The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 6, 1904, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL cH \l'T!'ll 7\'. A Finger in the . to have e him a word or out was that ung crowd of gether 2ll I co make much out, an’ d I'd see the fel- was goin’ to so I told to tell the wanted to go, he house an’ stay Jim id get prett; n one evenin’, an’ s to get to know t have had him to but there’s such a e teacher too well, boys to do that, the teacher t, but it al ’ alone, an’ him too weil, an® they feel that he when their pa That’s other folks’ boys teacher boards, not ours, n’t needed it since Jim jed. An’ it kind o’ de to have his ma pet r is around, an’ certain amount want him as a knew I couid y well in one after one week ready to let v: the first from home. , Jim was out It was the but it was an’ he didn’'t have ot most of it done er in October, but he had some left. I some hot cookies - He does like "em he was, all alone, half from the house, an’ it mest work, huskin’ that r. - No, I don't usually rnoons, but I hadn’t the cookie jar was empty n that day, an’ the boys k kind o' as if they was d if they don’t find plenty of 1 cockies in the jar when they it when they think I don't know. I don't see no use of disappointin’ n They’ll have disappointments nough in this world later on, without heir havin’ too many now, an’ I ain’t goin’ to disappoint 'em needlessly, so I baked later than usual. “It was after four before I started out, an’ I stood there talkin’ to Jim for some time, an’ after while T see the boys e-comin’. There was a little sien- der fellow with 'em, that I knew must be the teacher, an’ I thought to myself, “How long will he last when Jack Smith an’ Bill Wood start in to school? Why, either one of them was twice as This ha ngth for his Jack hadn’t started never did 1 er than Jimmie, I that he was m if anything to do it, an’ do somethin’. t got )kies) an’ they ail over the fence. I shook hands the teacher an’ then gave ’em all that boy looked as d. We was m had just when I see the ground under d been. The teach- was pretty sure L cou “I waved to the boy y with all th shock h €er saw an’ quicker'n I ever thought e could move he’d dropped on the ground in front of it an’ caught it. He at me from where he was ys, ‘This is 2 new one. I never saw this kind before.” An’ then he went on to tell an’ show all about the little thing, that laid tremblin’ in his hands. interested, 1 could see the boys was an’ ‘specially Frankle, k just shonme, as the little teacher went on to tell how the mice ved in the summer an’ winter, about , an’ what they lived on, an’ mies chased "em, an’ be- through, the w e plan for the carryi »ut scheme Didn't have to the teacher, an’ he at goin’ to a new place, three were as friendly as * we all had a jolly time as home to supper on the big of corn. supper an’ after supper I kep’ a-tal * on outdoor things, an’ he seemed to know all about how things lived an’ I could see plainer than ever net how he was goin’ to win his way ugh that term of school. next day after he an’ Jim had e d for town, I gct Jimmie to tell- out the carryin’-out the ¥ He didn't see it nor r, ‘cause th had the mumps , but he k all about it, an’ it just as I thought. BIill Wood an’ mith always came late in the an’ if the teacher said any- they sassed him, an’ finally they 1 the other boys to help carry out an’ to keep him cut for one That broke up the school. Jim- mie said that those biggest boys was goin’ to start a week from the next Monday, an’ so I arranged my plans. “The next week I told Jimmie an’ Frankle together to ask all the boys in school that was thirteen or over to come to our house on Friday night to make candy, an’ I sent a note to the teacher, too, askin’ him. I didn’t tell Jimmie that I asked the boys so they could get acquainted with the teacher, ’cause there wasn't no use of scarin’ ‘em away. They was 2ll glad enough to come. Ever since Jimmie’s birth- day he’d had more visitors, an’ the boys always seemed to think I was different from their own folks. Of course I was, but their folks ought to have had sense enough not to let 'em find it out. It don’t pay to let your boys get to think- in’ you ain't quite so good to 'em as somebody else’s folks is