The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1898-09-09

the only pure -blooded Hollander ever
known in the village, in a Wh1te-Wash-
ed cottage fronting q little-used SIDE
street. Aside from Deacon Orcott, or
the Freewill Baptist Church, who was
too old to work, and, besides, had
little money laid by, and old John Tom
linson, who lived in the big white
house across from the postott1ce and
was rich, being worth $4,000 at least,
and maybe more, Cal was the only
grown man in the place who seemed to
have no regular occupation. Hence his
unpOpularity.
''You see, DOCTOR" Jabez Ruggles, the
wagon-maker, explained to me one day,
soon after l began practicing In North
Pisa, Cal amt got no gumption. In
fact, he's-wal, what you might call
shif'less. He won't never work none
at all, 'ceptin' when the beans is ripe.
Then he does go out into the field and
pull, sometimes, though he didn't last
year. When he's a min to he kin do
more work n anybody know, for he's
the ablebodiedest man anywhere round
here, but you never see him a-pitchin'
no hay, nor a-Workin In no harvest
field; not even when such men as Su-
pervisor Bulger Or Deacon Warboys is
offerin' two an a ha'f q day to save
their crops.
mo, sir; he'd ruther live on his poor
old mother than to work, an about ali
he does is to gon git the clo'es in a
basket before she washes 'enl, an kerry
'em home afterward. You kin see i'm
Q-1nin' that r11nrninb NJ
night reg'lar. What he does in the mid
die Of the day is myst'ry to every
body. Some days he goes a-fishin', but
that's mostly on Sundays. Week days
he gen'ally shets 'imself in the house
Jest to loaf, l s'pose. 1 sh'd think
'twould make him 'shamed to hear the
sound of the scrubbin' when his moth
er's to work over the washboard an
he's layin' round, a doin' nothin'.
''Some day the boys IL all git mad n
run him out, unless he braces up and
goes to work. When that happens
North Pisa IL git notice in the county
papers sure"
n Spite of the wagon-maker's story,
1 found it hard to dislike Cal Vanport
without knowing more concerning him,
and / invited talk about him from va
rious village magnates. But the testi-
mony thus gathered was all of one
sort 1t was clear that all the men of
North Pisa both hated and despised him
as an utterly worthless vagabond. The
feeling of antagonism between Cal and
his kind, however, was like a jug han.
die, all on one SIDE" as l found when
1 came to know him personally. If ever
there was a man who bore nobody ill
1t was Cal Vanport, and before l had
met either Cal or his mother face to
face perceived that some of the wom-
en- of the place held the young man in
better esteem.
A'"They may say all the mean things
they want about Cal Vanport," said
Mrs. Miggs, the sturdy old blacksmith's
wife, who had two grown sons of her
own, "and 1 won't deny that it does
look like small potatoes and few In the
hill fer him to live on his mothers
earnin's, as he pears to; but they'd be
some happier mothers in North Pisa if
all sons was like him. l know some
young men in this village that work
hard enough an save their money that
Hill HedE 50 hIllu tO lucIE UlOtnGrS as
he Is. When Mis- Vanport was younger
an Cal was a-goin' to school an she
used to go out to wash, which she don't
do no more, she told me he never spoke
a sassy word to her in his life. 1 wisht
everybody could say as much for theil
boys. / told my man yistiddy an II
made him mad, that some folks l know
would be willin' to have their BOYS 8
little lazier if they could only say what
Mis- Vanport kin, but they can't" she
concluded, in tone clearly showing 6
desire to be confidential, which 1 care
fully ignored by promptly bidding bel
good-day.
The more 1 heard about the washer
woman's shiftless son, the more like(
him, somehow, and the wagon-makel
told me a story two or three days latel
that added to my interest.
"There goes the girl that Cal Vanpor
wants to marry" said Ruggles, stand
ing In front Of his shop and pointing
across the street to tall, good-lookin.
young woman, undoubtedly the hand
soonest In North Pisa. Yes she is tht
daughter of Squire Woodmansie, anC
when she was in the same school her
In the village that Cal went to, the TIVE
got to thinkin' lot of each other. O.
aourse, her folks didn't like the idea O
her marryin' a washerwoman's son
and so they sent her away to school TO
year or two. At that time most folk
kinder sympathized with CAL but nov
he's growed up so shif'less like the,
don't no more. Her folks is a-tryin' t.
git her to marry Billy Kitchener, tn
berry farmer. He's likely chap, witt
his land most paid fer, but somehow
Helen she don't seem to care much fe
him. Cal Vanport amt got no chancet
though, and he amt a-tryin' none
neither; he amt got enough gumptior
I herd him tell Squire Woodmansi
right here in front of my shop one nigh
about a year ago that he shouldn't tr
to see Helen no more. thought they
be fight that night. The squire h
called Cal shif'less loafer right to hi
face and swung his big cane res
threatenin' like. Then the Squire sal
Helen didn't think no more of Cal tha
yellow dog. Cal KEEP still till the1
but at that he picked the squire u
Just 'sif he'd been baby an kerrie
him out in the street. a-kickin' al
a-wfgglin' like all possessed.
at was then Cal said he shouldn
try 10 see the girl Bnt he told II
squire that he'd better not mention he
name to him no more when he wa
a-speakin' about yeller dogs y 30 wan