NELSON HALEY
The team drew to a halt without any command, and directly beside the
young man, who was working diligently over the overturned motorcycle.
His repair kit was spread out at the roadside, and the cause of the
trouble was self-evident, it would seem. But Walky was a true Yankee
and had to ask questions.
"Had a puncture, Mister?" he drawled, as the young man looked up, saw
Janice on the seat beside the driver, and flushed a little.
"Oh, no!" returned the victim of the accident, with some asperity.
"I'm just changing the air in these tires. The other air was worn out,
you know."
For a moment Walky's eyes bulged, and Janice giggled loudly. Then Mr.
Dexter saw the point of the joke. He slapped his leg and laughed
uproariously.
"You'll do! By jinks! you surely will _do_," he declared. "I reckon
you air smart enough, young feller, ter teach the Poketown school. An'
that's what they say you're in these parts for?"
"I am here to see the school committee about the position," said the
young fellow. "Are you one of the committee?"
"Me? No--I should say not!" gasped Walky. "Old Bill Jones, an'
'Squire Abe Connett, and Elder Concannon air the committee."
"Oh!" returned the youth, quite coolly. "I didn't know but you were
one of the number, and that I was already being put through my
examination."
But Walky Dexter was not easily feazed. He just blinked twice over
this snub and pursued the conversation:
"They tell me you've been ter college?"
"My! my!" exclaimed the young man, "_they_ tell you a good deal, don't
they? Is it just a habit folks have, or have the Poketown selectmen
passed an ordinance that you are to be the recipient of all personal
information?"
Janice was still amused, although she thought the young man was rather
hard upon the town gossip. But Walky thought the observation over, and
seemed finally to realize that the motorcyclist was making sport of him.
"Aw, well," he said, grinning broadly, "if you air tender about your
pussonal record, I'll say no more about it. But I allus b'lieve in
goin' right ter headquarters when I want ter know anything. Saves
makin' mistakes. If you air ashamed of your criminal past, Mister,
why, that's all right--we won't say no more about it."
At this, the young fellow stood up, put his hands upon his hips, and
burst into a hearty shout of laughter. Janice had to join in, while
Walky Dexter grinned, knowing he had made a good point.
"You certainly had me there, old timer!" declared the youth at last.
"Now providing you will be as frank, and do the honors as well, I'll
introduce myself as Nelson Haley. I hail from Springfield. I have
spent four years in the scholastic halls of Williamstown. I hope to go
to law school, but meanwhile, must earn a part of the where-with-all.
Therefore, I am attacking the citadel of the Poketown School."
"Oh! That's the why-for of it, eh?" crowed Walky. "Much obleeged.
I'll know what to say now when anybody asks me."
"I hope so," returned Nelson Haley, with some sarcasm. "But fair
exchange, Mister. You might tell me who I have the honor of speaking
to--and, especially, you might introduce me to the lady?"
"Oh! Eh?" and Walky looked at the blushing Janice, questioningly. The
girl smiled, however, and the driver cleared his throat and gravely
made the introduction. "And I'm Walky Dexter," he concluded. "If you
git the Poketown school you'll come ter know me quite well, I shouldn't
wonder."
"That is something to look forward to, I am sure," declared Nelson
Haley, drily. Then he turned to Janice, and asked:
"Will you be one of my pupils, if I have the good fortune to get the
school, Miss Day?"
"I--I am afraid not. I do not really belong in Poketown," Janice
explained. "And the ungraded school could not aid me much."
"No, I suppose not," returned the young man. "Well! I hope I see you
again, Miss Day."
Walky clucked to the horses and they jogged on, leaving Nelson Haley to
finish his repairs. Walky chuckled, and said to Janice:
"He's quite a flip young feller. He is young to tackle the Poketown
school. An' 'twill be an objection, I shouldn't wonder. Ye see, they
couldn't find that fault with 'Rill Scattergood."
"But I venture to say that they did when she first came to Poketown to
teach," cried Janice.
