "Doc. called on you last night, didn't he ?" 
 
 "Yes he did," Stockley replied, his manner in- 
 dicating some reluctance to discuss the subject. 
 
 "Oh, you needn't hesitate to speak of it," said John, 
 "everybody in town knows about it by this time and, 
 what's more, everybody's glad you called 1 his bluff and 
 sent him off with his flag hauled down." 
 
 "Why, Mr. McMillan, there was no fighting, and I 
 have no wish to be regarded as an upper dog. Besides, 
 I have, perhaps, not heard the last of it from the Doctor. 
 He believed I had abused his son, and I don't blame 
 him for wishing to protect the boy." 
 
 "Bosh! He knew very well you hadn't hurt Jim, 
 and he knew, too, thai if Jim had his deseri, you'd have 
 given him a good whaling." 
 
 "How did you know anything about it?" inquired 
 the teacher. 
 
 'Why, Austin Black was in the store last night after
 
 98 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 you sent Doc. packing, and you never saw a crowd 
 more tickled than the fellows were when he told how 
 you wound him up. Ha, ha, ha !" 
 
 "But how do you know whether James deserved 
 punishment or anything about what I really did to 
 him?" 
 
 "O, Charlie Loring told all about it, last night, in 
 Dan's grocery. Jim has always had trouble with his 
 teachers and he needs a good lathering about once 
 in so often to make him know what's what." 
 
 "Still, the Doctor appeared to really believe that 
 James had been unjustly treated." 
 
 "Don't you believe it. His wife just put him up to 
 it, and he wouldn't have dared to peep to you about 
 it if he hadn't filled up on Dutch courage first. Some 
 of us fellows saw him going into Jake Rice's saloon just 
 after we heard Charlie Loring's story, and we all knew 
 what that meant. Doc's a great blusterer, but he'd run 
 away from a ten year old boy if the kid shook his fist at 
 him. Doc's naturally a good-natured man and means to 
 do the right thing, but I'll bet a dollar his wife bullied 
 him into looking you up to 'ick you and he didn't dare 
 to go home without trying to do it." 
 
 "Well," said Stockley, "I only want James to be 
 a good boy and attend to his work." 
 
 He started along the street and met Dan Loring. 
 
 "Hello," cried Loring, "I'm mighty glad you're able 
 to be out!'' He walked around the schoolmaster and 
 gingery felt of his arnu and legs, his skull and collar 
 bones, ' 1 expected Doc'd have to turn to and set 
 ah your bones after he got thru with you last night. 
 He, he, lie!"
 
 EDMUND BURKE 99 
 
 "No," said Stockley, "it wasn't quite as bad as 
 that." 
 
 "Look here," said Dan, with assumed seriousness, 
 "half a dozen of us fellows will go with you for a 
 body guard till you get past Doc's house, if you just 
 say the word." 
 
 "No, never mind. I'm much obliged, but I think 
 there's no seriou,s danger. I must hurry along or I'll 
 be late at school." 
 
 The secretary of the Minnesota State Board of 
 Health, in one of his addresses delivered before the 
 State Educational Association, spoke of the importance 
 of cultivating hygienic habits in the young. "Young 
 people," said he, "need to be constantly reminded of 
 those practices which are beneficial to health and preju- 
 dicial to it. If parents and teachers are persistent, there 
 comes a time, at the age of from 17 to 21, when the 
 boy begins to hang up his hat, to shut the door, to eat, 
 drink, and sleep hygienically." Some of the pupils in 
 the Green Valley school had reached the stage of de- 
 velopment referred to, but there was a considerable 
 number who had not yet acquired the habit of closing 
 the schoolroom door after them, and one of the most 
 inveterate offenders was Mary Milligan. 
 
 When Stockley reached the schoolhouse after 
 his conversation with McMillan and Dan Lor- 
 ing, the hands of the clock indicated four min- 
 utes of nine. When he rang the bell, the 
 pupils who were still outside started promptly for 
 the building. That lesson they had pretty thoroly 
 learned. Mary Milligan was the last to enter the room
 
 IOO THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 and, according to her invariable custom, she left the 
 door wide open. Stockley had sent her back to close 
 the door on no fewer than twenty occasions before 
 th:s, and he was in some danger of los ; rg his patience. 
 He was sorely tempted to administer a cutting and 
 sarcastic admonition, and a few keen phrases came to 
 his mind that would have made Mary wish she had 
 never seen a door. But he caught himself and held 
 back. It would have afforded him a temporary grati- 
 fication to give Mary a cutting up, but would it do her 
 any good ? Would it help her to form the right habit ? 
 Would it not so arouse her hostility to him as to prac- 
 tically deprive him of the power to influence her for 
 good ? She liked him now and he had her confidence. 
 Again, his reserve of good sense came to his aid, and in 
 much less time than it has taken to describe the work- 
 ing of his mind he had decided upon a remedy which 
 happily proved to be efficacious, for it cured the leav- 
 ing-the-door-open habit, not only for Mary but for the 
 entire school. As his proceeding illustrates a principle 
 which was fundamental in his method of discipline, it 
 will be described in detail. 
 
 There was in the teacher's face and action, no token 
 of annoyance. The morning was cold, and pupils who 
 sat near the door shivered a little as the chilly air 
 swept in. They looked appealingly to the teacher, but 
 he proceeded with the roll-call as if everything were 
 snug and ship shape. It was customary for the school 
 to sing immediately after the calling of the roll, but 
 this morning the teacher said to them: " I read an 
 excellent story not long ago in which I think you would 
 be interested, and I know of no better time to tell it to
 
 EDMUND BURKE IOI 
 
 you than now if you would ,ike to have me do so. But 
 if you have the story, we can't have the usual morning 
 song. What do you say?" 
 
 He saw by the animated and smiling faces before 
 him that he had struck a popular chord. No one looked 
 more pleased than Mary Milligan. "Shall we have the 
 story instead of the song, Mary?" asked the teacher. 
 "Yes, sir!" she replied, with an energetic nod. "Very 
 well," he assented, "the story it shall be ; and as Mary 
 is the one who has expressed what seems to be the 
 general preference, this story shall be called Mary's 
 Story. I'll dedicate it to her." At this point, all eyes 
 were focused on Mary. Many were compelled to turn 
 half round and even to crane their necks in order 
 to catch sight of her face which, by this time was suf- 
 fused with red. Stockley had planned to make Mary 
 the central figure in his dramatic monologue, without 
 seeming to hold her up as such, hoping thus to brand 
 upon her memory the moral of the story while retain- 
 ing her good will and preserving her good nature. As 
 for her, the concentration of attention upon her gave 
 her a distinct sensation of discomfort without dis- 
 turbing seriously her good humor. Altho no person in 
 the room could have detected a glance of the teacher 
 toward Mary, he watched the effect upon her of every 
 part of his story with a solicitude analagous to that with 
 which a careful physician watches the effect of a dose 
 administered to a patient. 
 
 "My story," he began, "is about Sir Joshua Rey- 
 nolds, a celebrated English painter, whose career ex- 
 tended over the greater part of the eighteenth century. 
 I hope that some day you will know something about the
 
 102 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 life and works of this great artist, but it is just one 
 incident I want to tell you about this morning. One of 
 Sir Joshua's intimate friends was Edmund Burke, a 
 member of the British Parliament to whom we Ameri- 
 cans owe a debt of gratitude. Well, one day at the con- 
 clusion of a visit to the artist in his studio, he (that 
 is Burke) opened the door to pass out, and instead 
 of closing it, as a thoughtful person would have done, 
 he left it wide open. It was not at all strange that 
 when the footman opened the front door for Burke 
 to emerge upon the street, a gust of air should sweep 
 into the house, rush thru the open door of the studio, 
 and scatter a pile of papers that had been arranged 
 with great precision and in a certain order. The 
 artist, very naturally, was annoyed. Burke had care- 
 lessly (not purposely, of course) done the same thing 
 before. After waiting about ten minutes to be sure 
 that his visitor was well on his way, Sir Joshua rang 
 for a servant, and dispatched him with a note to Burke 
 who was to be found at the House of Commons. The 
 note ran like this : 
 
 "My dear Burke : 
 
 'An event of considerable moment to me has 
 occurred since you left the studio a short time 
 ago, an event which affects me deeply. 
 'If you can come to me for five minutes with- 
 out prejudice to the important interests you rep- 
 resent in the House, you have it in your power to 
 confer a very great favor upon 
 
 'Your obedient servant, 
 
 'JosnuA REYNOLDS.'
 
 EDMUND BURKE IO3 
 
 "Burke of course -hastened to the assistance of Sir 
 Joshua as fast as a cab could carry him. His generous 
 Irish nature would have prompted great sacrifices, if 
 necessary, in the service of his friend. In great ex- 
 citement, he rushed into the studio, where, to his sur- 
 prise, he found the artist working quite calmly at his 
 easel. 'What is the trouble, my dear friend?' he ex- 
 claimed, '"how can I aid you ?' 
 
 'Oh, it's you is it, Burke/ said Sir Joshua, calmly 
 turning to his excited friend. 'Let me see ; what was 
 it ? Oh, yes, you can "aid" me to collect and rearrange 
 these scattered papers. They were disarranged by the 
 wind that came in when you left the door open a little 
 while ago.' 
 
 'Burke's hot Irish temper threatened, for a moment 
 to master him, but it was quickly suppressed by that 
 happy sense of humor for which the natives of the 
 Emerald Isle are proverbial. He entered into the spirit 
 of the serious joke and scurried about the room to help 
 pick up the stray papers. He never again left Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds' s door open if he found it closed." 
 
 The story was successful in arousing the interest 
 of the pupils. Even James Wakely's flaccid face 
 showed signs of animation. Mary Milligan's eyes had 
 a thoughtful look. She somehow vaguely associated 
 the story with something she had done or had failed to 
 do something upon which she had been admonished 
 by the teacher. Her eyes which had' fallen upon her 
 desk at the conclusion of the story were again directed 
 to him when he again began to speak. 
 
 "No papers have been scattered here," he said, 
 "but these little girls on the front seats look rather
 
 IO4 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 blue from the cold." Mary Milligan's head came up 
 with a jerk; her face lighted up with a broad smile; 
 she saw the point. "If we have a Burke here who left 
 the door open, and if Burke can, 'without prejudice 
 to important interests/ take time to close" (Mary was 
 in the aisle, making for the door.) "it, she has it in 
 her power to confer a very great favor on every 
 schol ." He was unable to proceed, for the school 
 was in a roar of laughter in which Mary joined. She 
 did wish, however, she had not left the door open 
 and before reaching her seat she had firmly resolved 
 never, never to do it again. 
 
 But, while she had a "heart to resolve," her head 
 was "to dumb forgetfulness a prey". That very fore- 
 noon, when she came in from recess, she was the last 
 one to enter the room, and she left the deer open. 
 A> soon as all were seated, Stockley began : . "One 
 day, Edmund Burke paid a visit to Sir Joshua Rey- 
 nolds in the stu " By the time the seventh word was 
 uttered. Mary was on her way to the door, and it was 
 impossible to finish the sentence, for the words were 
 drowned in the laughter of trie school. 
 
 It was three days before the door was again left 
 open. Again Stockley began the story in exactly the 
 same words he had used before: "One day. Edm ." 
 Again the laughter and again a scholar on his way to 
 the door. This time it was one of the boys. 
 
 These three doses completed the cure. It was, 
 thereafter, very rare for the door to be left open when 
 it should have been closed. If a luckless pupil chanced 
 to commit the offense, the others took the matter in
 
 EDMUND BURKE IO5 
 
 hand, calling him Edmund Burke, until some other 
 poor fellow had earned the name.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 JAMES LEARNS A VALUABLE LESSON 
 Si finis bonus est, totum bonum erit. 
 
 Latin Proverb. 
 
 James Wakely's step had an unaccustomed spring- 
 iness \vhen lie appeared on the school grounds the 
 morning following his father's interview with Stock- 
 ley. The Doctor's report to his wife of how "the poor 
 fellow" had cringed before him would have been en- 
 titled to be classed as yellow if the reporter had been 
 a journalist. In the process of transmission through 
 Mrs. Wakely's intellectual dye vat into that of her son, 
 it lost none of its saffron-like brilliancy, and when the 
 latter presented the finished product to a few select 
 schoolmates, it had the variety as well as the brilliancy 
 of a first-class rainbow. The boy felt an unwonted 
 sense of freedom. He was confident that he could now 
 defy the teacher's authority and that the latter would 
 not dare resent his defiance. He determined that, be- 
 fore the day was over, he would put his new freedom 
 to the test. He had been drawn against his will 
 into the current of interest in the story about Edmund 
 Burke, but he had speedily got himself out of it. The 
 teacher was not unobservant of James's attitude. He 
 read the boy's purpose in every action and he deter- 
 mined to precipitate matters by presenting him a 
 ready-made opportunity. 
 
 Between two of the afternoon recitations, he tapped 
 his desk bell. This was a signal for the scholars to
 
 JAMES LEARNS A VALUABLE LESSON TO/ 
 
 stop whatever work they were doing and fold their 
 arms to hear anything the teacher might wish to say to 
 them. Every pupil except James promptly folded his 
 arms. 
 
 "James," said Stockley, "did you hear the bell?" 
 
 "Yes," was the sullen reply. 
 
 "Fold your arms." The direction was given in the 
 teacher's ordinary tone. 
 
 "I can't; my elbow's sore." As the misguided 
 boy flung the words spitefully out he cast at his next 
 neighbors a leering smile which told them to watch and 
 see how the master would fear to insist. 
 
 In fact, the master did not then insist. What he 
 expected had happened. He had been a little anxious 
 about James's condition, in view of what his father had 
 said, and had been relieved to see that the injury to his 
 elbow was not serious enough to prevent the free play 
 of the joint in the sports of the playground. It was 
 no part of his design to encourage James in a rebellious 
 action in order to enjoy the pleasure of "taking it out 
 of him." His aim was rather to draw to a head the 
 morbid matter which he knew was festering in his 
 heart and then to heal the sore by lancing it. It was 
 solely to this end that he rang the bell. As the students, 
 however, expected him to say something, he spoke as 
 follows, slowly walking down the aisle toward James's 
 seat: 
 
 "Referring to the story I told you this morning, the 
 failure to close the door made us all a little uncom- 
 fortable for a few minutes, but that was a matter of 
 relatively small importance." By this time he had 
 covered half the distance to James's seat, without cast-
 
 IO8 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 ing a single glance in the boy's direction. He resumed : 
 "What I would like to have you see is that to form the 
 habit of closing the door will help you to be exact 
 about everything you do and the habit of exactness is 
 more valuable than a money capital of many thousands 
 of dollars." The moment after he said "dollars," 
 James Wakely felt himself moving into the aisle and 
 toward the teacher's desk, driven by some extraneous 
 force. His surprise was comparable to that of Simon 
 Legree when he was knocked down by George Shel- 
 don. When James, impelled by the locomotive behind 
 him, had reached the open space in front of the mas- 
 ter's desk, he became conscious of a voice saying, sotto 
 voce: 
 
 "You have heard about your father's visit to me 
 last night, haven't you ?" 
 
 "Yes sir," said the trembling boy. 
 
 "Well, James, that visit does not affect your re- 
 lations to me in anyway. Now, my boy, walk straight 
 to your seat and fold your arms the moment you sit 
 down. If you fail to do exactly as I tell you, I shall 
 throw you out of the window." 
 
 It was, perhaps, unwise for Stockley to make this 
 threat; he so thought subsequently when he reflected 
 on the incident. But he meant what he said and was 
 determined to fulfil his promise in the event of the 
 boy's disobedience. Happily, the occasion did not 
 arise. James's arms were in the required position a 
 little before he was fairly seated. 
 
