the colonel went away
together. It had been a great evening.

"Jim," said the colonel, "can these kids spell?"

"You mean these boys?"

"I mean the school."

"I think," said Jim, "that they can outspell any school about here."

"Good," said the colonel. "How are they about reading aloud?"

"Better than they were when I took hold."

"How about arithmetic and the other branches? Have you sort of kept them
up to the course of study?"

"I have carried them in a course parallel to the text-books," said Jim,
"and covering the same ground. But it has been vocational work, you
know--related to life."

"Well," said the colonel, "if I were you, I'd put them over a rapid review
of the text-books for a few days--say between now and the twenty-fifth."

"What for?"

"Oh, nothing--just to please me .... And say, Jim, I glanced over a
communication you have started to the more or less Honorable Board of
Education."

"Yes?"

"Well, don't finish it .... And say, Jim, I think I'll give myself the
luxury of being a wild-eyed reformer for once."

"Yes," said Jim, dazed.

"And if you think, Jim, that you've got no friends, just remember that I'm
for you."

"Thank you, Colonel."

"And we'll show them they're in a horse race."

"I don't see ..." said Jim.

"You're not supposed to see," said the colonel, "but you can bet that
we'll be with them at the finish; and, by thunder! while they're getting a
full meal, we'll get at least a lunch. See?"

"But Jennie says," began Jim.

"Don't tell me what she says," said the colonel. "She's acting according
to her judgment, and her lights and other organs of perception, and I
don't think it fittin' that her father should try to influence her
official conduct. But you go on and review them common branches, and keep
your nerve. I haven't felt so much like a scrap since the day we stormed
Lookout Mountain. I kinder like being a wild-eyed reformer, Jim."

CHAPTER XIII

FAME OR NOTORIETY

The office of county superintendent was, as a matter of course, the least
desirable room of the court-house. I say "room" advisedly, because it
consisted of a single chamber of moderate size, provided with office
furniture of the minimum quantity and maximum age. It opened off the
central hall at the upper end of the stairway which led to the court room,
and when court was in session, served the extraordinary needs of justice
as a jury room. At such times the county superintendent's d