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THE BROWN MOUSE

By
HERBERT QUICK

Author of
Aladdin & Company, The Broken Lance
On Board the Good Ship Earth, Etc.

INDIANAPOLIS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS




Copyright 1915
The Bobbs-Merrill Company

Printed in the United States of America

PRESS OF
BRAUNWORTH & CO.
BOOK MANUFACTURERS
BROOKLYN, N. Y.




CONTENTS

CHAPTER
      I  A Maiden's "Humph"                   1
     II  Reversed Unanimity                  24
    III  What Is a Brown Mouse               38
     IV  The First Day of School             48
      V  The Promotion of Jennie             55
     VI  Jim Talks the Weather Cold          65
    VII  The New Wine                        75
   VIII  And the Old Bottles                 89
     IX  Jennie Arranges a Christmas Party   99
      X  How Jim Was Lined Up               111
     XI  The Mouse Escapes                  122
    XII  Facing Trial                       132
   XIII  Fame or Notoriety                  147
    XIV  The Colonel Takes the Field        164
     XV  A Minor Casts Half a Vote          188
    XVI  The Glorious Fourth                203
   XVII  A Trouble Shooter                  218
  XVIII  Jim Goes to Ames                   235
    XIX  Jim's World Widens                 242
     XX  Think of It                        248
    XXI  A School District Held Up          258
   XXII  An Embassy From Dixie              277
  XXIII  And So They Lived----              295




THE BROWN MOUSE




CHAPTER I

A MAIDEN'S "HUMPH"


A Farm-hand nodded in answer to a question asked him by Napoleon on the
morning of Waterloo. The nod was false, or the emperor misunderstood--and
Waterloo was lost. On the nod of a farm-hand rested the fate of Europe.

This story may not be so important as the battle of Waterloo--and it may
be. I think that Napoleon was sure to lose to Wellington sooner or later,
and therefore the words "fate of Europe" in the last paragraph should be
understood as modified by "for a while." But this story may change the
world permanently. We will not discuss that, if you please. What I am
endeavoring to make plain is that this history would never have been
written if a farmer's daughter had not said "Humph!" to her father's hired
man.

Of course she never said it as it is printed. People never say "Humph!" in
that way. She just closed her lips tight in the manner of people who have
a great deal to say and prefer not to say it, and--I dislike to record
this of a young lady who has been "off to school," but truthfulness
compels--she grunted through her little nose the ordinary "Humph!" of
conversational commerce, which was accepted at its face value by the
farm-hand as an evidence of displeasure, disapproval, and even of
contempt. Things then began to happen as they never would have done if the
maiden hadn't "Humphed!" and this is a history of those happenings.

As I have said, it may be more important than Waterloo. _Uncle Tom's
Cabin_ was, and I hope--I am just beginning, you know--to make this a much
greater book than _Uncle Tom's Cabin_. And it all rests on a "Humph!"
Holmes says,

                "Soft is the breath of a maiden's 'Yes,'
                Not the light gossamer stirs with less."

but what bard shall rightly sing the importance of a maiden's "H