The Ecstasy of Owen Muir [antikvár]

One At the age of twelve Owen Muir was elected president of the student body at the East Point, Long Island, Progressive School. It was one of those reversals of form which sustain the sporting character of popular rule. Mr. Mollison, the headmaster, had decreed that the office, with its responsibility of leading the Pledge of Allegiance at morning assembly, must automatically fall to the class president of the eighth and highest grade. Since the school was new and it had been easier to recruit children at the lower age levels, the eighth was also the smallest group numerically, consisting, as of the term commencing in February, 1935, of five girls and three boys. Mr. Mollison himself served as its supervising instructor and it was he who suggested that only the boys be considered for the presidency, implying that it would be undignified to have a female in so important a post. The girls accepted this proposal less readily than the boys but there was too much disaffection among them to permit organized resistance. Of the three possibilities left in the field Owen, who was the youngest, shortest and fattest child in the class, was ignored until after six deadlocked ballots between the two older boys, and even then his name was not entered in nomination by a member of the electorate. Rather it was Mr. Mollison, concerned lest their restless young minds become impatient with the democratic process, who pointed out that a third candidate might serve to break the tie. Owen's classmates quickly recognized the merit of the