"Oh, say! I sh'd say they did," agreed Walky, with a retrospective
rolling of his head. "An' she was a purty young gal, then, too. There
was more on us than Hopewell Drugg arter 'Rill in them days--yes,
sir-ree!"
Janice was curious, and she yielded to the temptation of asking the
town gossip a question:
"Why--why didn't Miss 'Rill marry Hopewell, then?"
"The goodness only knows why they fell out, Miss Janice," declared
Walky. "We none of us ever made out. I 'spect it was the old woman
done it--ol' Miz' Scattergood. She didn't take kindly to Hopewell.
And then--Well, 'Cinda Stone was lef all alone, an' she lived right
back o' Drugg's store, an' her father had owed Drugg a power of money
'fore he died--a big store bill, ye see. Hopewell Drugg is as soft as
butter; mebbe he loved 'Cinda Stone; anyhow he merried her after he'd
got the mitten from Amarilla. Huh! ye can't never tell the whys and
wherefores of sech things--not re'lly."
A presidential election would have made little more stir in Poketown
than the coming there of this young man who looked for the position of
school-teacher. Marty brought home word at night to the old Day house
that Mr. Haley had put up at the Lake View Inn; that he had let two of
the older boys try out his motorcycle; that he could pitch a ball that
"Dunk" Peters couldn't hit, even though "Dunk" had played one season
with the Fitchburg team. Likewise, that Mr. Haley was to go before the
school committee that evening. And after supper Marty hastened down
town again to learn how the examination of the young collegian "came
out."
"I do hope," sighed Aunt 'Mira, "that this young man gits the school.
Mebbe Marty will like him, an' go again. I won't say but that the
boy's a good deal better'n he was; he's changed since you've come,
Janice. But he'd oughter git more schoolin'--so he had."
"I met Mr. Haley," said her niece, quietly, "He seems like quite a nice
young man; and, if he has any interest in his work, he ought to give a
good many of the Poketown boys a better start."
For Marty Day was not the only young loafer in the town. There was
always a group of half-grown boys hanging about Josiah Pringle's
harness shop, or the sheds of the Lake View Inn.
In Greensboro there had been a good library and reading-room, and the
Young Men's Christian Association boys and young men had a chance
_there_. Janice knew that her father's influence had helped open these
club-like places for the boys, and so had kept them off the streets.
There wasn't a thing in Poketown for boys to do or a place to go to,
save the stores where the older men lounged. Sometimes, her aunt told
her, men brought jugs of hard cider to the Inn tables, and the boys got
to drinking the stuff.
"Now, if this Nelson Haley is any sort of a fellow, and he gets the
school," murmured Janice to herself, "he may do something."
Marty brought home the latest report from the committee meeting before
they went to bed. Mr. Haley seemed to have made a good impression upon
the three old dry-as-dust committeemen, especially on old Elder
Concannon, the superannuated minister who had lived in Poketown for
fifty years, although he had not preached at the Union Church, saving
on special occasion, for two decades.
"The Elder says he thinks this Haley'll do," said Marty, with a grin.
"I heard him tell Walky Dexter so. He knows some Latin, Haley does,"
added the boy. "What's Latin, Janice?"
"Nothing that will help him in the least to teach the Poketown School,"
declared his cousin, rather sharply for her. "Isn't that ridiculous!
What can that old minister be thinking of?"
"The Elder's great on what he calls 'the classics,'" said Mr. Day, with
a chuckle. "He reads the Bible in the 'riginal, as he calls it. He
allus said 'Rill Scattergood didn't know enough to teach school."
"I don't believe that Poketown really needs a teacher who reads Hebrew
and can translate a Latin verse. That is, those studies will not help
Mr. Haley much in your school," Janice replied.
"Wal," said Marty, "I'll go when school opens and give him a whirl.
Maybe he'll teach me how to fling that drop curve."
"Now!" whined Aunt 'Mira, when Marty had stumped up to bed. "What good
is it goin' ter do that boy ter go ter school an' learn baseball, I
want ter know?"