Meredith Nicholson

“ The superintendent would be all right if the board gave him a chance. The teachers are all scared to death, and that's another bad thing. The commissioners meddle with things that ought to be left to Mr. Gale."
"I just wanted to know," Foley replied, slowly. "I didn't start that fuss, but I guess I'll have to butt in a little. They're always bragging about keeping the schools out of politics, when they've built up a little machine of their own that's hard to beat. I guess it ought to have a jolt. Am I right?" he demanded.
"I think you are, Mr. Foley," said Honor, smiling at his intonation. ”

“ I haven't seen many of the parents of my children yet, but I shall send a note to Michael's father and ask him to come to the school. He hasn't any mother, I believe."
"That's unfortunate, of course. But his father," said Miss Ferguson, scornfully, "is a low politician of the worst type. I've never seen the man, but he's constantly in the newspapers."
"Please let me work on Michael's case a little longer without threats. I don't like threatening parents."
"You will find, Miss Bright, that indulgence in these cases only makes trouble for yourself and brings our discipline into disrepute. ”

“ He had been concerned for Michael's safety during his absence, but had arranged to place him with a neighbor.
"And I'll keep an eye on him, too," said Honor.
"I guess you see enough of him in school," Foley replied, lifting the precious derby from the hat-rack preparatory to his usual abrupt exit. "You know, Miss Bright, I want to give the lad a good chance. I want to see him get somewhere; I want—I want—to send him to college!"
"That's what I hoped you meant to do," replied Honor, from the parlor door. "He's worth it. There's the making of a fine man in Michael." ”

“ Honor found a seat near the door just as the chairman introduced the first speaker—the candidate for school commissioner of whom Miss Ferguson had spoken so bitterly.
What they all wanted, he said, was the best education they could give their children. He named the old commissioners, and dwelt upon the fact that they were all prosperous men, and that only one of them had ever had a child in the Kernville schools.
"They want us to be satisfied with anything they choose to give us, while they send their own children to private schools. It's not a square deal. ”

“ When Honor had been a small cog in the big machine for a month, Gale, the superintendent, asked Miss Ferguson how the new teacher was getting on. "Miss Bright is capable," Miss Ferguson replied, frostily, "but she lacks the poise desirable in teachers. Her ideas of discipline are very lax. She pays little attention to our system, and constantly persists in introducing ideas of her own. ”

“ It was a real adventure to be walking beside the Little Boss, candidate for the State senate and, according to the Republican Journal, an unreliable and dangerous character. He chuckled when presently she spoke of the plumbing scandal.
"We've got it on 'em, all right. They'll say to-morrow that I'm sore because I didn't get the contract myself. Well, I was, all right. Of course the old guys on the school board didn't know they were getting stung; but that's their trouble. They're so afraid of having to pay a little taxes that they screw everything down till the valves crack." ”

“ The members of the board were solid citizens long undisturbed in their positions, chiefly because the politicians had never thought school-board jobs worth fighting for. In the Gem City of the Sycamore it was considered a great honor to sit on the school board, and incidentally it gave the prosperous members an excellent chance to protect the taxpayers from foolish expenditures for new fads in education. At the same time they basked in the bright effulgence of their self-sacrificing civic virtue. ”

“ He turned toward her with his amusing smile and, lowering his voice, said, "We had that fake worked off on the Journal on purpose."
"I don't believe I see the point," Honor confessed.
"Well, you see, it's this way. They hadn't been hitting me hard enough to warm up our side, and about this time in a campaign you've got to get some punch into things. To show me up as a booze-dealer looks like a knock-out. When we spring the answer and show that I'm only helping out a poor widow with four children they wobble back on the ropes. ”

“ There's always the chance," he added, with a mollifying smile, "that some of our old ideas may not be the best."
The Gem City's schools were full of Miss Fergusons who bitterly resented the new superintendent's indifference to the sacred system. Since his advent the previous year, Gale had labored assiduously, but without success, to modify the system. There were enough Miss Fergusons to thwart him; and there was always the board. ”

“ I couldn't help hearing the old lady calling you down. I wouldn't have my boy the cause of making you trouble. I'm mighty sorry."
"Please don't be hard on Michael! He's the most interesting child in his class. Just a little friendly talk will do the business."
"I'll have a few words with him. You won' t have any more trouble with Mickey. ”

“ He was a Presbyterian minister whose own name was Quintius Curtius, so it was not surprising that he held views on the subject of nomenclature. Honoria is, of course, the obvious feminine. Honoria seemed to him English and highfalutin' ”