 At the close of school, James again took the nearest 
 route for home. Again he rushed into the house and 
 called to his mother-
 
 JAMES LEARNS A VALUABLE LESSON IOQ 
 
 "Mother," he cried, "Mr. Stockley has been shak- 
 ing me again!" 
 
 "Go up town and find your father," was the reply, 
 "and tell him about it. The fellow must have another 
 lesson." 
 
 Away went James. His father was, at this time, 
 in the bank, and while James is looking for him, we 
 will relate the Doctor's experience in his interviews 
 with the school board. 
 
 Dr. Wakely's first visit, after making his morning 
 professional calls, was to the office of Squire Green, 
 justice of the peace and clerk of the board. The Squire 
 was at liberty and his caller at once proceeded to busi- 
 ness. 
 
 "I dropped in, Squire," he began, "to talk a little 
 with you about this new teacher." 
 
 "Yes, yes," replied Squire Green, "they tell me he's 
 keeping a pretty good school." 
 
 "I don't know about that ; it strikes me, Squire, that 
 a man that will knock the children around as this fel- 
 low does, and drag them all over the floor has a good 
 deal to learn about keeping school, to say the least." 
 
 "Oh, you mean the fracas he had with the Blazer 
 boy, he, he, he, he, he! Strikes me that bully didn't 
 get half what he deserved, if I've heard the right of 
 it." Again the jolly Squire chuckled at the remem- 
 brance of the scene as described by his son Calvin. He 
 had heard all about James Wakely's trouble and the 
 Doctor's failure at bullying, but he chose to let the 
 latter tell the story in his own way. As for the Doctor, 
 he did not relish the job he was engaged upon and
 
 I IO THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 it was solely in order to purchase peace in his house- 
 hold that he had undertaken it. 
 
 "No, I don't refer to Arthur Blazer at all," said he ; 
 "I'm speaking of my own boy. This blustering fellow 
 has succeeded so well in driving Mr. Blazer's son out 
 of school that he evidently thinks he can defy the 
 whole community. He has begun now on my boy 
 James and has terrorized him so that he is afraid to 
 go to school." 
 
 "That is pretty bad, Doctor," replied the clerk ; "It 
 won't do to have peaceable and well-behaved children 
 driven out of school. What appears to be the trouble?" 
 
 The Doctor then gave the school officer James's 
 version of the encounter in the vestibule and expressed 
 a hope that the board would give Stockley to under- 
 stand that a teacher who pursued such arbitrary and 
 oppressive methods could not continue to hold a posi- 
 tion as principal of the Green Valley school. 
 
 Squire Green listened courteously and assured Dr. 
 Wakely that he would personally inquire into the mat- 
 ter. He said, further, that the school board would try 
 to do its duty, and that he might rest assured no ar- 
 bitrary and tyrannical regime would be allowed to 
 prevail in the school. "I ought to add, however, he 
 continued, "that other accounts of this affair have come 
 to me. James, perhaps, gave you what seemed to him 
 a correct account of it, but other scholars saw it dif- 
 ferently. Now, giving everyone credit for the inten- 
 tion to state it just right, it's easy to see that it would 
 not look quite the same to one engaged in the scuffle 
 as it would to an outsider. There's another thing to 
 be said. You are probably aware that every one of
 
 JAMES LEARNS A VALUABLE LESSON III 
 
 James's teachers has had trouble with him. This may 
 be because no teacher has been able to understand him 
 and it might be well for you to consider whether the 
 boy is not partly, at least in the wrong. Neither 
 James nor the teacher should be condemned without a 
 hearing of both sides." 
 
 The Doctor saw the reasonableness of what Squire 
 Green said and he felt in his heart that James was 
 wholly wrong. Thanking the Squire for his assur- 
 ances, he withdrew. His interview with Mr. Dun- 
 donald, the district treasurer, did not improve James's 
 case, but he was determined to make a thorough job of 
 it by presenting his complaint to the remaining mem- 
 ber, Mr. Dow. That gentleman probed the father's 
 wound with a delicate hand, but the operation was a 
 painful one. The Doctor was thoroughly disgusted. He 
 determined to assert himself in his home, and to co- 
 operate with Mr. Stockley, for whom he had a genuine 
 esteem, by taking James in hand, himself. His short 
 interview with Mr. Dow had augmented his loathing 
 for the part he was playing and when James burst into 
 the door of the bank, the condition of his temper 
 might be appropriately described as ugly. James, how- 
 ever, knew nothing of his father's late experiences and 
 felt certain of parental backing. 
 
 "Father," he shouted, "Mr. Stockley has been shak- 
 ing me again !" 
 
 you," burst out the now thoroughly irate fa- 
 ther, "you go to school tomorrow morning and behave 
 yourself and you'll have no trouble with Mr. Stockley. 
 And don't bring home any more whining stories about
 
 112 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 being 1 abused in school. If you do, you and I will have 
 a little circus all to ourselves !" 
 
 James was as much surprised as he was when the 
 teacher gave him his second shaking. He walked out 
 of the bank a sadder boy because his dream of wear- 
 ing Arthur's mantle had been shattered ; he was wiser, 
 because he realized that home and school authority were 
 in co-operation and that he must now walk in a straiter 
 path. When he appeared in school the next morning 
 his feathers were drooping and if there was still a root 
 of bitterness in his heart, its growth was not mani- 
 fest in the schoolroom. Stockley did not remind him 
 of the episode by deed, word, or look and the troubled 
 waters of school life subsided into their wonted calm. 
 So far as James was concerned, the calm was on the 
 surface. Deep in the unhappy boy's heart, the root 
 of bitterness absorbed nourishing elements and trans- 
 muted them into poison. How from the poisonous root 
 there grew a deadly plant which bore baleful fruit 
 this will be related in another part of our tale.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 HEAVITREE 
 
 A handsome house to lodge a friend; 
 A river at my garden's end ; 
 A terrace walk, and half a rood 
 Of land set out to plant a wood. 
 
 Jonathan Swift. 
 
 One glorious evening at that season which in Min- 
 nesota is the most delightful of the year, the season 
 
 "When chill November's surly blast 
 Made fields and forests bare." 
 
 in the land of which the Ayrshire Plowman wrote, 
 on such an evening, Rutledge Stockley found him- 
 self spinning southward along the Summer Lake road, 
 behind a pair of spirited bay colts, and in company 
 with his friend Harkins, the county superintendent of 
 schools. It was Saturday, and the teacher was to stay 
 over Sunday at Mr. Harkins's home, agreeably to an 
 invitation of several weeks' standing. He had an- 
 nounced to the school, just before closing on Friday, 
 that he expected to go out of town and that there was 
 a possibility of his being detained beyond the time of 
 opening on Monday morning. "In case I am absent 
 at nine o'clock, Monday morning," he had said, "I will 
 ask Isaac Dexter to ring the bell and attend to the 
 roll call. You may then go on with your studies until 
 my arrival." 
 
 For a few minutes after starting, Mr. Harkins's 
 attention was carefully occupied with getting his team 
 in hand, for altho the colts were well broken, they
 
 114 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 were ambitious and full of life. About half a mile 
 from the outskirts of the village, the road ran, for four 
 or five rods thru a patch of timber, the trees on either 
 side coming close to the track. The horses had, by 
 this time, struck a steady gait, which promised to land 
 them at their destination in time for a seven o'clock 
 supper. They were half way thru the patch of 
 timber, and Stockley had just begun to address a re- 
 mark to his companion on the beauty of the evening 
 (it was more than an hour after sunset), when he 
 suddenly felt himself flying thru the air toward the 
 team. Fortunately, he alighted on the soft body of the 
 near colt, and as he was not hurt, he hastened to the 
 heads of the struggling animals (both of whom had 
 been thrown) in order to either hold them down or 
 clear them from the harness in which they seemed to 
 be entangled. Again he fell, tripped by a rope that had 
 been stretched across the track some twenty inches 
 from the ground. It was the work of but a few se- 
 conds to produce his pocket knife and cut the rope. 
 That obstacle cleared away, the colts quickly regained 
 their feet and the younger man shouted to ask if his 
 elder companion was hurt. He was much relieved 
 to find that he was sitting securely on the seat of the 
 buggy and had a firm hold on the lines. He had been 
 thrown against the dashboard, but had promptly re- 
 covered his position without serious injury. 
 
 Assured of the safety of man and team, Stockley, 
 Without stopping "to reason why," darted into the 
 densest part of the thicket. He had condensed into 
 the ten seconds consumed in finding his knife and 
 cutting 1 the rope, a fairly complete Goursrof syllogistic
 
 HEAVITREE 115 
 
 reasoning 1 , with major premise, minor premise, and 
 conclusion, and it was consequent upon his conclusion 
 that he shot into the clump of trees. His ear caught 
 the sound of breaking twigs and rapidly retreating 
 footsteps. He redoubled his speed, and when he e- 
 merged from the thicket, he plainly saw, not more 
 than twenty paces ahead of him, the figures of two men 
 or boys scurrying away. Again he increased his speed 
 and found that he was gaining on the fugitives. There 
 was no need to exhaust his strength by more rapid run- 
 ning. The intervening space shrank to fifteen paces, 
 to ten, to five, to two: he launched himself upon 
 the nearest one, whom he had recognized. "Who is 
 that with ". Before the completion of the ques- 
 tion, the answer was given in a blow between the eyes, 
 which threw him to the ground. When he recovered 
 from his daze, which lasted but a few seconds, his 
 assailant was so far away that he recognized the use- 
 lessness of further pursuit and returned to the buggy. 
 "Excuse me for running away so unceremoniously," 
 he said, as he climbed in; "I was in hopes to secure 
 the party that stretched the rope across the road, but 
 I was disappointed." Mr. Harkins was of the opinion 
 that the trap had been prepared for someone else and 
 the subject was soon dismissed from their conversa- 
 tion. 
 
 The silence that ensued was broken by Mr. Har- 
 kins. 
 
 "I have heard something," he said, "about your 
 'passage at arms,' if it may be so called, with young 
 Wakely, and 'if my gossip Report be an honest woman
 
 Il6 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 of her word/ yours was 'The victory of endurance 
 born.' " 
 
 "I hardly look upon the incident," replied Stockley, 
 "as a victory over the boy. If this experience shall 
 aid James in gaining a victory over himself, I shall 
 be well satisfied." 
 
 "Your sentiment, sir, is as rare as it is creditable to 
 the one who entertains it. There are few, sir, who, 
 having indicated the wisdom of their contention as 
 you have done, would have failed to plume themselves 
 upon having won a victory. But you, sir, have, very 
 much to your credit, exhibited the spirit expressed 
 in Wordsworth's Ode to Duty : 
 
 'Give unto me, made lowly wise, 
 The spirit of self-sacrifice.' 
 
 and permit me to assure you, sir, that Dryden's ap- 
 horism, 'Virtue is her own reward', is every whit as 
 true as it is poetical." 
 
 "I lay no claim, Mr. Harkins," said Stockley, "to 
 superior virtue. My aim is 'to pursue the noiseless ten- 
 or' of my way, do my duty as I understand it, and let 
 the consequences take care of themselves." 
 
 "If you will permit me, Mr. Stockley, I will venture 
 to suggest what seems to me a safer guide than your 
 doctrine of laisses foire. It is embodied in a maxim 
 found in the Gesta Romanorum: 'Whatever you do, 
 do wisely and think of the consequences.' The zoilean 
 tendency prevalent in Green Valley is by no means 
 peculiar to that community; it is azonic, and it cannot 
 with impunity be ignored. I trust, sir, that I am not 
 understood as counseling that you
 
 HEAVITREE 117 
 
 'crook the pregnant hinges of the knee 
 
 Where thrift may follow fawning/ 
 
 but a degree of deference to public opinion is wise, 
 not only by way of precaution, but also by way of that 
 courtesy which concedes to others the same possibili- 
 ty of being in the right which we claim for ourselves." 
 
 "I quite agree with you," replied Stockley ; "I think 
 that a disposition to defer to the opinions of other 
 people who possess my confidence is characteristic of 
 me. What I intended to say is that having once deter- 
 mined on a right course, in the light of my own judg- 
 ment and that of others whom it seems safe to consult, 
 I ought to move forward in that course, animated by 
 the spirit which Abraham Lincoln expressed in his 
 New York speech : 'Let us have faith that right makes 
 might ; and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as 
 we understand it.' " 
 
 "Well said ! spoken like a man ! It is worth while 
 to remember, however, that a wise general, while pur- 
 suing relentlessly an aggressive movement, keeps him- 
 self constantly on the alert. He guards against not 
 only probable, but all possible surprise. His genius 
 manifests itself as much in shrewd conjectures of the 
 enemy's plans as in the formation of his own." 
 
 "I appreciate the point you make," replied Stockley, 
 "and I shall act upon the suggestion whenever I find 
 myself in the presence of 'the enemy'. Green Valley, 
 however, hardly seems to me the enemy's country. The 
 people are apparently very friendly to me." 
 
 "They are certainly what they appear, Mr. Stock- 
 ley, but you will, I trust, permit a word of caution.
 
 Il8 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 You have, in the exercise of your duty, placed Dr, 
 Wakely's son on the defensive, and, in - view of the 
 young man's peculiar disposition, I may be excused for 
 saying, absents reo, 1 that an act of treachery may be 
 expected from him whenever he thinks he can embar- 
 rass you by such an act with safety to himself." 
 
 "Very true, very true," said Stockley, half to him- 
 self. 
 
 "That boy has been reared," resumed the Superin- 
 tendent, "ab incunabilis 2 in an environment of deceit 
 and mendacity. This is no reflection upon the father, 
 whose unfortunate uxoriousness may be regarded as 
 an amiable weakness in one who, in other respects, is 
 held in high regard. If I am correctly informed, the 
 boy now appears docile and submissive. To all ap- 
 pearances you have succeeded in your effort to exsect 
 his spirit of insubordination, but you must remember, 
 sir," at this point the tilt of the Superintendent's head 
 heralded a quotation, "that Naturam e.vpellas furca>, 
 tanicn usque recurret. 3 On the other hand there is 
 truth in the saying of Marcus Aureliusr 'There is 
 nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing 
 forms', and I do not doubt that you can render effi- 
 cient aid to Nature in the evolution of the boy's char- 
 acter. But your unpleasant experiences have been 
 only casual. I trust that your brief sojourn in Green 
 Valley has not been characterized exclusively by 
 . . . 'harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.' " 
 
 !In the absence of the defendant. 
 2 From infancy. 
 
 3 You may expel Nature with a pitchfork, but she will al- 
 ways return.
 
 HEAVITREE IIQ 
 
 "By no means," was the reply; "to say nothing of 
 the pleasure my school work has given me, my social 
 life has been made very pleasant through the courtesy 
 of the people I have had the good fortune to meet." 
 
 "You are, I suspect, indebted quite as much to 
 \our own talents as to the good will of others for the 
 very flattering social position accorded you. Your 
 musical talent has been an important factor in securing 
 for you an entree into the most desirable circles of 
 Green Valley society. Your love for music, sir, and 
 mine for poetry onght to form the basis for a warm 
 and firm friendship between you and myself. You 
 may be familiar with the sonnet written by Richard 
 Earnfield two and a half centuries ago, and which is 
 applicable, I hope, to you and me. The opening verses 
 run like this'' here, the quotation tilt : 
 " 'If Music and sweet Poetry agree, 
 
 As they must needs, the sister and the brother, 
 Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me, 
 Because thou lov'st the one, and I the other.' ' 
 
 The fourth verse is not quite appropriate to our 
 case, for I am an ardent lover of music, and I am an- 
 ticipating a great deal of pleasure in listening to your 
 singing at my home. 'Such sweet compulsion doth 
 in music lie/ that I would gladly forgo the most en- 
 ticing prandial pleasures for the sake of a few 
 'Short swallow-flights of song, that dip 
 Their wings in tears, and skim away.' " 
 
 "It will be a pleasure to me," said Stockier, "tc 
 exercise such gift of song as I possess, if it will grati- 
 fy you to have me do so."
 
