The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1897-12-25
know IL I can't keep company with

The girl was startled by his fallure TO
beat about the bush, but she answered
quite as directly:
Certainly not. You're too lazy to be
allowed to keep company with any
one" Then an idea flashed through her
mind. But If you'll cut cordwood a
whole year every day but Sunday and
holidays you may come and see me
just once. Here comes father and you'd
better make arrangements to cut for
him ON shares"
To Kitty's surprise Shiftless Rufe
stood his ground, and when her father
came in started at once to discuss the
proposed arrangement.
wal, Mist Sylvester" said Rufe,
grasping the old mans hand, Il amt
never been no great hand for work,
but l must have a chance to keep COM
p'ny with Kitty, and she says 1 may
come and see her after I've chopped
cordwood n year. 1t won't be no fun,
but l must have Kitty, and If | got to
work to git her, why, then | have, and
that's all there is about it."
Sylvester was at first inclined to be
angry at Kitty for trifing with Rufe,
but concluded to humor the situation,
and, bidding Kitty leave the room, told
the young man he was ready TO make
a bargain with him.
"You can cut cordwood off the estate
On shares, Rufe, of course, If you want
to, and I'll set aside some trees right
near your fathers shanty on the other
side of the flats. But you want to
take off them fine boots and them doe
skin pants, and that there broadcloth
coat, and you don't want to put them
on again till you've worked hard a
whole year. You're too shiftless to be
allowed to think a single minute about
Kitty now, and I suppose you always
will be, but"
You needn't say no more, Mist Syl-
vester,' put in Shiftless Rube. But
can't / see Kitty again just long
enough to say goodnight
YES" said the old man, land I'll
tell her we've made the bargain she
suggested
Then he called Kitty into the room.
AS she entered she noticed for the first
time that Rufe, dressed up, wasn't at
all bad looking, and that he seemed
twice the man he had been before. She
kept perfect silence till her father had
finished. Then she reached out and
took Rufe's big, soft paw in her own
small banda hand that was c~alloused
with hard work in spite of it's little
ness.
"Mr. Dunning," she said, II hope
you'll keep your bargain faithfully, as
l shall keep mine. After you have
worked hard for a year you may come
and see me-once. Whether you may
come again or not will depend on your
self. Good evening, Mr.. Dunning."
Nobody had ever called Shiftless
Rufe Mr.. Dunning before and the title
scared him far more than the notion Of
working every day for twelve long
months. From the time he left the big
house that night he was fit to drop the
title "shiftless." Next morning, as
soon as it was light, the sharp ring Of
his ak was heard across the valley, bit
ing out the chips as he chopped down
the first tree of his year long stent.
Long before noon that day his big
pulpy hands were blistered and swol-
len, and by shutdown they were a sight
to behold. That night his mother
cried over them and urged him to stop
thinking about the proud, stuck-up
girl on the other side of the valley.
1.-The idear." muttered the old wom-
an between whiffs at her clay pipe,
while she dressed Shiftless Rufe's
hand. "Do you think Kitty Sylvester
will look at you just because you've
been fool enough to work a whole
year? Why, it's puffickly ridiklis. 1
allus knew you was a little light in the
head, Rufe, but l didn't think you'd
make a fool of yourself for no con-
ceited Sylvester girl"
To this and much more Of the same
sort, both from his father and mother,
Shiftless Rufe made no reply, but
while yet the next morning was gray
the sound of his busy AK was again
waited across the valley, and this con
tinued to the going down of the sun.
And so 1t went on, day after day, all the
fall and through the winter. No mat
ter how deep the snow, or how stormy
the weather, Rufe toiled on unceasing-
ly. When the days were shortest, In
the middle of the winter, he sometimes
began before daybreak and worked
after dark, splitting the lengths" he
had chopped from the felled trees into
'four-foot wood" by the light of q tai
low dip stuck into a tin lantern Of the
pattern so common when the Corners"
was new, but now rarely seen.
Before spring folks got to going by
Rufe's AK and lantern in beginning
and leaving off work mornings and
nights the same as they go by the big
tannery whistle down the valley now,
and nobody who began work as early
as Rufe did and worked till Rufe's Ian
tern IA out at night was counted lazy.
And Rufe did more than chop cord
wood that winter. He learned to read,
and this both his mother and father
considered n far more ''ridiklis'' pro
ceeding. Yet more; he went to meet
ing every Sunday as regularly as the
most pious and thrifty of the whole
neighborhood. Not that he became spe-
cially religious, so far as l know, but
by going to meeting he could get a
glimpse or two every Sunday of Kitty
sylvester, and 1t was a little thing, m
deed, for the man who was chopping
cordwood a whole year that he might
make IL call on her, to listen to n SER
mon once n week so that he could sit