Each lot
was in a small cloth bag which had been made by one of the little girls as
a sewing exercise; and each card had been written as a lesson in
penmanship by one of the younger pupils, and contained, in addition to the
data above mentioned, heads under which to enter the number of grains of
the seed examined, the number which grew, the percentage of viability, the
number of alien seeds of weeds and other sorts, the names of these
adulterants, the weight of true and vitalized, and of foul and alien and
dead seeds, the value per bushel in the local market of the seeds under
test, and the real market values of the samples, after dead seeds and
alien matter had been subtracted.

"Now get busy, here," cried Jim Irwin. "We're late! Raymond, you've a
quick eye--you count seeds--and you, Calista, and Mary Smith--and mind,
next year's crop may depend on making no mistakes!"

"Mistakes!" scoffed Mary Smith, a dumpy girl of fourteen. "We don't make
mistakes any more, teacher."

It was a frolic, rather than a task. All had come with a perfect
understanding that this early attendance was quite illegal, and not to be
required of them--but they came.

"Newt," suggested Jim, "get busy on the percentage problems for that
second class in arithmetic."

"Sure," said Newt. "Let's see.... Good seed is the base, and bad seed and
dead seed the percentage--find the rate...."

"Oh, you know!" said Jim. "Make them easy and plain and as many as you can
get out--and be sure that you name the farm every pop!"

"Got you!" answered Newton, and in a fine frenzy went at the job of
creating a text-book in arithmetic.

"Buddy," said Jim, patting the youngest Simms on the head, "you and
Virginia can print the reading lessons this morning, can't you?"

"Yes, Mr. Jim," answered both McGeehee Simms and his sister cheerily.
"Where's the copy?"

"Here," answered the teacher, handing each a typewritten sheet for use as
the original from which the young mountaineers were to make hectograph
copies, "and mind you make good copies! Bettina Hansen pretty nearly cried
last night because she had to write them over so many times on the
typewriter before she got them all right."

The reading lesson was an article on corn condensed from a farm paper, and
a selection from _Hiawatha_--the Indian-corn myth.

"We'll be careful, Mr. Jim," said Buddy.

Half past eight, and only half an hour until school would officially be
"called."

Newton Bronson was wr