 I2O THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 For half a mile or more, they rode in silence, quiet- 
 ly enjoying the crisp air, the soft light of the moon and 
 stars, and the pleasing sensation of movement behind 
 a rapid team, among woodland shadows, along the 
 borders of placid lakes, and past the twinkling lights 
 of roadside homesteads. 
 
 Stockley broke the silence. "I have never been 
 satisfied," he said, "with the manner in which I ob- 
 tained my first-grade certificate. My possesssion of 
 it is due more to your good nature than to my merit. 
 However, I am pursuing a course of study, by which 
 I hope to fortify myself for examination before a 
 more exacting superintendent, should fate deprive 
 Anita County of your services before the expiration of 
 the certificate I now hold." 
 
 "With whom are you studying?" asked Mr. Har- 
 kins. 
 
 "Oh," laughed Stockley, "I can't brag of my pre- 
 ceptor, his name is Rutledge Stockley." 
 
 "What are you trying to do in the line of self-in- 
 struction ?" 
 
 "Well, I am ciphering through an arithmetic and 
 an algebra, and I have completed two books in plane 
 geometry, which is a new study for me." 
 
 "Do you not often need the aid of a teacher?" 
 
 "I would, perhaps, often ask the aid of one if I 
 had one, but I am convinced that I have a better hold 
 upon what I learn, for digging it out unaided. If 
 I fail at the first attempt, I make a second, a third, and 
 so on up to the fiftieth. I walk out on country roads 
 in the evening, going over my geometrical demon- 
 strations. The stone quarry road is a favorite path.
 
 HEAVITREE 121 
 
 I sometimes walk nearly to the quarry and back before 
 my auto-recitation is finished. I can now demonstrate 
 every proposition in the first two books of plane ge- 
 ometry, without the aid of a visible figure." 
 
 "Your course is admirable," said the superinten- 
 dent, "but it is not a common one. I have heard many 
 teachers excuse their ignorance of certain branches 
 on the ground that they had no opportunity to study 
 them in school. I shall hereafter cite your case if 
 you do not object, as proof of my contention that one 
 m?.y attain to high excellence in business, politics, the 
 teaching profession, in short, in any activity of life 
 with very limited school advantages. Your name, of 
 course would not appear." 
 
 "I think I must withhold my consent," said Stock- 
 ley; I have not yet attained to 'high excellence' in 
 anything I have undertaken, and you would therefore 
 be unable to justify your claim for me. Moreover, I 
 am keenly conscious of my lack of that rounding out 
 which is an important part of college culture, and for 
 that reason I would not willingly be the indirect means 
 of keeping any earnest student from availing himself 
 of college or university privileges." 
 
 "You are, perhaps, over modest," commented Mr. 
 Harkins, "but there is an element of truth in what 
 you say. To revert to the cases of James Wakely, suf- 
 fer an additional word of counsel before the termina- 
 tion of our journey shall bring our delightful and con- 
 fidential conversation to a conclusion. I have already 
 cautioned you to beware of a possible act of treachery 
 on this boy's part. It has come to me in very indefinite 
 form, in fact, through 'the babbling gossip of the air/
 
 122 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 that he is maturing some plan for doing you up to a- 
 dopt an expression he was overheard to employ. It is 
 reasonably certain that he will be exceedingly cautious 
 with regard to overt acts of insubordination in school, 
 and also that you may hereafter be sure of his father's 
 support in any measure your judgment may suggest. 
 In view of these facts my counsel is that at the next 
 appearance of a mutinous spirit, however slight, it be 
 expelled by the infliction of 'corporal sufferance.' I 
 am cognizant of your aversion to the employment of 
 the rod, and I concede that its use often degenerates 
 into a&use, but 'abusus non tollit usum,' 1 and if it be 
 applied until he surrender absque ulla conditioned 
 the tendency will be to discourage his plotting against 
 your safety with any person outside the school. A- 
 mong the sagacious utterances of Edmund Burke, 
 there is none more worthy of heed than this : that 
 'Early and provident fear is the mother of safety'." 
 
 Stockley promised that he would give due con- 
 sideration to the superintendent's friendly counsel and 
 thanked him for his kindly interest. 
 
 They were soon passing over the Harkins farm, the 
 land in which, as its owner explained, was "an aren- 
 ulous loam with an argillaceous subsoil." He had 
 named his homestead Heavitree, after the birthplace 
 of Richard Hooker, the name having been suggested 
 in part by the growth of massive oaks and cottonwoods 
 on his wood lot. One of his sons took charge of the 
 colts as the two men alighted and entered the hall. 
 
 The abuse of a thing is no argument against its use. 
 Unconditionally.
 
 HEAVITREE 123 
 
 Mr. Harkins laid his hand on Stockley's shoulder as 
 the latter stepped into the door, and giving his head 
 the quotation tilt said : "My friend, this is no spacious 
 mansion. Heavitree is very well described in Rob- 
 ert Herrick's 'Thanksgiving for a House': 
 
 'A little house, whose humble roof 
 Is weather-proof. 
 
 Low is my porch, as is my fate, 
 Both void of state. 
 
 Like as my parlor, so my hall 
 And kitchen's small 
 
 Some little sticks of thorn or briar 
 
 Make me a fire, 
 Gose by whose living coal I sit, 
 
 And glow like it'." 
 
 The good cheer enjoyed by the guest at Heavitree 
 need not be described in detail. After a bounteous 
 farm-supper, the evening was passed in conversation 
 and music, in which Stockley joined, with Mrs. liar- 
 kins, her daughter and two sons, the host smoking and 
 talking between whiffs. "Sna cuiqne volitptas," 1 he 
 explained as he lighted his pipe, "and as you do not in- 
 dulge in the fragrant weed, I must e'en take my to- 
 bacco as the Ancient Mariner finished his voyage 
 
 'Alone, alone, all, all alone'." 
 Had Stockley possessed an ear sensitive to tele- 
 x . Everyone has his own pleasures.
 
 124 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 audition, his enjoyment of the visit to Heavitree 
 would have been disturbed. While he was enjoying 
 the pleasures of social intercourse with congenial 
 friends, two conspirators twelve miles away were en- 
 gaged in the inception of a plot which boded a violent 
 close to his career.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 THE RIVER BELLE 
 
 "The sky is changed, and such a change ! O night 
 And storm and darkness ! Ye are wondrous strong." 
 
 Byron. 
 
 The new dry-goods store of Cole and Burns, on 
 the corner of Wilder Avenue and a mid-block alley, was 
 nearing completion. Harry Dole had been painting 
 the woodwork in the basement of the new store. Doors 
 in the front of the basement opened into an area under 
 the sidewalk and the area was partially covered with an 
 iron grating which formed the part of the sidewalk 
 lying next to the building. The area and the grating 
 above it extended around the corner for some distance 
 on the alley. On the evening of Stockley's visit at 
 Heavitree, Harry started home from Loring's grocery 
 a little before ten o'clock. His thoughts naturally 
 turned to the scene of his daily work and it occurred to 
 him that he had left a front basement door open. As 
 it would not be out of his road to pass the new store, 
 he turned his steps that way. 
 
 Unlocking the door and closing it behind him, he 
 felt his way to the basement stairway. It was very 
 dark, and he searched his vest pocket in vain for a 
 match. Crossing the basement floor, he found that, as 
 he had conjectured, the door had been left open. He 
 had reached his hand out to close it, when he thought 
 he heard a voice coming from the area under the side- 
 walk. The tones were subdued and he did not at first 
 distinguish any words. He leaned forward so as to
 
 126 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 bring his head into the opening and turned his ear in 
 the direction of the sound. He then perceived that it 
 came from the direction of the sidewalk above. He 
 tiptoed into the area and, guided by the voice, made 
 his way to the corner of the stone basement. Looking 
 upward he saw, dimly outlined against the starry sky, 
 the forms of two men or boys sitting on the grating 
 with their backs against the side of the store. They 
 had selected the side that was in shadow and which bor- 
 dered the dark alley. The darkness and their distance 
 from the street protected them from the observation 
 of passers. Harry could now hear every word of the 
 conversation and he soon found himself extremely in- 
 terested in what he heard. 
 
 "Of course they can't," was the first thing he heard, 
 "we're fur 'nough fr'm the street so't ther' can't no- 
 body see us* 'n' b'sides th' ain't many people goin' 
 past here anyway." The voice was gruff but the tone? 
 were subdued apparently by strong effort. 
 
 "They might hear us," replied another voice in a 
 very low and slightly trembling tone. 
 
 "'No they won't; we c'n hear 'em comin' long 
 b'fore they git to the corner 'n' then we'll lay low 'n' 
 stop talkin' t'll they git past." 
 
 "All right Art, but I wouldn't want to be caught 
 here with well, it would be kind of ." 
 
 "Say it right out, Jim, you wouldn't want to be 
 
 caught talkin' with me. That's all right. Yer dear 
 teacher 'd warm ye good 'n' strong ef he knew ye ever 
 had anythin' t' say t' me." 
 
 Harry Dole had by this time recognized the voices
 
 THE RIVER BELLE 1 27 
 
 and the names of the speakers, and he became doubly 
 alert. 
 
 "No he would n't," was the reply; "he can't do it 
 anyway." 
 
 "O, I guess he can all right, only ye dasn't 
 give 'im a chance. They say ye're as meek as Moses 
 sence he yanked ye up on the floor the other day." 
 
 Here, an approaching step was heard and the con- 
 versation was suspended until it had passed and had 
 died away in the opposite direction. The gruff voice 
 resumed : 
 
 "Ef ye was's good at fightin' 's ye be 't sprintin', 
 lord ye'd be a corker. Gosh! ye lit over the ground 
 like a jack rabbit when Stockley took after us to-night." 
 
 "You did some pretty swift running too, Art." 
 
 "Course I did. I didn't want our little game spoiled 
 by havi'i' him find out who we was, so I stayed behind 
 V knocked the everlasting stuffin' out of 'im. Gosh! 
 I guess he had a chance to study 'stronermy fer 'bout 
 a minute when my fives landed on 'is peepers." 
 
 "Did you knock him down ?" 
 
 "You bet I did." 
 
 "Did he get up again?" 
 
 "Dunno whether 'e did 'r not ; I didn't stay t' raise 
 'im." 
 
 "I hope you didn't kill him." 
 
 "Don't fret yer gizzard 'bout that. He'll be bossin' 
 ye 'round ag'in Monday mornin' as chipper as a ban- 
 tam rooster." 
 
 "Do you think he recognized us to-night?" 
 
 "Not on yer life. I knocked 'im silly b'fore he c'd 
 see my face."
 
 128 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 "Well, Art, I must be going. If father looks into 
 my room and finds I'm not there, there'll be the Old 
 Harry to pay." 
 
 As James Wakely said this he made a movement to 
 rise, but was promptly grasped by the collar and 
 jerked back. 
 
 "No ye don't, Jim, my boy ; I won't be thru with 
 ye fer two hours yit. I want to have a long talk with 
 ye." 
 
 "Art, I've just got to go. If father catches me out 
 he'll ask all sorts of questions. Of course I wouldn't 
 tell him anything, but his suspicions would be aroused, 
 and he might make us lots of trouble. You know he 
 thinks Stockley's all right now." 
 
 Arthur seemed impressed with James's reason for 
 going. Without releasing his companion's collar, he 
 pondered a few moments. 
 
 "Well, Jim," he said at last, "I've got to have a 
 talk with ye right away. Meet me t'mor' night, 'n' I 
 guess that'll do." 
 
 "Tomorrow's Sunday, you know." 
 
 "Well, Sissy, you'll be out o' Sunday school before 
 night won't you? Here, Jim, you go to bed early 
 t'mor' night 'n' wait till yer father goes to bed. Then 
 you drop out o' the window down a rope 'n' come to 
 me 'n' I'll tell ye what I want of ye." 
 
 "All right, Art, I'll be on hand. Where shall I 
 meet you ?" 
 
 "Wai, "said Arthur, "it wont do to meet here agin ; 
 it's too dangerous. What time '11 ye come?" 
 
 "Well, father never goes to bed before ten o'clock." 
 
 "I'll tell ye what ye do, Jim; you meet me t'mior'
 
 THE RIVER BELLE 12<) 
 
 night at eleven o'clock at the River Belle. I've got 
 somethin' up my sleeve for Mr. Rutledge Stockley that 
 '11 give 'im a higher position in this burg than he ever 
 had before." 
 
 There was a silence of several seconds. 
 
 "Wai, what ye goin' to do?" demanded Arthur in 
 a peremptory tone. 
 
 "I'll be there," was the trembling reply. 
 
 "Swear it." 
 
 "I swear it." 
 
 "Say 'I hope to drop dead tomorror night ef I don't 
 do everything I've promised to do.' " 
 
 The imprecation was falteringly repeated. 
 
 "Now you get out o' the alley 'n' start fer home. 
 I'll stay here till you're out o' the way." 
 
 James reached his room by way of the back stairs 
 before his father had retired and Arthur crept stealthily 
 out of the alley soon after James had started. Twenty 
 minutes later Harry Dole emerged from the front 
 door of the new store and walked rapidly to his home. 
 
 The next day was Sunday. According to his custom, 
 Harry Dele attended Morning Prayer at the Episcopal 
 Church, where he was interested in seeing James 
 Wakely, devoutly kneeling, responding, sitting, and 
 rising as prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. 
 After dinner Harry left the house, telling his aged 
 mother that he was going for a walk. By an indirect 
 route he reached a point on the river bluff about a 
 quarter of a mile from the outskirts of the village. 
 Here he turned into a dense wood which covered the 
 slope of the bluff and descended to the river. He soon 
 reached a narrow strip of shore on which rested the
 
 I3O THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 bow of a small dilapidated steamboat, her stern lying 
 in the water. The spot was a secluded one, being 
 screened from observation by the wooded bluff and a 
 bend in the river. 
 
 The boat had been used for several seasons in re- 
 moving snags from the river and had been abandoned on 
 the failure of congressional appropriations for continu- 
 ing the work. The after part of the boat was covered 
 over so as to form a sort of cabin which had been 
 used as a tool house, dining room, and sleeping quar- 
 ters for the crew. From the forward part of the cabin 
 rose the pilot house on the sides of which was printed 
 the name of the craft RIVER BELLE. 
 
 Harry climbed to the deck and entered the cabin 
 of the River Belle. The sides were lined with bunks. 
 The room was nearly empty. A rusty stovepipe which 
 ran out of a hole aft had a vertical section reaching 
 within about four and a half feet of the floor. An 
 elbow and two or three lengths of pipe lay in one of 
 the bunks. The pipe interested Harry. In one place 
 he found that two lengths were slightly apart and he 
 pressed them firmly together. Mounting to the deck, 
 he leaned over the stern and examined the projecting 
 stove pipe. Going back to the cabin, he fitted the 
 extra elbow into a section of pipe and returning fixed 
 them to the projecting portion so as to make the open 
 end of the upright length extend downward within 
 a short distance of the water. Examining his com- 
 pleted work, he nodded his head and smiled, muttering, 
 "I guess that'll fix the thing all right." 
 
