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THE WOOING OF CALVIN PARKS
[Illustration: CALVIN PARKS.]
THE WOOING OF
CALVIN PARKS
By LAURA E. RICHARDS
Author of "Captain January," "Melody," "Mrs.
Tree," "Geoffrey Strong," etc.
_ILLUSTRATED_
BOSTON * DANA ESTES &
COMPANY * PUBLISHERS
_Copyright, 1908_
By DANA ESTES & COMPANY
_All rights reserved_
THE WOOING OF CALVIN PARKS
_COLONIAL PRESS_
_Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co._
_Boston, U.S.A._
TO
H. H. R.
WITH MUCH LOVE
Transcriber's notes: Obvious printer errors have been silently corrected and
hyphenated words have been standardized.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCING THE PRICIPAL CHARACTERS 11
II. BROTHERLY WAYS 21
III. CALVIN'S STORY 38
IV. THE CANDY ROUTE 48
V. CONCERNING PEPPERMINTS 63
VI. BOARD AND LODGING 76
VII. MATCH-MAKING 88
VIII. "PLAYING S'POSE" 101
IX. CANDY-MAKING 120
X. JOHN ALDEN--WITH A DIFFERENCE 134
XI. CONCERNING TRADE 148
XII. CALVIN'S WATERLOO 160
XIII. MERRY CHRISTMAS 187
XIV. AT LAST! 204
XV. BY WAY OF CONTRAST 219
XVI. TOIL AND TROUBLE 238
XVII. NIGHT 252
XVIII. MORNING 259
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
CALVIN PARKS _Frontispiece_
"HE LOOKED FROM ONE TWIN TO THE OTHER, HALF
AMUSED, HALF INDIGNANT" 40
"CALVIN REGARDED THEM BENEVOLENTLY" 49
MR. CHEESEMAN 120
"'HOLD ON, MISS HANDS!' SAID CALVIN, AS SHE MOVED
TOWARD THE DOOR" 137
"'THEN I HOVE HIM BACK INTO THE DRIFT TO COOL
OFF A SPELL'" 188
MARY SANDS 204
"THEN WITH ONE SWIFT MOTION, CALVIN TRANSFERRED
THE PIE FROM HIS PLATE TO THE STOVE" 233
THE WOOING OF CALVIN PARKS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCING THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
"If I'm not mistaken," said Calvin Parks, "this is the ro'd where Sam
and Sim used to live!"
He checked his horse and looked about him. "And there--well, I'm blowed
if that ain't the house now. Same old pumpkin-color; same old
well-sweep; same old trees; it certinly is the house. Well!"
He looked earnestly at the house, which seemed to give him a friendly
look in return; a large, comfortable yellow house, with windows of
cheerful inquiry, and a door that came as near smiling as a door can.
Two huge elms mounted guard over it, and touched tips with a group of
splendid willows that clustered round the ample barnyard; the front yard
was green and smooth, with a neat flagstone path; a vast and
friendly-looking dog lay on the broad door-step; everything about the
place looked comfortable and sociable.
"If that ain't a pictur'," said Calvin Parks, "I never see one, that's
all."
He drove into the yard, and clambered rather slowly out of his wagon. He
was a tall, light-limbed, active-looking man, but the wheels seemed to
be in his way.
"I never shall get used to this rig," he muttered; "I'd ought to have a
rope and tayckle to hi'st me out."
He cast a disapproving look at the wagon, and hurried toward the house.
The vast dog rose, shook himself, yawned, and sniffed approvingly at his
trousers.
"That's right, son!" said Calvin. "A friend is a friend, in pants or
tails! Now let's see where the boys be. I must wipe my feet good,
though, or I shall have the old lady after me!"
He opened the front door; and after casting a look of friendly
recognition round the hall, tapped on the door at his left.
"Come in!" said a voice.
"Sam!" said Calvin Parks; and he stepped into the room.
"How are you, Sam?" he began. "How are you--why, where's Sim?" he added
in an altered tone. "Where's your Ma?"