to them. But most of the other folks never thought anything about tryin’ to keep the boys at home, an’ was glad enough to get ‘em off out of the way. “They all came, every last one of 'em, on Friday night, an’ the teacher, too, but they shut up like clams, an’ so did he. They didn’'t have much to say till we got to makin’ candy, an’ then I got him to tellin’ abcut how diflerent kinds of sugar is made. The boys got kind o’ interested, an’ when he switched off from that an’ began tellin’ em about some fun he had one spring makin’ maple sugar in the big woods over be- yond the county-seat where the wolves still howl at night, an’ the farmers can’t keep sheep at all, on account of 'em, I saw he had the boys where I wanted "em. Pretty soon he mentioned the birds in the woods in sugar-makin’ time, an’ I broke right in. I hated to spoil his story, but this was just the chance I wanted. I asked some kind o’ foolish questions. You know a man never feels like tellin’ a woman any- thing until she shows how big a fool she can be by askin’ «questions that don't mean anything, an’ then he ex- plains in a toplofty way. Well, I wanted the boys to combine with the teacher answerin’ me, an’ I got just what I wanted, for they all begun to talk at once, an’ went on namin’ birds that stayed all winter, an’ got all worked up. Then I got 'em switched off to somethin’ else, an’ the teacher got started on that, an’ they were all breakin’ in an' askin’ questions, an® generally feelin® good an’ friendly when I sprung my plan. “Says I, “Why, these are all new things to me. An' to most of us, I guess. Why can’t we have a little club to meet here over this here. That'll ’ we can meet ., just as well as us not.’ The roke in, *An’ we can have it secret an’ have passwords an’ grips” Well, that brought 'em all around. If you want to get hold of a boy of the age of them boys, just get up a club with passwords an’ grips, an’ badges, an’ maybe a secret whistle, an’ if_all the boys don't fall over them- es to get in I'll miss my guess. o we organized the club, an’ we ita 1e. I can't tell you what it ‘cause it's secret, but we, Jimmi an’ Bill Jones an’ me, made out a ¢o stitution, an’ made nominations for the officers. Maybe we did have a lot to do with gettin’ it runmin’, but somebody had to, an’ I didn’t want the boys to have the idea that the teacher had very much to do with startin’ it. We nomi- nated Eddie Harris for president. He was cne of the quiet kind, but I knew he belonged to the Good Templars, an’ so knew a little about runnin’ such things. The boys, Bill an’ Jimmle, kicked at givin’ it to him, but I told to have somebody that somethin’ about runnin’ things like that, an’ there wasn't nobody else that knew but the teacher an’ me, an’ neither one of us could hold office ac- cordin’ to the constitution, mnor vote neither. I kind o' thought that since we was goin’ to have an election ev'ry month, some of the other boys might get it into their heads to run for presi- dent, an’ they’d think since Eddle got the office by bein’ a Good Tempiar, that they’d have to join the Temple an’ so learn how to run things. An’ there wasi't one of ’em there that 'twould hurt to join. If they took the pledge now maybe they'd stick to it, an’ it would keep ‘em out ¢’ mischief at least while they was in it. An’ I thought maybe the Temple could hold onto 'em when once it got 'em, an’ that was worth tryin’. “The constitution was adopted just as we had it, an’ the officers elected. Then t acher said since we didn’t have anything in the constitution about badges, he'd like to furnish ’em for the club. Since we were to study birds, an’ such things, he knew of something that would be all right. It wasn’'t anything to wear, but we could carry 'em in our pockets, an’ he didn’t think anybody eise would have any like 'em around here. The boys all cheered him at this offer, an’ then I made another suggestion. Says I, ‘We've made our plans for a weekly meetin’ for Friday nights. Why can’t we have what we might call a field meetin’ Sunday afternoons from three to five? Most of you will be through your dinners after church and Sundey school by that time, an’ it'll give us two hours in the woods an’ fields, an’ let you all get home in time for the chores. The teacher can tell us about the things we see, thit we don't know, an’ we can start from here.’ They all finally agreed, though some of ‘em thought their folks might object, but I knew if the folks thought they was with the teacher an’ so long as they wasn’t around in the way at home those Sunday afternoons, it wouldn’t make no difference to the folks where they was. Then the teacher said he could have the badges ready for Sun- day, 'cause he was goin’ to town the next day.’ “It was pretty late that night when the meetin’ broke up. Must have been elever, an’ I told the boys to say to- their folks that I wouldn’t let 'em stay that late again. An’ I warned ’em not to let cut the secrets of the club an’ o they went home feelin’ as big as could be, the whole eleven of ’em, the teacher feelin’ good over the different way the boys treated him, an’ the boys all proud of bein’ in the club right from the start, an’ plannin’ on things they was goin’ to do. 2 “All the boys was on hand Sunday afternoon, an’ it was a beautiful day. We spent two hours in the woods, studyin’ empty birds’ nests, an’ tryin’ to see how many of ’em we could tell by the way they looked in winter, an’ the teacher gave us all our badges. He'd collected different kinds o’ coins once, an’ he had a Iot of these old white cents with an eagle on 'em. You re- member ’em, don't you? 'Bout war time, I guess. An’ he give each of us one of 'em. Only one of the boys had ever geen one of ’em, an’ they was all comin’ to school next week, an’ wanted to join, but we’'d set the limit on num- bers at fifteen who could vote, an’ so only three could get in, an’ I advised the boys to walit till they’d been runnin’ but the teacher told 'em if they came late they'd have to take seats farther front, 'cause the back seats was taken by them who had been there right along. They wasn't ready to do their mean tricks the first day, so they took seats farther front, but they tried their Lest to stir things wup all week. Luckiiy it rained one or two days an’ they never pretended to go to’school except in nice weather, so the teacher didn’t have them to bother him all the time. They tried to lead the other boys around like they used to, but they all had so much to think about with their club plans, an’ showin® each other their badges, an’ givin’ the grip, that they didn’t have no time to bother with these big bullies. “On Friday night we laid out the work for the club for the winter. The teacher an’ I had kind o’ taken that in hand, an’ each of the boys, or some- times two together, had somethin' to work up. Bill Jones an’ one of the other biggest boys had a list of all the birds they saw in the school district in December; another two had to make a list of all the trees in a little grove near the schoolhouse, an’ so on. An’ the teacher told ’em that he’d met a friend in the county-seat the Saturday before, an’ that this man was goin’ to s'prise the club with somethin’ if they kept runnin’ in good order for a month, an’ did good work. “On Sunday afternoon we had a big storm, so we had our field meetin’ in- doors, an’ most of the boys was there. “On Monday the big boys who wasn’t members of the club tried to stir up the club members, but théy couldn’t make any headway at that, an’ they didn’t have nerve enough to carry out the teacher alone, an’ they wasn’t sure the boys wouldn't help the teacher in- stead of workin' against him, so they wasn't very good-natured an’ handled some of the little fellows pretty rough on the way home that night. “On Tuesday night both of our boys come home lookin’ as if they had been run through a thrashin’ machine, an’ when they got over thelr excitement so they could tell about it, this is what we heard: “At recess that afternoon, when some of the club boys was off in one corner talkin® about club plans, an’ showin’ their badges, an’ tryin’ the grips, just to keep 'em in mind, one of the big boys that had just come to school walked over to the crowd of club boys, an’ pickin’ out the littlest one, that happened to be Frankie, he began goin* through his pockets, an’ after findin® the eagle cent, he put it in his pocket an’ walked off. Now Frankie ain’t afrald of nothin’ that walks, an’ while I don’t