 As he jumped off the boat to return to town, his 
 eye caught a pile of cracker boxes which had belonged
 
 THE RIVER BELLE 13! 
 
 to the victualing department of the River Belle before 
 she was put out of commission. He looked at them 
 thoughtfully for a few moments, then quickly threw 
 two of them aboard and climbed up to the deck again, 
 taking with him a good-sized stone which he had se- 
 lected after a short search on the shore. He easily 
 found some rusty nails on deck, and taking the boxes 
 into the cabin he nailed them securely to the floor, us- 
 ing the stone as a hammer. He had placed the boxes 
 four feet apart on opposite sides of a point directly un- 
 der the vertical section of stove pipe. He then looked 
 slowly around as if to think whether he could do any- 
 thing more to contribute to the comfort of expected 
 guests. Apparently satisfied with his preparations, he 
 again leaped ashore and returned home, retracing the 
 route he had taken in approaching the river. 
 1 He remained quietly at home until half past nine 
 in the evening, when he again went out, wearing a 
 waterproof coat and rubber boots ( for a heavy rain was 
 falling) and taking with him half a dozen padlock keys 
 from a pan of odds and ends in the barn. 
 
 By ten o'clock, he was half a mile up the river fitting 
 a key to the padlock which secured a stout skiff to a 
 stake on the bank and a few moments later he was 
 floating down a madly-rushing river, enveloped in 
 black darkness. By some mysterious sense he knew 
 when he passed the village. Had he been asked how 
 he managed to draw in to the shore so as to run just 
 under the stern of the River Belle, he could only have 
 replied : "I jest knew that was the place, I sort o' 
 seen th' ole Belle 'thout seein' of 'er." He quickly 
 caught hold of the steering gear of the Belle and with
 
 132 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 some difficulty secured the boat to it. Reaching his 
 hand upward, he was pleased to find the exterior verti- 
 cal section of stovepipe about where he had planned to 
 have it, that is, over the center of his boat. He was 
 now ready for business. No sound was to be 
 heard but the steadily falling rain, and Har- 
 ry composed himself to wait for the balance of the jun- 
 to of which he had elected himself an honorary mem- 
 ber. 
 
 Fully half an hour passed when suddenly there 
 came to the listener a distinct sound of stumbling and 
 falling, followed by an angry oath. Harry was 
 promptly on his feet with his ear at the open end of 
 the stove pipe. In a few seconds the pipe brought to 
 him a single word in a rough but carefully modulat- 
 ed voice. 
 
 "Jim?" 
 
 There was no reply. 
 
 James Wakely performed his religious duties that 
 Sabbath day with unaccustomed fidelity. He remained 
 quietly at home all the afternoon, reading the latest 
 number of The Churchman. 
 
 After dark he smuggled a stout rope into his room 
 from the barn and made one end fast to his bed post. 
 A remarkably interesting book detained him in the 
 sitting room until the rest of the family had retired 
 and he soon afterwards went to his room. Carefully 
 opening his bedroom window afer a half hour inter- 
 val, he slid down the rope and reached the ground in 
 safety. 
 
 The misguided youth did not feel like a conspirator
 
 THE RIVER BELLE 133 
 
 such as he had read of in that renowned work "The 
 Bravo of Venice.'' He felt rather like a forlorn, bul- 
 lied, and soon-to-be-bedraggled naughty boy. And be- 
 sides all this his conscience troubled him. 
 
 It is remarkable how the activity of conscience in- 
 creases as danger and difficulties accumulate in the 
 path of a nefarious schemer. James Wakely's spirit 
 was not composed of the stuff that plotters, even of 
 the yellow novel variety are made of. He lacked cour- 
 age, steadfastness, and initiative. In his relation to 
 Arthur Blazer he might be likened to a trembling, 
 half-drowned mouse tossed about and bitten by a play- 
 ful cat. 
 
 James had taken an umbrella with him, but the 
 wind turned it wrong side out before he had gone 
 twenty paces from his father's gate, and after trying 
 in vain to restore it, he dropped it over a fence into a 
 neighbor's yard. It was not a favorable night for 
 pedestrians but he encountered two, and in each case 
 he made a wide detour through the mud of the street 
 to avoid being seen. Before reaching the river the 
 cold rain had wet him to the skin. His conviction 
 was strong that he was very culpable in lending him- 
 self to anything that would injure his teacher, who 
 had only the best feeling for him. He threaded his 
 way along a narrow, winding path overhung with 
 branches of trees and bordered by hazel bushes which 
 gave him innumerable chilling shower baths as his 
 hat and his coat disturbed them. The belief forced 
 itself upon him that it was positively wicked for him 
 to consort with a ruffian like Arthur Blazer. In the 
 cabin of the River Belle, he would at least be shelter
 
 134 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 ed, he thought, from the pelting rain, and the thought 
 quickened' his pace. Just as he broke into a run where 
 the path seemed clear, his toe caught a projecting 
 root and he measured his full length upon the soggy 
 ground. When he arose, with the mud clinging to 
 his hands and dripping from his face, his heart was 
 filled with a sense of the enormity of his contemplated 
 villainy and an impulse seized him to return home, re- 
 nounce his evil companion and his works, and be- 
 come a sober, honest, dutiful, obedient, studious boy. 
 But there was Arthur to reckon with, who was 
 doubtless already waiting for him at the 
 River Belle, now not more than ten or twelve 
 rods away; and more terrible there was his oath. 
 The latter consideration braced up his vacillating con- 
 science and he plunged forward. Five minutes later 
 Arthur was pulling him up to the deck of the River 
 Belle and the two boys entered the cabin. 
 
 "Say, Art," said James in a half whisper, "I'll catch 
 my death o' cold if I stay here, and besides I don't 
 really like " 
 
 "Speak up so't I c'n hear ye," interrupted Arthur, 
 with no effort to soften his voice. "What is it ye 
 don't reely like '?" 
 
 "Well, you see, it seems a little dangerous for us 
 to be planning to injure a citizen of Minnesota, and " 
 
 "O, you go and soak yer head," exclaimed the dis- 
 gusted chief. "Ye can't back out now, V you're 
 goin' t' do your share, ye c'n jist set that down whare 
 ye won't fergit it." 
 
 After some groping in the dark to find a place to 
 sit down, Arthur ran against the cracker boxes and
 
 THE RIVER BELLE 135 
 
 the boys were soon seated on them, facing 1 each other. 
 
 "Oo-oo-oo," shuddered James, "I wish we could 
 have a fire; I'm chilled through and through!" His 
 chattering 1 teeth bore testimony to the truth of what 
 he said. 
 
 "Here, take a sup o' this," said Arthur, drawing 
 a flask from his pocket and pushing- it through the 
 darkness into the shaking hand of his vis-a-vis. 
 
 A long 1 gurgling sound was sufficient evidence that 
 the offer of refreshment was accepted. Arthur took 
 the bottle back and returned it to his pocket without 
 tasting its contents. Drinking was not one of his vic- 
 es. 
 
 "Now," resumed the archconspirator, "ther ain't no 
 need 'f us stayin' here very long. I come here so't we 
 c'd talk 'thout nobody seein' 'r hearin' us, 'n' ye don't 
 wan' t' be 'fraid t' talk right up." 
 
 "I'm not afraid," was the prompt reply. James 
 was growing warm. His shivering had nearly ceas- 
 ed ; his courage was rising and his conscience was 
 quieting down. 
 
 "All right," resumed Arthur. "Ef ye ain't 'fraid 
 you won't be scart o' doin' your share in comin' up 'th 
 Stockley, 'nd I had ye come here t' night to tell ye 
 what your share is. Now, Jim Wakely, what I wan' 
 t' know is, whether you're goin' into this bus'ness fer 
 all yer worth, 'r whether yer goin' to hold back 'n' be 
 sulky 'n' mean *bout it." 
 
 "Art," exclaimed James, "I'm right with you. 
 Stockley has held me up to ridicule before the entire 
 school and I'm ready to do anything to show that I
 
 136 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 can't be treated in that way, and he go scot free. Say, 
 give me another little sup of that whiskey ; I feel just 
 a little chilly yet." 
 
 The bottle was produced, and James inverted it 
 over his backward-tilted head. The gurgle that en- 
 sued seemed likely to continue indefinitely, but it was 
 suddenly interrupted by Arthur, who seized the bottle 
 and drew it away. 
 
 "I ain't goin' t' have you gittin' drunk," he remark- 
 ed, "V haf t' be carried home V wake yer folks up 
 gittin' into the house 'n' give the hull thing away." 
 
 "That's right, Arthur," replied James, cheerfully. 
 "I know when I've had enougli." 
 
 "So do I" growled Arthur, "now listen to me. 
 You and me 's goin' to blow that schoolmaster up." 
 
 "Blow him up?" 
 
 "Yes, blow 'im up that's what I said ; we're goin' 
 to blow him 'n' 'is chair 'n' 'is desk 'n' the hull shoot'n 
 match right up t' the top o' the school house." 
 
 "How are you going to do it?" asked James. 
 
 "You mean how 're we goin' to do it that's what ye 
 mean, ain't it?" 
 
 "Why, yes, Arthur, of course that's what I mean, 
 and I want you to understand, Arthur, that I am with 
 you heart and hand, in this business." James was 
 quite sincere in his asseveration. A genial warmth 
 pervaded his system; his courage was high; he re- 
 garded Arthur as the prince of good fellows ; and his 
 conscience heartily approved what it would have reso- 
 lutely vetoed half an hour before. It is remarkable 
 how the voice of conscience changes with changes of
 
 THE RIVER BELLE 137 
 
 environment. Propositions which in discouraging- 
 circumstances it turns down in gruffest notes are ap- 
 proved in dulcet tones under the influence of agreeable 
 animal sensations from without and within. James 
 was now thoroughly committed to any scheme Arth- 
 ur might be pleased to propose even before learning 
 its details. How his conscience would have goaded 
 him again if in the light of some magical X ray, he 
 could have seen his voice and Arthur's rise eighteen 
 inches in the vertical stovepipe opening directly over 
 their heads, travel through the horizontal section to the 
 elbow outside, and then drop, clear and strong into 
 Harry Dole's attentive ear. The pipe made a perfect 
 speaking tube and Harry was delighted with the suc- 
 cess of his afternoon tinkering. But of this both 
 James and Arthur were blissfully unconscious. 
 
 James's declaration of allegiance was just what 
 Arthur had counted on when he had administered the 
 stimulant. His aim now was to accomplish two things 
 before the spirit evoked by the liquor had subsided, 
 to get James's full approval of his scheme and to ob- 
 tain his written promise to support it. 
 
 "You're the right stuff," said he, "now here's our 
 plan. I've managed to git a twenty-five pound keg 
 K>' blastin' powder from the quarry. We're goin' t' 
 put that anunder the schoolhouse whair th' master's 
 desk is, V then we're goin' to run a fuse back to your 
 desk, 'n' then you're goin' to touch it off 'n' blow ol' 
 Stockley up to the ceilin'." 
 
 "But that will blow me up and the whole school." 
 
 "No, it won't; we'll loosen a board anunder your
 
 138 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 desk 'n' have the fuse come just anunder it 'n' you'll 
 just lift the board 'n' strike a match 'n' set fire to it 
 when the scholars 's marchin' out when school lets out 
 'n the afternoon, 'n' then you'll march out behind the 
 rest 's big 's life, 'n' five minutes after, bang ! goes the 
 powder, 'n' up goes mister dude, 'n' me 'n' you'll be 
 watchin' the fun from the hay loft by Baldritt's 
 barn acrost the street." 
 
 "But you don't er we don't want to kill him." 
 
 "Thunder! no, that won't kill 'im. It'll jest sur- 
 prise 'im, ha! ha! 'n' turn 'im over 'n' over three or 
 four times, 'n' scorch 'is close 'n' 'is hair a little, ha! 
 ha ! ha ! 'n' it'll learn 'im who to monkey with. Gosh ! 
 I c'n see 'im now a leggin' out o' that schoolhouse 's 
 if the devil was after 'im, 'is close a smokin' 'n' him a- 
 hollerin' fer help, ha ! ha ! ha ! ha ! ha !" . 
 
 "How are you we going to get the powder and 
 the fuse under the schoolhouse?" asked James. 
 
 "I'll see to that. I hain't been layin' 'round doin' 
 nothin'. I know all 'bout how that schoolhouse 's made. 
 The joice anunder the floor runs lengthways from the 
 front t' the back, 'n' ye c'n crawl in anunder the front 
 door steps, 'n' have a clear space to put the powder 
 keg 'n' run the fuse back t' your desk. We'll haf t' 
 build a wall all 'round the keg t' keep the strength of 
 the powder f r'm scatterin', but I'll do all that ; all you've 
 got t' do is t' set fire t' the fuse when the time conies." 
 
 "Are you sure we won't be committing murder in 
 doing this ?" anxiously asked James. 
 
 "Sure we won't. I've studied it all out. It'll only 
 give 'im a good scare."
 
 THE RIVER BELLE 139 
 
 Arthur really believed what he said but he was 
 laboring under a terrible mistake. In pursuing his in- 
 quiries upon the effects of blasting powder he had ex- 
 ercised great caution and had drawn erroneous con- 
 clusions from the fragments of facts he had learned. 
 He had not dared, of course, in questioning experts at 
 the quarry, to suppose a situation just like that he was 
 now arranging. He was really ignorant of the fact 
 that the execution of the plan he had just unfolded 
 meant death to its victim. 
 
 "Well," said James, "I'm willing to set the fuse 
 going ; when will it be ready ?" 
 
 "In just five days. Next Friday night when the 
 master dismisses school, you drop a book 'n' then 
 reach down 'n' lift the board 'n' set fire t' the fuse 'n' 
 put the board back, 'n' marcE out like a nice boy 'n' 
 then skin out 'n' come t' Baldritt's barn by the back 
 way." 
 
 James's courage had by this time begun to settle 
 again and his conscience to prick but he assented to 
 Arthur's plan. He shivered a little, however, and at 
 Arthur's suggestion replenished his courage from the 
 flask "to keep out the chill." 
 
 "Now," said Arthur, "what ye're willin' t' say in 
 words ye're of course willin' to say in writin' ." 
 
 He produced a candle from his pocket, lighted it, 
 and then handed James a paper to read. 
 
 "Do you suppose I'm going to sign that paper?" 
 exclaimed James, after reading it. 
 
 His courage was again rising. "If you do," he 
 continued, "you're mightily mistaken. You want to
 
 I4O THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 make me responsible for this whole business while you 
 go scot free." 
 
 Arthur saw that he had gone a little too far. As 
 he was to have the custody of the paper, no harm could 
 result from his signing it with James. 
 
 "Why Jim," he said, "of course I'm goin' to sign it 
 with you. As soon as we've had our fun, I'll tear it up." 
 
 The boys now, with pen and ink bought by Arthur 
 for the purpose, affixed their signatures to a paper in 
 \vhich they agreed to blow the school teacher up with 
 a keg of powder as specified in their oral agreement. 
 
 They then rose and started for home, and James 
 reached his room without discovery. 
 
 It took Harry Dole a much longer time to row back 
 to the ferry than it had taken to make the descent, and 
 it was nearly five o'clock Monday morning when he 
 laid his head upon his pillow. 
 
 Arthur had, a week before, selected a hiding place 
 for the agreement he had determined to make James 
 sign. On Monday, he walked to the quarry where he 
 was employed. Passing through a grove he paused 
 at the foot of a large oak. Looking around to assure 
 himself that he was alone, he climbed the tree to a 
 hole about ten feet from the ground. Into this hole 
 he thrust a folded paper which he drew from his 
 pocket. It was the written agreement, which he pur- 
 posed using as a club to insure the fidelity of his 
 confederate.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 SELF GOVERNMENT 
 
 He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city. 
 
