Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1898-09-15


~ \ most unpopular character in
- all North Pisa, N. Y. He
dwell with his mother, Irish by birth,
washerwoman by trade, and relict of
the only pure-blooded Hollander ever
known in the village, in whitewash
ed cottage fronting a little-used side
street. Aside from Deacon Orcott, Of
the Freewill Baptist Church, who was
too old to work, and, besides, had a
little money laid by, and old John Tom
linson, who lived in the big white
house across from the postoftice 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 | began practicing in North
Pisa, "CaLsain,t 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 so 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 SUI
pervisor Bulger or Deacon Warboys is
Offerin two an hat a day to save
their crops.
No, sir; he'd ruther live on his poor
I old mother than to work, an about all
he does is to go'n git the cloes in Il
basket before she washes 'em, an kerry
'em home afterward. You kin see i'm
a-doin' that every mornin' an every
night reglar. What he does in the mid
die of the day is a myst'ry to every
body. Some days he goes a-fshin', but
that's mostly on Sundays. Week days
he gen'ally shets 'imself in the house
jest to loaf, | S'pose. l sh'd think
'twould make him 'shamed to hear the
sound of the scrubbin' when his moth
er's to work over the dashboard an
he's layin' round, a dom notbin'.
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 III git a notice in the county
paper, sure"
In spite of the wagon-maker's story,
l 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 jug han
die, all on one side" as l found when
I came to know him personally. If ever
there was Il man who bore nobody i'll
1t was Cal Vanport, and before l had
met either Cal or his mother face to
face l perceived that some of the wom-
en- of the place held the young man in
better esteem.
They may say all the mean things
they want about Cal Vanport," said
Mrs. MiggS, the sturdy old blacksmiths
wife who had two grown sons Of her
own, land l 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. | know some
young men in this village that work
hard enough an save their money that
amt near so kind to their mothers as
he Is. When Mis- Vanport was younger
an Cal was a-gOin' to school an she
used to so out to wash, which she don't
do no more, she told me he never spoke
a sassy word to her in his life I wisht
everybody could say as much for their
boys. l told my man yistiddy an it
made him mad, that some folks know
would be willin' to have their boys a
little lazier if they could only say what
Mis- Vanport kin, but they can't" she
concluded. in tone clearly showing a
desire to be confidential, which care
fully ignored by promptly bidding her
good-day.
The more heard about the washer
woman's shiftless son, the more liked
him. somehow, and the wagon-maker
told me story two or three days later
that added to my interest
There goes the girl that Cal Vanport
wants to marry" said Ruggies, stand
ing in front of his shop and pointing
across the street to a TAIL goodlooking
young woman, undoubtedly the hand
soonest in North Pisa. "Yea, she Ia the
daughter of Squire Noodmansie, and
when she was In the same school here
in the village that Cal went to. the two
GOT IN thSnkiu' n LOT of each other. OF