believe in boys fightin’, I'm glad he ain’t. So Frankie, just as the fel- ler stepped out the door, run an’ jumped up on his back (he wouldn't have caught him that way if he could have got him any other), an down they both went, the thirteen-year- older an’ that big hulkin’ seventeen-year-older in one pile. Jimmie heard Frankie yell for him, an’ come a-runnin’, an’ one of the other big boys, not club members, come, too, an’ then all the club boys come, an’ one other outsider, an’ they had it hot an’ heavy there for a while. The teacher tried to stop "em, but there wasn’t any stoppin’ till those three big fellows, all that there was there that day, was so completely licked that they sneaked off home, givin’ Frankie's badge first, though, an’ they never even came back for their books. E “That fight made the folks, or some of ‘em, at least, kind o' down on the club, but all the boys came to meetin” the same, though they wasn't a very good-lookin’ lot, with their black eyes, an’ scratched faces, an’ all they could talk about was that fight, an' I knew if the club didn’t hold together another day that the teacher wouldn't be carried out that winter. “But the club did hold together, an® when, after we'd been runnin’ just a month, the teacher’s friend from town came out an’ give a talk on birds, with magic-lantern pictures, ail in our big kitchen, the boys was the proudest lot of youngsters. An’ the next week when the county paper come out an’ pub- lithed ‘A List tfi Birds Observed in an’ was goin’ published soon. “An’ our Sunday field days was just fine, an’ I learned a lot about weeds in winter, an’ birds in winter, an’ mice, an’ all such things, in winter, an’ boys all the time, just from trampin’ 'round the fields with that club, an’ when along in January the teacher told us one night that he wouldn’t be with us after that term as he had a school nearer home that paid better for the next term, but he'd be willin’ to come out for Sunday afternoons if the boys wanted to keep up the club, of course they did, so we're goin’' to have our club meetin’s all spring. “An’ the last day of school, we're goin’ to, have the first exhibition they've had in our district since eight years ago. Couldn’t have no exhibi- tion last days when the last days de- pended on the time the teacher got carried out. But now, the G. O. C. of the Sixth School District, Town of ‘West Grove, will have full charge of an annual exhibition to be held at the schoolhouse of that district on the third Friday in February, an’ I wanted to ask you to come out to visit for awhile an’ be there for that. Mr. Willlam Jones is president of the club, an’ has charge of the affair, an’ our Jimmie is goin’ to be on the programme. It's all a secret yet, but you'll like it. Maybe I did plan it, now you say so, but don’t you think a mother ought to have a fin- ger in the pie?” CHAPTER VI Managin’ Jim. “Why, how do you do? Ceme in. It seems good to see somebody again, now that Jim an’ I's all alone. Oh, yes, we've been that way ever since school started up in town. An' we don’t have the hired man in the house any more. I tcld Jim when we was first married that I thought it was better to get a hired man that was married an’ let him live in the old house on the place, than to have a happy-go-lucky, here- to-day-an’-away-to-morrow young fel- low, that never would be around when we wanted him, an’ would always be puttin’ the boys up to tricks, or leadin” 'em into mischief of some kind. An’ when I reminded him that the boys got to smokin’ from the hired man, he agreed with me, so now we have an old settled-down married man, an’ it saves my work cookin’ for an extry one, an’ then there’s a good workin’ woman handy if I need anybody to help with the work. Of course it costs a little more, an’ the older man maybe can't get quite so much work dcne, but what he does do is better done, an’ it makes lots of difference with the boys about meanness, an’ gettin' bad habits. “But we don’t see enough of "em now s0 we can tell whether they're any meaner or not. They're away from Monday mornin’ till Friday night.ev'ry week. I had a nicé job gettin' Jim to let 'em go, but they're goin’, an’ he’s as proud of 'em now as can be. You see when the school started