 Bible. 
 
 It will be remembered that before closing school 
 on the evening of his trip to Heavitree, Stockley 
 had directed the pupils to go on with their studies 
 on Monday morning in case of his failure to arrive by 
 the usual time for opening. It was about half past nine 
 on Monday morning when Mr. Harkins stopped his 
 team several blocks away from the schoolhouse for 
 Stockley to alight. The schoolmaster had told Mr. 
 Harkins that he preferred to walk to the schoolhouse. 
 
 "It will not be at all out of my way to drive there/' 
 protested the superintendent, "and you are already 
 behind time." 
 
 "I very much prefer not to ride to the door," 
 was the reply; "in fact I do not care to have the 
 boys and girls know of my return until I opi,n the door 
 upon them." 
 
 "Will not such a course lead your pupils to believe 
 that you distrust them and tend to alienate their regard 
 for you ? To drive boldly to the door and enter after 
 the scholars have had warning of youi coming, 
 such a course, it seems to me, would be more likely 
 to commend you to the good will of these young 
 people. Pope, in his translation of the Odyssey, makes 
 the blind minstrel say that : 
 
 '"A decent boldness ever meets with friends.'"
 
 142 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 "I fully appreciate the force of what you say," 
 replied Stockley, "and I heartily concur in the spirit 
 of your suggestion. It is due to your friendly interest 
 that I explain my plan and my motive. I shall not 
 go to the schoolhouse as a spy ; I shall not peep through 
 the keyhole nor apply my ear to it. I am not hoping 
 or expecting to find the room or a single pupil in 
 disorder. In fact I expect to find, on opening the 
 door, that every pupil is engaged in Lis legitimate 
 work. I simply wish to give myself the satisfaction 
 of finding that my confidence in these pupils is well 
 placed." 
 
 "But will not the scholars suspect your unheralded 
 coming to be an insidious attempt to entrap them?" 
 
 "I think not. Should such an idea suggest itself to 
 any of them, it would be effectively negatived by the 
 reflection that I have always been honest and frank 
 in my dealings with them. But that there may be 
 no possibility of the suspicion referred to in your 
 question, I shall later in the day, tell them all about 
 my plan for entering unannounced, and give them my 
 reason for it." 
 
 "It will be an extraordinary exhibition of self 
 control," said the superintendent, "if, as you expect, 
 your pupils are all found pursuing their appointed 
 tasks on your entrance." 
 
 "There is, of course, a possibility of my disappoint- 
 ment," was the reply. "Will you not walk over to 
 the building with me and note the result of the experi- 
 ment? If it fail, I must simply modify my plan 
 of training and wait longer for a favorable result."
 
 SELF GOVERNMENT 143 
 
 The two men alighted and after securing the horses 
 started for the schoolhouse. 
 
 "You refer to a 'plan of training' " resumed Mr. 
 Harkins. "Am I to infer that you have adopted 
 a system for teaching self government?" 
 
 "Yes, that is just what I have done. My theory 
 is that young people should receive as regular, system- 
 atic, and carefully thought-out lessons in the science, 
 or rather the practice (the science is for the teacher, 
 the practice for the pupils) of self government as in 
 arithmetic, geography, or any other subject taught in 
 school. My present experiment will be a test not 
 necessarily a conclusive one of the soundness of my 
 theory." 
 
 "Your theory seems a sound one, Mr. Stockley," 
 said the official, now thoroughly interested, "I am 
 curious to know the steps by which you developed or 
 applied your theory in practice." 
 
 " 'Steps is a good word," was the reply. "The 
 first step was to leave the room for two minutes, 
 asking from the pupils a promise of good order during 
 my absence. The test was purposely made short and 
 easy. It was a lesson in the primer of self government. 
 The second and third steps were to absent myself for 
 five and ten minutes, saying that I was going to 
 visit Miss Dix's room. In these instances no promises 
 were exacted ; the pupils were told that I was confident 
 their own pride would insure their doing what was 
 right. I am satisfied that they learned these elemen- 
 tary lessons well. The fourth step was to go to your 
 home with the understanding on the part of the 
 pupils that I was liable to be late this morning.
 
 144 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 Not a word was said to them on the subject of order. 
 This is about a sixth-grade lesson in self government. 
 We shall now see whether they have learned it well." 
 
 The two men were now ascending the front steps 
 of the schoolhouse. They had approached the building 
 in such a manner that it would have been impossible 
 for any inmate to know of their coming. They 
 paused a moment at the door. There was profound 
 silence within. Stockley then quietly opened the door 
 and the two entered the room. The pupils looked up 
 for a moment and then resumed the study which had 
 occupied them before the teacher's arrival. Mr. Har- 
 kins had sent a searching glance around the room 
 and had not detected a sly wink or any appearance 
 of sudden return from mischief to study. 
 
 "Verily, my friend," said he in an undertone to 
 Stockley, "it may be said of your experiment that 
 finis coronat opus tuum 1 ; in other words, your experi- 
 ment has resulted in gratifying success. And now I 
 must bid you good day." 
 
 The visitor withdrew and the teacher took up the 
 labors of the day. 
 
 The teacher noticed in the course of one of the 
 recitations, that James Wakely was unusually thought- 
 ful. He seemed to be preoccupied, and several times 
 when addressed he started and looked frightened as if 
 he had been detected in some forbidden act. He was 
 slightly pale and very quiet. Two or three times 
 during the day he fell asleep with his head on his 
 desk, and when awakened by a nudge from his seat 
 
 1 The end crowns your work
 
 SELF GOVERNMENT 145 
 
 mate he caught his breath with a start and looked 
 quickly about him, like one who expects an attack. 
 Once while he was sleeping, the boy who shared his 
 seat heard him mumuring, and caught the words 
 "that . . . murder . . . chilly ..." When school closed 
 he started at once for home without exchanging a word 
 with any of his schoolmates. 
 
 By nine o'clock that evening Harry Dole was lying 
 comfortably on the hay in the loft of Mr. Baldritt's 
 barn. Mr. Baldritt's house was situated just one 
 block east of the schoolhouse, and, like that building, 
 faced the east. The barn, being on the back or western 
 extremity of the lot, was in full view of the front of 
 the schoolhouse, as the western side of the block had 
 no buildings on it. A door or opening for pitching hay 
 into the loft made it possible for an observer to see 
 whatever might be going on about the schoolhouse. 
 
 By ten o'clock, when the passing of late home-goers 
 had about ceased, Harry saw a solitary figure carrying 
 some bulky object under one arm steal up to the school- 
 house and disappear under the front steps. Half an 
 hour later the figure emerged and started toward the 
 village. He no longer carried the bulky object. Harry 
 quickly left the barn and sped, by a circuitous route, 
 to a point whence he could see what he recognized as 
 the same figure coming down the hill toward him from 
 the direction of the schoolhouse. He retreated, and 
 managed to come face to face with the night worker 
 in the light shining dimly from a saloon. He was not 
 surprised when he recognized Arthur Blazer.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 AWAKENING A SLUGGARD 
 
 As idle as a painted ship 
 Upon a painted ocean. 
 
 The Ancient Mariner. 
 
 "James Duke." 
 
 It was the teacher who spoke. The grammar class 
 occupied the recitation seats facing his desk. The ex- 
 ercise consisted in changing certain passages so as to 
 give the verbs a different grammatical voice without 
 changing the sense. Four or five sentences had been 
 disposed of by as many pupils whose names the teach- 
 er had called in promiscuous order. 
 
 When Mr. Stockley called the name of James 
 Duke, a long and lanky boy partly raised himself from 
 a semi-reclining position and directed a look of sleepy 
 inquiry at the speaker. As he made no further re- 
 sponse, the name of Lizzie Dalny was called. Lizzie 
 took up the next sentence in order and the recitation 
 proceeded. 
 
 "Maude Clarke." 
 
 Maude understood this as a direction to proceed 
 in regular order, and she did so. 
 
 "Eva Black." 
 
 Eva disposed of the next sentence. 
 
 "James Duke." 
 
 "Huh?" languidly inquired James, as a drowsy 
 look of interrogation appeared in his half-'open eyes. 
 
 Mr. Stockley again called on another member of
 
 AWAKENING A SLUGGARD 147 
 
 the class, after waiting several seconds for an answer 
 from James. To repeat the question after it had been 
 distinctly given would, in his judgment, place a prem- 
 ium on inattention, as he had explained to Mr. Dow 
 in connection with the work in spelling, on Visitors 
 Day. After a few questions had been asked of other 
 pupils, the teacher determined to test James by a very 
 easy question. 
 
 "James Duke/' he called. 
 
 James looked as attentive as his indolent nature 
 would permit. 
 
 "Read the next sentence, the one beginning with 
 Laziness." 
 
 James read the sentence : "Laziness grows on peo- 
 ple." 
 
 "In what case is the noun Laziness?' 
 
 James gave a weary look at the work, yawned, and 
 said, "/ don't know." 
 
 James did not mean to be impudent. He really 
 liked his teacher, but he was too indolent to think. 
 Hoping to shame him, Stockley passed the question 
 to Maude Clarke, the youngest girl in the class, who 
 promptly gave the correct answer. But James was 
 unmoved. The subdued titter which his exhibition of 
 ignorance evoked from a few boys and girls failed to 
 stir his sluggish soul. 
 
 Stockley was for the moment at the end of his 
 resources. But he was not discouraged and he did 
 not fall into the error of showing irritation. He 
 thought and thought. "There must be some way to 
 reach this case," so his thought ran, "and sooner or 
 later I shall discover the right plan." That very af-
 
 148 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 ternoon he made the discovery and formed his plan. 
 Just before the afternoon session began, he opened a 
 Fourth Reader that lay on his desk, in order to look 
 over the selection to be read that afternoon. While 
 turning over the pages to find the lesson, his eye 
 caught the caption of one of the lessons. He read the 
 first sentence. "There!" he exclaimed to himself, 
 "that is the stream of cold water I shall use to wake 
 up James Duke!" 
 
 The first recitation in the afternoon was that of 
 the A class in arithmetic. Charlie Marfield stood at 
 the blackboard explaining an example in percentage. 
 James Duke sat at his desk near the rear of the room, 
 his elbows on the desk, his chin in his hands, gazing 
 lazily around the room. Stockley stood on the teach- 
 er's platform, facing the school. 
 
 "Since a remittance of $1.025 permits an invest- 
 ment of $i," Charlie was saying, "a remittance of 
 $875 permits an investment of as many dollars as " 
 
 "James Duke!" 
 
 The master's voice had only its ordinary pitch and 
 force, but it was no ordinary proceeding for him to 
 interrupt a pupil, in such an apparently rude man- 
 ner, with something entirely foreign to the matter un- 
 der consideration. The effect on the class was- almost 
 electrical. All glanced at the teacher, who was leaning 
 slightly to one side, with an intent gaze fixed on the 
 boy addressed, and the next moment the eyes of the 
 entire school were focused on James Duke. The 
 scheme had thus far worked exactly as the teacher 
 had planned. "Success number one," he thought. 
 Without saying, "Silence! look at James Duke!" he
 
 AWAKENING A SLUGGARD 149 
 
 had managed to concentrate upon the sluggard the 
 wondering attention of his schoolmates. James looked 
 up with as much surprise as his lazy nature was capa- 
 ble of feeling. Not more than two seconds were con- 
 sumed in what it has taken sixty seconds to describe. 
 
 "Have you a Fourth Reader?" 
 
 "Y-e-s, s-i-r," was the drawling reply. Even 
 James had awakened sufficiently to wonder what was 
 coming. 
 
 "Would you be willing to read one sentence in 
 the Fourth Reader for me?" 
 
 "Y-e-s, s-i-r." 
 
 "Please take your reader, then, and stand in the 
 aisle." 
 
 The boy did as requested. He was good natured 
 (in fact, he was too lazy to be otherwise) and had a 
 kindly feeling for his teacher. 
 
 "When I give you the page you may turn to it and 
 read. Read first, the title of the selection that begins 
 on the page, and then read, very distinctly, the first 
 sentence." 
 
 Expectation was on tiptoe. "What on earth!" was 
 the inquiry written on the puckered foreheads of the 
 pupils as they turned their eyes alternately on Stock- 
 ley and on James Duke. 
 
 "What do you understand I ask you to do?" asked 
 Stockley. 
 
 "Read the caption and the first sentence," replied 
 James. 
 
 "That is right ; page 74." 
 
 James moistened his fingers and pawed over the 
 leaves of his reader until he had found page 74. When
 
 I5O THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 his eye caught the title of the selection, the red blood 
 surged into his face. For the first time that term, he 
 was ashamed. "Success number two," said Stockley 
 to himself; "I have actually stirred up his sense of 
 shame !" 
 
 "Kindly read the title of the piece," said Stockley. 
 By this time the pupils were leaning almost out of 
 their seats in their eagerness to hear what was coming. 
 James drawled out the caption : 
 
 A HUMAN BEING WITH NOTHING TO Do 
 
 A second later the school was in a roar of laugh- 
 ter. "Success number three," was the teacher's mental 
 comment. He wanted James to realize that his lazi- 
 ness was unanimously regarded as ridiculous. He did 
 not wish James to feel, however, that his teacher was 
 deliberately holding him up as a laughing stock. Rais- 
 ing his hand as a signal for silence, he said, "Please 
 read the first sentence, James." Again James read : 
 
 "Most miserable, worthy of profound pity is such 
 a being." 
 
 No rapping on the desk or ringing of the desk bell 
 could have restrained the uproarious and continued 
 laughter that followed. As soon as he could be heard, 
 the teacher said to the school : 
 
 "Don't you pity poor James? He has nothing to 
 do." 
 
 "Yes !" the pupils shouted. 
 
 "I don't think he will need your pity any longer," 
 said Stockley, "for I believe he will find something 
 to do for the rest of the day; now let us resume our 
 regular work." 
 
 He at once directed Charlie Marfield to resume
 
 AWAKENING A SLUGGARD 15! 
 
 the explanation of the problem in commission and re- 
 frained from looking directly at James. Out of one 
 corner of his eye, however, he saw James dive into his 
 desk for a grammar and begin to study in earnest. The 
 boy had been thoroly awakened for that day at least. 
 "Fourth and final success," silently said the teacher. 
 
 James studied faithfully all the afternoon and the 
 next forenoon (Wednesday). While the A class in 
 arithmetic was reciting on Wednesday afternoon, 
 James dropped into his old, lazy attitude his elbows 
 on his desk, his chin in his hands. Lizzie Dalny was 
 reciting : 
 
 "The present worth of an amount due at some fu- 
 ture time without interest is such a sum as " 
 
 "James Duke!" 
 
 The teacher used exactly the same tone as the 
 day before. Again all eyes were directed at James. 
 
 "Have you a Fourth Reader?" 
 
 James's only reply was to grab a book and begin 
 to study. The effect of this second lesson lasted two 
 days. A third allusion to the Fourth Reader com- 
 pleted the cure. Whenever he showed disinclination 
 to exertion on the playground, the boys would 
 shout: "James Duke, have you a Fourth Reader?" 
 James became a diligent student and made good 
 records in his studies. 
 
 "I would have caned the boy," said a fellow 
 teacher, to whom Stockley related the incident ; 
 "The mental whip you applied was far more severe 
 than the application of the birch." 
 
 Stockley had the satisfaction, however, of know-
 
 152 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 ing that the whip he had used had accomplished 
 the desired result, and that instead of alienating the 
 good will of the boy, it had increased his respect 
 and friendship for his teacher. 
 
 The only member of the Green Valley school who 
 had failed to appreciate the humor of the James Duke 
 incident on that Tuesday afternoon was James Wakely. 
 His mind was so filled with the thought that only three 
 days thence he would be compelled by a written prom- 
 ise to enact what might prove the part of Second Mur- 
 derer in a real tragedy that he was in no mood for 
 merriment. Stockley noticed his gravity and attribut- 
 ed it to the inherent sullenness of his disposition. 
 
 That night Harry Dole occupied again his post of 
 observation in the Baldritt barn. A few minutes after 
 ten he again saw a boy approaching the school house. 
 He had no difficulty in recognizing him as one who 
 had placed some bulky object, whose character he 
 iould easily guess, under the building the night before. 
 He had no doubt as to the identity of this boy who fur- 
 tively skulked along the street and across the play- 
 ground in the shadows, but he seriously doubted 
 whether his testimony upon the identity of the person 
 seen at night by a dim light would be conclusive in a 
 court of law. He had therefore determined that this 
 time he would keep his man in sight from the time he 
 left the school building until he should be able to see 
 his face in a strong light. To that end he had planned 
 to slide down a rope from the door in the loft, and at 
 that door he was keeping his vigil. The man under 
 surveillance appeared to be carrying several boards 
 or pieces of plank two or three feet in length. These
 
 AWAKENING A SLUGGARD 153 
 
 he pushed under the steps before crawling under, him- 
 self. His work took more time than the night before. 
 A little before twelve his head appeared at the opening 
 through which he had entered. Harry grasped his 
 rope. The body worked out into the open and stood 
 erect. After a cautious glance around it started down 
 the street. The watcher promptly slid down the rope 
 his side of the barn being in shadow and stealthily fol- 
 lowed without losing sight, for a single moment, of the 
 person he was after. From tree to tree and from 
 house to house he continued the pursuit until the person 
 ahead had reached the principal business block. Harry 
 then quickened his pace, walking upon the sidewalk 
 with no attempt at concealment. As Arthur came into 
 the brilliant light shining through the windows of Jake 
 Rice's saloon, a loud voice immediately behind him 
 called out, "Hello, Will !" The salutation was so 
 evidently addressed to him that he stopped and looked 
 around. 
 
 "Oh !" said Harry, "it ain't Will Fulton after all ; 
 I see now ; it's Arthur Blazer. How's things up to the 
 quarry now days?" 
 
 "All right," growled Arthur. 
 
 "Don't ye most wish ye's back 'n school agin?" 
 
 "No, I don't"; and he shuffled along out of the 
 light. 
 
 Harry was satisfied. He was now able to state posi- 
 tively that the person with whom he had talked was 
 the one who had come from under the schoolhouse; 
 that he had recognized him in a strong light as Arthur 
 Blazer ; and that when addressed by that name he had 
 not denied the identity. He determined to keep his
 
 154 TH E GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 own counsel and to appear at the schoolhouse a little 
 before "lettin' out time" on Friday in season to prevent 
 James from lighting the fuse. He could, of course, 
 stop the progress of the mischief at any moment by 
 exposing the plot and putting the master on his guard, 
 but to do so would ruin the dramatic climax he had 
 planned and so deprive him of "a heap o' fun." He 
 had not yet decided whether he would swear out a 
 warrant for the boy's arrest. That would depend on 
 developments.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 EUCLID BY MOONLIGHT 
 
 To behold the wandering moon 
 Riding near her highest noon 
 
 // Penseroso. 
 
 A se, non per scholam, eruditus 
 
 John S. Clarke 
 
 Lois Dix, teacher of the primary department in 
 the Green Valley school, lived with her widowed 
 mother in an attractive little cottage not far remote 
 from the business center of the village. Lois was 
 bright, vivacious, and twenty. Mrs. Dix was indus- 
 trious, clever, and fifty. Mother and daughter were 
 confidential friends, and Lois found in the elder woman 
 a sympathetic listener to her comments on society, 
 school, books, church, and life in general. Mrs. Dix 
 was not a gossip, and her daughter did not hesitate to 
 repeat to her many incidents of school life which it 
 would have been imprudent to speak of elsewhere. 
 By this means Mrs. Dix had not only become familiar 
 with Lois's experiences in her own department of the 
 school but had acquired a knowledge of much that 
 had occurred in the grammar school department. Her 
 predilection for the new principal, based on what Lois 
 had told her, had developed into a decidedly favorable 
 impression upon meeting and speaking with him. 
 
 Stockley had not made a formal call at the home 
 of his assistant, but he had sometimes stopped, when 
 passing the house, to exchange greetings with the two
 
 156 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 ladies, whom he found, on such occasions, among the 
 flowers in the front yard or at their sewing on the 
 front porch. 
 
 "Mother," said Lois, one evening after tea, "I'm 
 going to run up to Lottie Wildon's; I won't be gone 
 more than an hour or two. Lottie wanted me to show 
 her about some embroidery for Christmas presents." 
 
 Mr. Wildon's house was on the hill, distant half a 
 mile or more, but the streets and byways of Green 
 Valley were regarded as safe at all hours of day and 
 night and Mrs. Dix made no objection to the evening 
 visit which her daughter proposed. 
 
 Lois started on her return home about nine o'clock. 
 She had passed a pleasant evening, and now, under 
 the inspiration of crisp, frosty air and brilliant moon- 
 light, her heart sang merrily and she hummed aloud 
 a song she had been teaching the school children that 
 day. She had noticed that a man was walking some 
 distance ahead of her and in the same direction. His 
 hands appeared to be clasped behind his back, his pace 
 was slow, and his bent head indicated a thoughtful 
 mood. At the sound of her humming he stopped and 
 faced partly about as if listening. He appeared to rec- 
 ognize Lois's voice, for after a moment's hesitation he 
 turned to meet her. His manner underwent a com- 
 plete change as he advanced. His pace was no longer 
 slow and the bright moonlight fell upon a face that 
 indicated a happy and animated rather than a con- 
 templative mood. Lois at once recognized the new 
 principal, and her step was not retarded in the slightest 
 degree as she advanced to meet him. 
 
 "Miss Dix !" exclaimed Stockley, "I recognized
 
 EUCLID BY 'MOONLIGHT 157 
 
 your voice at once, but the time of night and your dis- 
 tance from home made me think for a moment that 
 I might be mistaken." 
 
 "O, I often run out alone, of an evening," was the 
 reply, "to call on a neighbor, and my calls are more 
 often made in the evening than in the daytime when 
 my time is so taken up with school duties." 
 
 "When I heard you singing," said Stockley, some- 
 what inconsequentially, "there came to mind the 
 words and music of a song I learned when I was a 
 boy," and he sang very softly : 
 
 Come, fairies, trip on the grass 
 
 With a ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! 
 And mock dull mortals as they pass 
 
 With a ho, ho, ho, ho, ho ! 
 While the stars are shining bright, 
 We will sing by their sparkling light 
 With a ho, ho, ho ! 
 With a ho, ho, ho! 
 With a ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! 
 
 "Why, Mr. Stockley, that song doesn't apply to 
 this case at all, pretty as it is ; I'm not a . ..." 
 
 "Yes, yes," interrupted the principal, "I know what 
 you want to say that you are 'not a fairy,' that you 
 were 'not tripping it but quietly walking,' that you 
 were 'on the sidewalk' instead of 'on the grass,' that 
 you 'had no idea of mocking' me 'or any other dull 
 mortal,' and that you were 'singing "Lightly row" ' and 
 not a ridiculous "ho, ho, ho" ' but that would rob the 
 incident of all its poetry and I don't want you to do 
 that." 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Stockley, that is in substance what 
 I intended saying and I confess I can't see any poetry
 
 158 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 in humming a school song as one walks along the 
 street on a bright night." 
 
 "And you are right. Moonlight and music are only 
 accessories ; they quicken the soul-sense and help one 
 to perceive the poetry that is in the life of the singer. 
 Do not think, Miss Dix, that I am becoming too per- 
 sonal. Everyone has something of poetry in his na- 
 ture. Carlyle says something like this in an essay on 
 Walter Scott. 'There is no life of man, faithfully re- 
 corded, but is a heroic poem of its sort, rhymed or un- 
 rhymed.' But we are drifting toward sentiment and 
 philosophy. To change the subject, I wish you would 
 walk with me a short distance out of your direct way, 
 so as to pass the schoolhouse. After that I will, with 
 your permission, see you home." 
 
 The two had been slowly walking during the fore- 
 going conversation. Lois willingly assented to the 
 proposed detour and they turned toward the scene 
 of their daily labors. 
 
 "You seemed very thoughtful when I discovered 
 you ahead of me," began Lois; "would it savor of 
 presumption or extravagance if I were to offer 'a 
 penny for your thoughts'?" 
 
 "Of presumption, certainly not; of extravagance, 
 possibly, though my thoughts were of considerable 
 value to myself as brain food and I am not without 
 hope that they will ultimately produce a modest store 
 of pennies for my purse. I was studying my geome- 
 try lesson." 
 
 "Your geometry lesson ! Where's your geometry ?" 
 bending forward to see if he carried a book. "How 
 could you study by moonlight, in the open air? Isn't
 
 EUCLID BY MOONLIGHT 159 
 
 it ruinous to your eyes? Who's your tea , but 
 
 excuse me; I have no right to ask such questions; it 
 seemed so strange for one to study geometry by night, 
 in the street, with his hands behind him and his eyes 
 bent on the ground." 
 
 "Your questions are natural and allowable, Miss 
 Dix, and I am glad you asked them, for they give me 
 an opportunity, in answering them, to speak on a 
 subject which, otherwise, I would have found difficult 
 to introduce." 
 
 "What on earth does he mean?" thought Lois. A 
 vague feeling of disquiet for which she could not ac- 
 count possessed her for a moment, but it soon gave 
 way to an absorbing interest in the subject of which 
 Stockley spoke. 
 
 "I will first give a direct answer to each of your 
 questions," resumed the principal, "and then I want 
 to deliver a lecturette on what the answers suggest." 
 
 Miss Dix was still more mystified. What was a 
 lecturette? He seemed to attach an importance to 
 her idle questions far greater, it appeared to her, than 
 belonged to them. She made no reply but wondered 
 what was coming now. 
 
 "My geometry," said Stockley, "is in my room at 
 Mr. Dow's. I study it by moonlight, in the open air, 
 by repeating a demonstration and forcing myself to go 
 repeatedly over parts that are not clear, following a 
 logical sequence rather than the language of the text 
 book, constructing the required figure on the ground 
 with a stick or on any scrap of paper I may chance to 
 pick up or to have in my pocket constructing it, some- 
 times, in my mind without the aid of visible lines. Such
 
 l6o THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 study does not tax the eyes like poring over a book 
 in order to commit its wording. I am my own teach- 
 er. There! your questions are answered. Let me re- 
 peat that in asking them you have committed no im- 
 pertinence, but have rather conferred a favor." 
 
 "Thank you very much for your explicit answers," 
 said Lois, "but I didn't really intend to ask questions ; 
 I just wondered, and my wonder ran over in words as 
 a glass of soda water runs over in froth." 
 
 "I quite understand," said Stockley, "and I'm not 
 quite sure but it is taking an ungenerous advantage of 
 your ingenuous outburst to impose upon you an un- 
 solicited essay on self-instruction. I'm not going to 
 pretend, however, that what I have to say is not worth 
 while, for I believe it is; otherwise, it would be pre- 
 sumptuous to ask you to listen to it." 
 
 He paused as if casting about for some appropriate 
 way of beginning. The silence became a little em- 
 barrassing to his companion. 
 
 "Do tell me about it," she said, at last, "I am really 
 anxious to listen to your 'essay.' " 
 
 "You know Frank Courtney, do you not?" asked 
 Stockley. 
 
 "Very well." 
 
 "Did you know that he had left school?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Yes, he left yesterday. It seems that his father 
 needs his help in the shop, and it is probable that he 
 has reached the end of his school life. After he had 
 gathered up his books at the close of school yesterday, 
 he came to my desk to bid me good bye. He said he 
 had hoped to get at least a high school education, but
 
 EUCLID BY 'MOONLIGHT l6l 
 
 that he must now give up the idea of becoming any 
 more of a scholar than he now is. I was sorry to hear 
 him say this, for Frank was one of the most promising 
 boys in my room. He is making the mistake that thou- 
 sands of capable boys and girls are making that in 
 order to become a scholar it is necessary to go to 
 school." 
 
 "Do you mean that schools are of no use? If that 
 is what you mean, is not your present practice incon- 
 sistent with your theory?" 
 
 "No, il do not mean that. As society is constituted, 
 primary schools are a necessity; they supply children 
 with the instruments (reading, writing, and the rudi- 
 ments of fundamental studies) which they need for ac- 
 quiring scholarship. Technical schools are also es- 
 sential to the best results not so much for the work 
 of the professors as for the facilities they afford for 
 the orderly use of libraries, laboratories, machinery, 
 and apparatus, which the single student could not af- 
 ford. Between the primary and the technical school 
 there is a vast field the high school and college field 
 for the exercise of individual effort, a field in which 
 the opportunities are illimitable and the possibilities 
 without measure. What I mean to say is that, in the 
 line of high school and college studies, an ambitious 
 student may attain high, broad, accurate scholarship 
 when circumstances deny him the advantages of the 
 schools. I do not undervalue the laboratory in the 
 study of physics and chemistry, of the living model 
 for pronunciation in the languages, and of the museum 
 in natural history, but the thoroughly earnest student 
 will make opportunities to enjoy these aids on occa-
 
 l62 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 sion and will acquire more from them in an hour 
 than many a student in daily contact with them will 
 acquire in a month or even a year." 
 
 "Would you, then, advise boys and girls to study 
 by themselves instead of attending high school and col- 
 lege?" 
 
 "Certainly not. If one 'has it in him' to be a scho- 
 lar, he will be one in or out of school. The benefits 
 that accrue from association with other students and 
 with scholarly men and women in and out of the class 
 room are many. I would advise any friend who is in 
 search of such education as the schools can give, to 
 seek it in the schools remembering that he must rely 
 mainly on himself even when in school for acquiring 
 it. No, I have in mind that large number of young 
 people who are lamenting the impossibility of getting 
 an education because circumstances forbid the con- 
 tinuance of their school life." 
 
 "You are, yourself, a self-taught man, are you not, 
 Mr. Stockley? Please excuse the seeming imperti- 
 nence of my question. I am only seeking further light. 
 Your 'essay' has aroused my very hearty interest." 
 
 "I'm glad you are interested; in fact, it is mainly 
 to awaken your sympathy that I am expressing my 
 views to you. Yes, so far as I am educated at all, I 
 am, in the main, self-taught. I won't undertake to 
 enumerate the subjects I have mastered (that sounds 
 like a boast but it isn't), but the one in which you 
 surprised me is geometry. I find it very difficult. I 
 am often compelled to read a demonstration through 
 several times in order to follow the reasoning, but the 
 lidit comes at last, and I then set myself the task of
 
 EUCLID BY 'MOONLIGHT 163 
 
 threading my way through the proposition with dif- 
 ferent letters to designate the lines and angles. I am 
 very exacting with myself, and what delight there is 
 finally in patting myself on the back and saying, 'Well 
 done, my boy!' Right here is one superiority of this 
 over the class room method: I am not doing a task 
 that has been set me by a master ; my recitation is not, 
 like the Israelites' tale of bricks, a burden to bear 
 and then get rid of. It is hard but it is self-imposed 
 and the keen pleasure of discovering some (to me) 
 new geometrical truth more than compensates me for 
 the effort involved." 
 
 "I have never studied geometry or even algebra," 
 said Lois ; "what principle of geometry were you dis- 
 covering on the ground when I overtook you ?" 
 