this fall at home here, I made up my mind there wasn’t no use of the boys goin’. Our country schcols don’t amount to much, an' of course we can't expéect ‘em to when we don’t pay no kind o' wages. Teachers don’t get much more than enough to pay their board, an’ so any- Jbody that’s any good as a teacher, like man we had last winter, just quits a town school somewhere. An’ to have your own list hustiin’ to keep up. It mever any good. to go to school ahead of his classes an’ has time to set an’ plan deviltry. Of course Frankie an’ Jimmie are bright enough, but they haven't had the regu- lar work like they get in town, so they’ll have their hands full “An’ then I wanted Jimmie to see a little bit of town life so he’d feel how much better the country was, an’ want to stick to the farm. He's just fitted for that. Frankie always said ever since he was a little feller that he was goin’ to be a doctor, o I knew he sught to have as goed a chance as he could so’s to get ahead the faster. “But Jim kind o’ balked when I sug- gested it. Of course, we was alone when we talked the thing over. We agreed when we was married never to talk anything over before the boys that Wwe might disagree on, without havin’ it settled beforehand, ’cause I didn't think it was a good thing for them to hear any arguments we might have. If they sided with their pa, they'd think I was stubborn, an’ if they sided with me, an’ I knew they most always would, they'd think their pa was stub- born. Se it was fairer to their pa than to me. “Well, Jim didn’'t think he could spare the boys. It would mean hirin” another hand, an’ then he couldn’t spare the money. Board in town cost ready money, an’ he didn’t have any too much. An’ besides, he was plannin’ on buyin’ the 'joinin’ farm as scon as he could, so the two boys could each have a good place when we stepped out. I could see he wasn’t to be con- vinced, an’ I never waste words argu- in’. Thinks I, ‘Words is just words, an” when you've said it, why, you've just said it, an’ it's got to be done yet, but if you do it, why, then it's done.” So I toid him I didn’t think he'd treated me fair in not lettin’ me know he was countin’ on buyin’ that place. Of course I did know it, though he hadn’t never told me. 'Tain’t just the things that a man tells a woman that she knows. If it was, we’'d all be the big- gest know-nothin’s you ever see. But I wanted him to feel that he hadn’t been fair, an’ I told him I could have helped him if I'd only known it. I hadn’t been near as savin’' as I might have been, an’ evry cent counts twice when It comes to savin’. “I didn’t say nothin’ more about the boys goin’' to school. I'd started the subject long enough ahead so we would have plenty of time to settle the thing before school cpened, but the next day, when I did the bakin' for the next week, I cut down on the cake and cookies, an’' ev'rything except just what we had to have. When we came to set down to the table to supper there wasn't any cake, or any preserves, the first time at supper we hadn't had both on the table since we was married. Jim looked kind o’ red when I told the boys, when they asked if I hadn’t for- got somethin’, that their pa had just been tellin’ me about some plans for us all that he was makin’, an’ if they was to go through all right, we'd all have to help, an’ the best way we could do it was to cut down on things like cake that take so much butter an’ so many eggs. The boys wanted to know what it was an’ I told ’em about the farm, not the school. Frankie didn’t look very cheerful at the idee of havin’' a farm of his own. He hates farm work, an’ it don’t seem as if he can ever do any work right in the fleld, but you let him doctor a sick chicken, or a calf, an' he's perfec’'ly happy. I told ‘em that I hadn’t known till just a little be- fore about the plan, or I wouldn’t have been so reckless in cookin’, an’ I went on talkin’ about hcw nice it would be for all of us to work together savin’. It wouldn’t be so hard on any of us that way. They agreed to it, an” seemed to stand goin’ without all right, but Jim never seemed to get enough to eat without just the things that we didn't have on the table any more, so he didn't get along so well as the boys. “Then on Friday