 "It was this: that in any right triangle, the sum 
 of the squares constructed on the base and the per- 
 pendicular is equivalent to a square constructed on the 
 hypotenuse." 
 
 "That is all Greek to me ; I wish I could understand 
 it." 
 
 "Why, look at this," said the principal, holding up 
 a crumpled piece of paper, with some geometrical fig- 
 ures drawn on it in pencil. "Here is the triangle 
 A B C and here are the three squares, scratched off 
 on a bit of paper I picked up far out on the prairie. 
 But if you have never studied geometry you would 
 hardly understand the demonstration. The truth ex- 
 pressed in this theorem is said to have been discovered 
 about twenty-five centuries ago by Pythagoras. The 
 discovery so delighted him that he sacrificed a heca- 
 tomb to show his gratitude to the gods. I'm not sure
 
 164 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 but my own delight in thinking the thoughts of Py- 
 thagoras over after him was almost as great as his." 
 
 "Mr. Stockley," exclaimed Lois, you are inspiring 
 me with a desire to study geometry and I mean why ! 
 who is that dodging around the corner of the school- 
 house?" 
 
 They had reached a point from which they could 
 see the front of the school building, upon which the 
 moon shone bright. As Miss Dix spoke, the figure 
 of a boy slunk furtively around the corner of the 
 schoolhouse and into the shadows out of sight. 
 
 "Wait right here," said Stockley; "I'll be back in 
 less than a minute." 
 
 He rapidly crossed the street in the direction taken 
 by the retreating figure. 
 
 Within the time he had mentioned, he was again 
 by Miss Dix's side and their walk was resumed. 
 
 "I found nothing wrong with the building," he 
 said, "it was probably some chance prowler peering 
 into the windows out of sheer curiosity ; and yet," he 
 added thoughtfully, "I can't help associating what we 
 have just seen with what I saw or fancied I saw when 
 I passed the building less than an hour ago. It was 
 a man or a boy or the shadow of a cloud, and that is 
 why I asked you to return with me by this circuitous 
 route. If it had been a person intending any harm to 
 the building, the harm would have been done by this 
 time." 
 
 The conversation turned to indifferent subjects and 
 the young people were soon at Mrs. Dix's gate. 
 
 "And now," said Lois, "I suppose you will resume 
 the study of Pythagoras."
 
 EUCLID BY MOONLIGHT 165 
 
 "Or, rather, of Euclid," was the reply. Euclid 
 united in a single book the geometrical discoveries of 
 Pythagoras and others. It was the famous 'forty- 
 seventh problem of Euclid' with which I was strug- 
 gling when you so pleasantly surprised me. Let me 
 assure you that, thanks to your company and sympa- 
 thy, I have found Euclid by moonlight more than usu- 
 ally fascinating this evening. But I particularly con- 
 gratulate myself on the opportunity you have afforded 
 me of giving, in a very brief and imperfect way, some 
 thoughts on self -culture which may possibly be worth 
 thinking about. I know you will not misunderstand 
 me. I do not assume that you are uncultured, neither 
 do I presume to constitute myself .your mentor. I 
 mean just this and nothing more: that two congenial 
 persons of intelligence who are ambitious of self-im- 
 provement can benefit each other immeasurably by ex- 
 changing views. I mustn't keep you out any longer 
 good night." 
 
 "Why, Lois," called Mrs. Dix from her room as 
 her daughter quietly entered the house, "what kept you 
 out so late?" 
 
 Lois was annoyed at a feeling of warmth which 
 suffused her face in the darkness as she answered, "I 
 met Mr. Stockley and we walked home past the school- 
 house." 
 
 Her mother did not pursue her inquiry. 
 
 When Stockley reached his room, he lighted a lamp 
 and seated himself to review the Pythagorean propo- 
 sition before retiring. Taking from his vest pocket 
 the scrap on which he had drawn the figures, he set 
 himself about its study. A puzzled expression came
 
 l66 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 into his face. He bent forward and scanned the pa- 
 per a full minute. Then he leaned back and thought. 
 Half an hour later the troubled look gave place to a 
 smile. He had apparently reached a satisfactory solu- 
 tion.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 THE FUGITIVE 
 
 Back to thy punishment, 
 False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings. 
 
 Milton 
 
 Mrs. Dow's scheme for subjecting Stockley to her 
 control and that of her husband had completely failed. 
 She had tried to patronize him at home and in society 
 and while he had not administered any marked re- 
 buff, she recognized in his dignified but courteous 
 manner a self-determining spirit which would not 
 yield to her social leadership. She had tacitly assigned 
 to him a position in her train at choir rehearsals, 
 church sociables, and other gatherings, but he had 
 declined the honor with a bonhomie in which there 
 was just a trace of hauteur. One of the prominent 
 traits in Mrs. Dow's character was persistence. 
 When she set about the accomplishment of a given 
 purpose, her tenacity did not weaken under discour- 
 agements. Many ordinary women possess this trait. 
 But Mrs. Dow was not an ordinary woman. Had 
 she been such, she would have subjected herself to 
 the humiliation of fighting a series of losing battles 
 after losing the campaign. Like a skilful general, she 
 knew when she was defeated and she wisely retreated 
 in time to save herself from social annihilation. 
 
 Stung by her defeat, she determined to humiliate 
 the upstart whom she had not succeeded in making 
 her vassal. She confided her plan to a few of her
 
 l68 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 familiars in order that, when the blow should fall, she 
 might be recognized as the one who had delivered 
 it. 
 
 Stockley had entertained, for some time, the pur- 
 pose of returning to the hotel as a boarder. He felt 
 that he was in a false position at Mr. Dow's. Peo- 
 ple were saying that Mr. Dow was "running the 
 school" and that the teacher would naturally regard 
 himself as under obligation to conduct it according to 
 the ideas and caprices of the man and woman whose 
 house sheltered him. Stockley was not disposed to 
 truckle to popular fancies but he was wise enough 
 to know that public opinion ought to receive some 
 recognition. 
 
 Having come to the conclusion that he ought to 
 change his boarding place, he sought Mrs. Dow and 
 announced his determination to her together with his 
 reasons. 
 
 "You and Mr. Dow have made it very pleasant 
 for me here," he said; "it was very thoughtful and 
 kind in you to take me into your family ; and I can 
 not hope to find elsewhere the advantages I have en- 
 joyed here, but in view of the circumstances as I have 
 explained them to you, you will agree with me, I am 
 sure, that it is wise to change." 
 
 To say that Mrs. Dow was thunderstruck would 
 be to express her feeling but faintly. She was morti- 
 fied, chagrined, furious. This was the coup she had 
 reserved for the discomfiture of the enemy, and he had 
 stolen a march upon her, had wrested her weapon 
 from her and had given her with it the coup de grace. 
 
 What should she say? She had announced pri-
 
 THE FUGITIVE 169 
 
 vately that she was going to "fire Stockley" that very 
 evening. The truth that he had voluntarily renounced 
 his boarding place would become known and society 
 would understand that he had outwitted her. So ran 
 her thoughts. She could see no escape from her 
 dilemma, and she wisely decided to accept the situation 
 gracefully. By a strong effort she so far controlled 
 her fury as to keep it out of her face and voice. 
 
 "Very well, Mr. Stockley," she said, "perhaps the 
 step you propose is best. When shall you leave us?" 
 
 "To-night." 
 
 That night he slept at the Excelsior Hotel. 
 
 The day following the removal just recorded was 
 Friday the time chosen for the execution of the plot 
 which had been concocted in the cabin of the old 
 River Belle. Harry Dole was on the alert. He knew 
 that Arthur Blazer met James Wakely for a short 
 conference in a hazel thicket when the latter was on 
 his way to school in the morning. He swore out 
 warrants for the arrest of the two boys and placed 
 them in the hands of the sheriff with the understand- 
 ing that the matter was to be kept secret and that 
 the papers were to be served only in case of necessity. 
 He knew that James sped to Arthur's home for a five- 
 minutes interview at the noon hour and that he 
 emerged from the house with white lips and an anx- 
 ious face. But he did not know James's errand at 
 Arthur's house. Had he known that, he would have 
 deemed it his duty to forestall the coming catastrophe 
 by an immediate arrest of the two conspirators.
 
 I7O THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 Just before the close of the forenoon session, the 
 principal had made a special announcement to the 
 school. 
 
 "You will remember, scholars," he said, "the an- 
 nouncement I made about two weeks ago, that when 
 three days should pass without a single case of tardi- 
 ness, I would close school half an hour earlier on the 
 next afternoon. There was not a case of tardiness 
 on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday; and so, ac- 
 cording to promise, you will be dismissed at half past 
 three this afternoon." 
 
 The pupils exchanged smiling glances and went 
 home in a merry mood for their noonday meal. James 
 promptly sought Arthur to consult with him on the 
 change of time, which he hoped might indefinitely 
 defer the explosion, which was to have taken place 
 at four o'clock. 
 
 "Art," he said, after he had hurriedly explained the 
 change of time, "hadn't we better give the whole thing 
 up? or put it off a while?" he added, seeing an ugly 
 scowl on Arthur's face. 
 
 "Ye cowardly skunk," growled Arthur, "I jest 
 want you to remember that I've got a paper with 
 your name on it that says that you'll blow the ol' 
 cuss up. D'you want a constable t'see that paper?" 
 
 "Of course not, Art, I'm ready to do my part" 
 his voice shook as he spoke "but I thought as the 
 time was changed and our plans were kind of up- 
 set " 
 
 "No they ain't upset neither. Ye blame fool, what 
 dif'rnce does it make whether the thing's touched off 
 at four or half past three? I'll be at Baldritt's barn
 
 THE FUGITIVE I/I 
 
 at quarter past three and young man you jest light 
 that fuse on schedule time by the new time table." 
 
 James was unable to eat a mouthful of food at 
 dinner, and said, in answer to an inquiry from his 
 mother, that he had "a kind of a stomach ache." 
 
 At three o'clock that afternoon, Arthur Blazer 
 was in the loft of the Baldritt barn. Half an hour 
 later, he saw the children pouring out of the school- 
 house door, the younger ones shouting and leaping 
 with glee at their early release. In two minutes, 
 every pupil, excepting James, had left the building 
 and was out of sight. Where was James ! He should 
 have been, by this time, in Baldritt's barn, on the hay 
 beside his pal, waiting to see the fun when the light 
 on the burning fuse should have reached the powder. 
 A startling thought seized upon Arthur and forced 
 the cold sweat from every pore. "Has the cowardly 
 pup given me away to save him ...."; his anger was 
 turned to horror when a blood-curdling shriek rent 
 the air and a cloud of thick smoke came pouring from 
 the schoolhouse door. Without waiting to see whether 
 the two victims were able to crawl from the build- 
 ing, he sprang to his feet, leaped down the stairs, and 
 shot out of the barn door on the side farthest from 
 the schoolhouse. 
 
 His eyes rapidly scanned the immediate neighbor- 
 hood. No one was in sight. The boy skulked along 
 behind some bushes, reached the street, and fled from 
 the vicinity, hardly knowing where he went. 
 
 About quarter before four that Friday afternoon, 
 sheriff McKelvy while strolling along the main busi- 
 ness street of Green Valley, saw, a block or two ahead
 
 172 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 of him, a man or a large boy walking rapidly toward 
 the open country. As near as the sheriff could make 
 out, the man ahead of him had red hair and shabby 
 clothes. He cast furtive glances behind him as he 
 moved swiftly along the road and seemed trying to 
 escape observation. Reaching a cross road, he quickly 
 turned the corner and disappeared behind a barn. At 
 this moment a heavy hand was laid on the sheriff's 
 shoulder and he turned to look into the agitated face 
 of Harry Dole. 
 
 "McKelvy,," whispered Harry in great excite- 
 ment, "did ye see that fel'r skip 'round the corner by 
 Kennedy's barn? That's Art and he's leggin' it to 
 get out o' town. Somethin's happened and I'm goin' 
 right up to the schoolhouse to see what's the matter. 
 You better git right after that boy and slap the war- 
 rant onto 'im before he gits away." 
 
 Without waiting for a reply, Harry turned ani 
 started at a swift pace for the schoolhouse. Hf 
 feared that by some accident the mine had been ex- 
 ploded prematurely and that he might be too late 
 to save the unsuspecting schoolmaster. He had acci- 
 dentally caught sight of the fugitive as he was about 
 to start for the schoolhouse and his timely meeting 
 with the sheriff left him free to hurry to the scene 
 of the expected explosion, assured that the principal 
 in the conspiracy would be taken care of by the prop- 
 er officer of the law. 
 
 McKelvy hastened to the corner around which 
 the fugitive had disappeared, just in time to see his 
 quarry running at utmost speed across the prairie. 
 The next minute, the sheriff strode into Bert Bender's
 
 THE FUGITIVE 1/3 
 
 livery stable. "Bert," he said, quietly, "throw a sad- 
 dle on old Dan quicker'n lightning!" Eighty seconds 
 later, old Dan was trotting out of the stable with the 
 sheriff on his back. 
 
 The fleeing man was still in sight. At a word and 
 a shake of the bridle reins, Dan sped after him across 
 the open prairie. The hunted one glanced back and 
 increased his speed. The sheriff was surprised to see 
 him change his course. He had been heading, at 
 first, for the wooded swamp that bordered Run river, 
 not far from the village. He appeared to change his 
 mind on finding that he was pursued, for, on reach- 
 ing the road that ran parallel to the river he turned 
 sharply and sped along the road. Major Murfin's 
 house was not far away. Reaching it he ran through 
 the wide gateway and disappeared in the barn. 
 
 The sheriff was checked. His mount could not 
 clear the fence and he did not know which way to 
 go to find the bars. He was compelled to alight, tie 
 his horse, and demolish a length of fence. When he 
 rode through the gap he saw the red headed fugitive 
 flying along the road ahead, mounted on Major Mur- 
 fin's best horse. "It's nip and tuck now," was Mc- 
 Kelvy's mental comment: "Old Dan's a good trav- 
 eler, but if he overtakes the major's Terror, it'll have 
 to be by some strategy that I can't quite figure out this 
 minute. Perhaps the vicious brute'll throw the boy." 
 
 The runaway was evidently a good rider. Terror 
 had started out at a rapid gait and in response to the 
 words and strokes of his rider he steadily increased 
 his distance from the pursuing officer. 
 
 Ten minutes passed. Both horses were going like
 
 1/4 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 mad and the officer of the law was being gradually 
 left behind. Suddenly his face brightened and he 
 gave a suppressed cry of exultation. 
 
 Half a mile ahead of the flying boy the road made 
 a sharp turn to the right and bent again to the left at 
 the end of another half mile. 
 
 The two horsemen were separated by a distance 
 of about a quarter of a mile. The sheriff conceived 
 the idea of riding across the country on the hypotenuse 
 of the right triangle of which the half-mile sections 
 the fugitive must cover were the legs. He had never 
 heard of the forty-seventh problem of Euclid but he 
 made a rough calculation that if he could clear a low 
 place in the fence and put his horse to his best speed, 
 he could intercept his man at the second turning, not- 
 withstanding the fact that the latter was mounted on 
 the swifter horse. To accomplish this result he must 
 have a clear track across the fields and his horse must 
 make his maximum speed. He figured that two fac- 
 tors in the problem were in his favor: first, that 
 Arthur did not know the country and would not dare 
 to leave the traveled road for fear of finding an im- 
 passable place ; second, that Arthur would inevitably 
 lose time in slowing up to make the turns. He cal- 
 culated that if a certain swampy tract lying across his 
 path and known as the "big slough" was dry, he 
 could reach the second turning about thirty seconds 
 in advance of the boy. This would give him time to 
 throw himself from the back of Old Dan, tear down a 
 corner of rail fence, and confront the fugitive with a 
 fence rail. 
 