mornin” Jim said to me, ‘Hadn’t you better bake to-day so we can go to town to-morrow? TI'd made him understand before this that if he planned on my goin’ to town on Saturday, bakin’ day, he'd have to let me know beforehand that we was goin” so I could do my bakin’ Friday, though my work was lots lighter now that I didn’t have cakes or ples to make. I~ told him I couldn’t afford to go. Says I, “If I go now, I'll have to have the hired man’s wife to help me get the work done next week, an' we can’t afford to happy over it, but Jim didn't even thank me for tryin" to save. “Just a week from the next Wednes- day came the Old Folks' picnic at the county-seat. an’ Jim, I knew, was plan- nin’ on goin’. He hadn't never missed a picnic since they started havin' ‘em fifteen years before, an' when he men- tioned it to me that Saturday night, he looked kind o’ surprised when I toid him that I'd planned on doin’ some colorin’ that day, that bein’ the only day I could borrow the big kittle an’ I couldn’t afford to hire the colorin® done. An’ besides, 1 in’t think we could af- ford to go. We couldn't go without the boys, that was understood. Why, it meant the loss of the work of four an” the team for one whole day if we went, an’ ev'ry cent counted toward that ‘joinin’ farm. “Jim didn’t say no more about the picnic then, but he wasn't quite the most pleasant person to live with all week. Seemed as if cake an’ preserves an’ such had been keepin' him sweet. On Thursday mornin’ he went to town on business. After he was goi 1 fixed up a bundle of dress goads an’ went down to one of the neighbors. She had a waist pattern that I wanted to use. an’ she was pretty clever at cuttin’ out dresses. 1 always make my own waists, but I can't never get the skirts to hang right, so I hire them made. Change work with this neighber, or somethin’. When I got the waist cut out I started home, but 1 wasn't goin® to lug that bundle back through the sun an’ dust, so I says, T'lIl leave this hers an’ when Jim goes past you send it up by him. Just say there's the stuff you said you'd send up.’ “Well, T got back an’ started dinner, an’ after while Jim come drivin’ up. I went out to meet him, for I needed some of the groceries he had, an’ he handed down the bundle. He looked at me kind o' queeg, an’ says, ‘What's this? Mis” Jones said to tell you it was the goods she was goin’ to send up.’ I said, ‘'Oh, just some sewin’ I'm goin’ to do.' He looked mad, an’ asked, ‘You ain’t doin’ any you're goin’ to take " he started to take the hand, but I walked I knew he'd been wWay up to the house was wrong with that somethin’ bundle (it would take him about that long to get as stirred up as he was), I was fust d.d think 1 | pleased that he n" for the meigh- bors to save money for that 'Joinin’ farm, even if it did hurt his pride to ave his wife take in sewin’. “At dinner he didn't say no more about the thing ’'cause the boys was around. Of course, if he'd asked me I'd have told him that it was a waist that I was makin’ for myself, though I might not have told him I was makin’ it just to wear to that Old Folks' pic- nic. But I was, just the same. But he didn’t ask me, an’ he kep’ on gettin’ more an' more stirred up about my sewin” for the neighbors, just to save money so as to buy another farm. If he’d seen the goods he’d have known, if he'd been a woman, that I wasn't sewin’ for Lis’ Jomes, for she couldn't wear that color, but he didn’t see the , an’ if he had, bein' a man, he Wwouldn’t have thought about such a little thing as color. “I didn’t see nothin’ of Jim all after- noon except when he come in from the field an’ hitched up the team an’ drove over to the neighbor’s that owned the farm that he was countin’ on buy- in". He got back just before supper, an’ he looked a little less grumpy than he did at noon. We sat down to the table, an’ it did look kind o’ bare with- out cake or cookies, or sauce or pr: JOE ROSENBERG ~N e >, 20 Z ”)° Knit J\ Underwear? ) “No flocks that roam the valley free- To slaughter | condemn; Taught by the power that pities me, 1 learn to pity them. — Goldsm | — Y Why be an accompllce to | MURDER? \ il l/ i . job i ! §s i i ; | i i | { i i Bl i l § § iy 5 i il | ! : : 5 §§§i§§ i i § | b \ | I ) 51 / A, vt !