 This train of thought which has consumed seventy-
 
 THE FUGITIVE 175 
 
 five seconds in the reading, passed through the mind 
 of- the sheriff in one-fifteenth of that time. Before 
 the completion of the fifth second, Dan had leaped 
 a low place in the fence and was bearing his rider 
 at breakneck speed across the country. 
 
 The fugitive lost time at the turning as the sheriff 
 had supposed he would. He cast a rapid glance, as 
 he turned, along the road he had just covered. No 
 horseman was to be seen ! It took him but an instant 
 to guess the truth in regard to the tactics of his pur- 
 suer, although the latter was hidden by intervening 
 bushes and trees. The thought was a spur. He 
 lashed his horse with the halter end. Every second 
 he left" two rods behind. It was the best that Terror 
 could do. 
 
 In the meantime Old Dan was carrying his rider 
 straight toward the point where the latter had planned 
 to bring his man to bay. He wa_s confident he could 
 accomplish his purpose, provided the "big slough" 
 was passable. A slight rise of ground gave him full 
 view of the slough. It was full of water ! He did not 
 slacken his horse's speed, for, although he hardly 
 expected, now, to catch Arthur at the bend in the 
 road, he hoped something might happen to terminate 
 the chase at a small railway station not far distant. 
 
 He rode around the slough and reached the roatf 
 in time to see the man he had failed to intercept 
 in full career toward the station. A freight 
 train stood on the main track. The fugitive guided 
 his horse into a fence corner near the engine, threw 
 himself off, ran to the rear of the tender and uncoupled
 
 1/ THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 it from the car behind, rushed forward, and sprang 
 up the steps of the cab of the locomotive. 
 
 All this Sheriff McKelvy saw while flying toward 
 the little station on the back of Old Dan. He could 
 not see what happened in the cab, but to his utter 
 chagrin he saw the engine start, gather speed, and 
 glide away from the station, bearing with it the per- 
 son he had set out to capture. When he leaped upon 
 the station platform he found the agent gazing in 
 wonder at the runaway engine, which was fast grow- 
 ing smaller in the distance. 
 
 A message was soon going over the wire, direct- 
 ing the arrest of Blazer, whose description was given, 
 at Jasper, a station about ten miles distant from Green 
 Valley. The sheriff followed the wild engine on a 
 hand car, having supplied himself with a revolver. 
 
 While the pursuit and escape above described was 
 taking place, a remarkable scene was being enacted 
 at the white schoolhouse in Green Valley.
 
 CHAI PER XVII 
 THE OUTCOME 
 
 Si finis bonus est, totum bonum erit 
 
 Gesta Romanorum 
 
 James Wakely rose with the other pupils when the 
 signal for dismissal was given Friday afternoon. His 
 anxiety was somewhat relieved when he saw the teach- 
 er turn to write some words on the blackboard be- 
 hind his desk. In a few seconds, all the scholars near 
 James's desk had moved forward and the entire school 
 was intent on reaching the door. Quickly stooping, he 
 ignited a match, lighted the fuse, replaced the board, 
 and then took his place in the marching column. He 
 was the last one in the line. The thought of passing 
 the master's desk on his way out struck faintness to 
 his heart. What if Mr. Stockley should do what he 
 had never done before ask him to remain ! The idea 
 sent a cold shiver along his spine. 
 
 Horror! The master was speaking to him. 
 
 "James, can you remain a little while? There's 
 something I want to talk with you about." 
 
 James's impulse was to plead a special engagement 
 and ask if some other time would not answer the pur- 
 pose. But this would necessitate explanations. In his 
 state of nervous terror, his voice would be sure to 
 tremble. Mr. Stockley's wonder and the trembling 
 boy feared suspicion would be aroused. It would be 
 five minutes before the fire in the fuse would reach the 
 powder. Perhaps the master would detain him but
 
 178 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 a minute. His heart was beating like a trip hammer. 
 There was danger in staying but he dared not go. 
 
 In sheer desperation he turned aside and weakly 
 sunk into a chair by the side of Stockley who had 
 already seated himself at the desk. 
 
 "I have been thinking," began the schoolmaster, 
 "about the organization of a literary society in the 
 school. Several of the boys and girls have already 
 spoken why, what's the matter!" 
 
 James's eyes were staring at the clock on the op- 
 posite wall. He had not heard a word of what Stockley 
 had said. Nearly half the time had elapsed and that 
 terrible fuse was getting near the powder ! There was 
 an awful possibility that Arthur had overestimated the 
 time ! 
 
 "I I think I'll have to go," he faltered with catch- 
 ing breath. 
 
 "Are you feeling ill?" Stockley asked, gently lay- 
 ing a hand on the boy's arm. 
 
 James tried to reply but could not utter a word; 
 he attempted to rise but his limbs refused to support 
 him. His lips were white; his breath came and went 
 in gasps ; his face was a picture of terror. 
 
 A hissing below the floor! a smell of powder! a 
 volume of smoke! With a terrific shriek, the boy 
 sprang out of his chair and fell to the floor in a faint. 
 
 Stockley dashed some water in his face and he soon 
 revived. 
 
 "Sit here until you feel better," said Stockley, help- 
 ing him to a chair. 
 
 There was a knock at the door, which was stand- 
 ing open and in the opening appeared the portly fig-
 
 THE OUTCOME 1/9 
 
 ure of Dr. Wakely, who sniffed the air inquiringly. 
 
 "Come in, Doctor," said Stockley, as he closed the 
 door; "you seem surprised at the odor." 
 
 "Why, yes, I am surprised, but only at the partic- 
 ular kind of odor. I saw smoke coming out of the 
 front door when I was a block away and I hurried, 
 because I was afraid the schoolhouse was on fire. But 
 seems to me this is powder smoke and not pine 
 smoke." 
 
 "Yes, it is powder smoke. You don't understand 
 it, of course. James and I do. It was to talk over a 
 matter connected with the powder that I asked you 
 to come up this afternoon." 
 
 At this point the front door was violently thrown 
 open and Harry Dole burst into the room, followed 
 by Mr. Blazer and Arthur! 
 
 Harry was much excited. 
 
 "I seen the smoke and smelt the powder before I 
 got here," he panted, " 'n I's afeerd y'd been blowed 
 to kingdom come." 
 
 He seemed embarrassed by the presence of the two 
 men with their sons and acted as if he had something 
 important to say to the schoolmaster. He was mani- 
 festly puzzled at seeing Arthur there. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said Stockley, "if you will take seats, 
 I will explain why I have asked you to meet me here 
 this afternoon. As what I have to say touches on pri- 
 vate matters that will be of special interest to Mr. 
 Blazer and Dr. Wakely, I'm sure Mr. Dole will excuse 
 me if I make a private communication to them." 
 
 Harry's mind was relieved by finding Stockley 
 safe. He took his dismissal in good part and withdrew
 
 l8o THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 from the room. As he walked away, he suddenly 
 stopped, slapped his leg and exclaimed, "Wai, that 
 beats me ! Arthur was in there with 'is dad ; who'n 
 thunder 's that fel'r that was runnin' away from Sher- 
 iff McKelvy !" 
 
 After closing the door, Stockley took a chair near 
 his visitors. 
 
 "I have a story to tell," he said, "and a proposition 
 to make. If you will patiently hear me through, I will 
 be glad to receive suggestions from you and to co- 
 operate with you in helping these boys to make the 
 most of an opportunity. 
 
 "One evening, not long ago, when I was walking 
 over the prairie near the village, I picked up a scrap 
 of paper to use in working out a proposition in geom- 
 etry. After reaching my room I wished to look at the 
 drawing I had made and took the paper from my vest 
 pocket for that purpose. Instead of my geometrical 
 drawing, I found a writing over the names of these 
 two boys. My geometry work had been done by 
 moonlight on the reverse side. As the writing on this 
 paper concerns me, I have taken the liberty of asking 
 you gentlemen to meet the boys here when I restore 
 their property to them. Now there are three names on 
 this paper." Stockley here read from the scrap 
 ' 'Stockley the schoolmaster,' 'James Wakely/ and 
 'Arthur Blazer.' Shall Mr. Blazer and Dr. Wakefield 
 hear the paper read ? As my name is mentioned first, 
 I will say that I have no objection. What do you say, 
 James ?" 
 
 James felt like a fox surrounded by a pack of yelp-
 
 THE OUTCOME l8l 
 
 ing hounds with hunters eager to take his brush. He 
 had not even a hole to hide his head in. 
 
 "It isn't quite fair " he faltered. 
 
 "O, cut it short," exclaimed Arthur, "the jig's up 
 'n he may read what's on the paper ef he wants to." 
 
 "Let us hear it," said Dr. Wakely. Mr. Blazer 
 made a confirmatory nod. 
 
 Stockley read the paper aloud and passed it to the 
 two men for inspection. This is what they saw. 
 
 Mr. Blazer was silent. 
 
 "Now, Jim," began Dr. Wakely. 
 
 "If you will pardon my discourtesy in interrupting 
 you," put in Stockley, "I would like to propose a plan 
 for adjusting this matter right here and now. My 
 plan is a very simple one one, I trust, that will com- 
 mend itself to the good judgment of you gentlemen and 
 that will, I hope, be satisfactory to both of you boys. 
 
 "Let me say at the outset that I do not underesti-
 
 l82 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL . 
 
 mate the gravity of the offense the boys have com- 
 mitted; I do not forget that the law provides due 
 punishment for it, but my plan provides for realizing 
 the benefit of civil punishment without the unpleasant 
 consequences that would ensue if the affair were takefi 
 into court. 
 
 "In the first place, the boys have been punished to 
 a considerable extent already and it will be many daj^s 
 before they quite rid their minds of the load they are 
 now carrying. 
 
 "Then, both boys are young, as they have a per- 
 fect right to be; that is no reproach to them, but we 
 older ones have an advantage over them. They did 
 not realize, as we would, the consequences of this act 
 to me or to their families, or to themselves. I firmly 
 believe they will never fall into such an error again. 
 
 "Now, Arthur, you have made a terrible mistake. 
 Of course you realize that now we all make mistakes. 
 I find that when I have made one the best way is to 
 put it right behind me and say: 'There, that was a 
 mistake ; I can't undo it and I've got to suffer for it in 
 some way, but I'll "take my medicine" and then try 
 never to. commit a similar error again.' That seems 
 to me better than trying to undo one mistake by mak- 
 ing another. I don't know everything you and James 
 have done and I don't care to. I believe that you are, 
 at heart, a straight fellow and I'll make you a square 
 offer as between man and man. Come back to school 
 come Monday morning. I want you back. I'll help 
 you all I can and you shall never be reminded of the 
 past by any act, word, or look of mine. I don't ask 
 you to promise anything for the future for I am cer-
 
 THE OUTCOME 183 
 
 tain you will take care of that. What do you say? 
 Is it a bargain?" 
 
 Arthur had listened eagerly and as Stockley's plan 
 unfolded, his face had slowly been transformed from 
 its (of late) habitual malevolence into successive ex- 
 pressions of surprise, pleasure, wonder, admiration, 
 and hearty acquiescence. He grasped the hand the 
 schoolmaster had held out to him and said vehemently : 
 
 "By thunder, I will!" 
 
 "I believed you would do it," said Stockley, shak- 
 ing Arthur's hand heartily, "and I will dismiss the 
 matter from my mind altogether. What about you 
 James; shall we make a new start in mutual confi- 
 dence ? You see the stand Arthur has taken ; you can 
 work together along the new line as you have along 
 the old and Arthur, I think, will be a great help to 
 you. Do you want to continue in school on the same 
 terms Arthur has accepted?" 
 
 "Why, yes, I guess so," said James. It was the 
 best response that could be expected from a boy of his 
 disposition and the master was wise enough not to in- 
 sist on a less equivocal assent. 
 
 The two men had little to say. Both were relieved 
 by Stockley's disposition to keep the affair quiet and 
 forego criminal prosecution. After some commonplace 
 expressions of thankfulness, for his forbearance, they 
 withdrew, accompanied by their sons. 
 
 Arthur wondered how the incriminating paper 
 happened to be blown out of the hole in the oak tree, 
 into which he had 'thrust it and across the prairie to 
 Stockley's feet. He even made a special visit to the 
 tree hardly expecting to solve the mystery. A squir-
 
 184 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 rel's nest in the opening explained the matter to his 
 satisfaction. He concluded that the squirrels had 
 pawed the paper out by accident or design, and that 
 the wind had done the rest. 
 
 It must not be supposed that Arthur had come out 
 of the affair without punishment scot-free. The 
 period during which he was concocting and executing 
 the plot against the schoolmaster was the most un- 
 happy time of his life. He was tortured with remorse 
 (which he refused to acknowledge even to himself) 
 for he knew that he was wholly wrong and that Stock- 
 ley was wholly right. It was an added sting to the 
 bite of conscience that he had a sincere admiration 
 for the man against whom he was conspiring. If he 
 had been familiar with Byron, he might have ex- 
 claimed with the poet 
 
 The worm, the canker, and the grief 
 Are mine alone. 
 
 If it had not been for a characteristic pride in 
 never giving up he would have abandoned the nefari- 
 ous plot in its infancy. His suffering had been as 
 great as that of James, but his greater self control 
 had enabled him to conceal it. 
 
 The reader will have divined that after Stockley 
 had read the tell-tale agreement at the conclusion of 
 his evening study of Euclid by moonlight, he had 
 repaired to the schoolhouse and had made the mine 
 harmless by the removal of most of the material of 
 which it was made leaving enough powder to give 
 the vice conspirator a wholesome shock. 
 
 It will be remembered that one day when Arthur 
 was eating his luncheon in the stone quarry, as re-
 
 THE OUTCOME 185 
 
 lated in Chapter V, he read a description of a criminal 
 who bore a striking resemblance to himself and was in 
 hiding near Green Valley. Both Harry Dole and 
 Sheriff McKelvy had been deceived by the likeness 
 of the fugitive to Arthur when Harry had started the 
 officer of the law off on his trail. The murderer was 
 duly captured and brought to trial. 
 
 As for Arthur's presence at the schoolhouse, he 
 had run into his father's arms before he had gone a 
 block from Baldritt's barn. Mr. Blazer took Arthur 
 with him to the schoolhouse, having been requested to 
 meet Mr. Stockley there and to bring Arthur with him 
 if possible. 
 
 Explanations followed between Stockley and Har- 
 ry Dole as well as between Harry and the sheriff. At 
 the request of the teacher, these two and the justice 
 who had issued the warrant refrained from giving 
 publicity to the affair. When questioned by the curi- 
 ous, they were close-mouthed. 
 
 Stockley was employed to teach the Green Valley 
 School the following year. Mrs. Dow undertook to 
 secure the election of a hostile trustee, but he was 
 "snowed under," largely through the electioneering 
 of Mary Milligan, Eva Black, Allie Harley, Urline 
 Simpton, Harry Dole, John McMillan, and Arthur 
 Blazer ! Arthur never became a brilliant scholar, but 
 he was a stanch friend of the schoolmaster, under 
 whose influence be developed into a well-behaved, self- 
 respecting young man. 
 
 James Wakely well, he never gave the master 
 serious trouble after the day of the explosion. 
 
 The good understanding between the principal and
 
 186 THE GREEN VALLEY SCHOOL 
 
 his assistant progressed satisfactorily and was mu- 
 tually helpful. To say more would not be pertinent 
 to our tale. The purpose of this chronicle was simply 
 to tell the story of one term in the Green Valley 
 School. 
 
 THE END.
 
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