A little man in snuff-brown clothes, with a red flannel waistcoat, came
forward.
"Calvin Parks," he said, "don't tell me this is you!"
"I won't!" said Calvin. "I'll tell you it's old John Tyseed if that'll
do you any good. What I want to know is, where's the rest of you? Don't
tell me there's anything happened to your Ma and Sim, Sam Sill!"
The little man cast a curious look toward a door that stood ajar not
far from where he sat. He was silent a moment, and then said in a half
whisper, "Ma is gone, Calvin!"
"Gone!" repeated the visitor. "What do you mean by gone?"
"Dead!" said the little man. "Departed. No more."
"Sho!" said Calvin Parks. "Is that so? Well, I'm sorry to hear it, Sam!
And I'm--well, astounded is the word. Your Ma gone! Well, now! she was
one, somehow or other of it, never seemed as if she _could_ go."
"I expect," said Mr. Samuel Sill in the same subdued tone, "she is with
the blessed;" he reflected a moment, and added, "and with father!"
"To be sure! naturally!" said Calvin Parks reassuringly. "How long since
you laid her away, Sam?"
"We laid her away," said Sam, "a year ago, Calvin. She'd been poorly for
a long spell, droopin' kind of; nothing to take a holt of. Kep' up
round and done the work, but her victuals didn't relish, nor yet they
didn't set. She knew her time was come. She said to me and--the other
one," (again he cast a curious look toward the open door), "sittin' in
this very room--'Boys,' she says, 'my stummick is leavin' me; and
without a stummick I have no wish to remain, nor yet I don't believe it
would be wished. I expect I am about to depart this life.'"
"I want to know!" murmured Calvin Parks sympathetically. "She come as
close to it as that, did she?"
"About twice't a week," the little man continued, "she'd call us to come
in after she was in bed, and say she'd most likely be gone in the
mornin', and to be good boys, and keep the farm up as it should be.
First for a time we tried to reason her out of it like, for the Lord
didn't seem in no hurry, nor yet we weren't; but one night she seemed
set on it, told us goodbye, and all the rest of it. 'Well, mother!' I
says, 'if you see father, tell him the hay's all in!' I says. Sure
enough, come morning she was gone. Cut down like a--well!" he paused
again and reflected. "I don't know as you'd call Ma exactly a flower,
nor yet was she what you'd call real fruity, though ripe."
"Call it grain!" said Calvin Parks gravely. "First crop oats, or good
winter wheat; either of them, Sam, would represent your Ma good. Well, I
certinly am astounded to find that she is gone. But that don't tell me
the rest of it, Sam. Where's Sim?"
"Sim," replied the little man, turning his eyes toward the open door;
"Sim is--"
At this moment a singular sound came from beyond the door; a sound half
cough, half call, and all cackle.
"That's Sim!" said Mr. Sam. "You'll find him in there!"
Calvin Parks's large brown eyes seemed to grow quite round; he stared at
the little man for a moment; then "Red-top and timothy!" he muttered;
"there's something queer here!" and stepped quickly into the other room.
A stranger would have said, here was a juggler's trick. The little
snuff-colored man sitting hunched in the low chair was apparently the
same man, but he had changed his red waistcoat for a black one, and had
whisked himself in some unaccountable way into another room. But Calvin
Parks knew better.
"How are you, Sim?" he said.
"Calvin," said the second little man, "I am pleased to see you, real
pleased! Be seated! In regards to your question, I am middlin', sir,
only middlin'."
Calvin Parks sat down, his eyes still round and staring. "What's the
matter?" he asked abruptly.
"Some thinks it's lumbago," said the little man; "and more calls it
neurology. There is them," he added cautiously, "as has used the word
tuber-clossis; I don't hold with that myself, but I'm doctorin' for all
three, not to take no chances."
"All that be blowed!" said Calvin Parks. "What's the matter between you
two? Why are you sittin' here and Sam in t'other room, you that have set
side by side ever since you knew how to sit? Siamese Twins you've been
called ever since born you was; dressed alike, fed alike, and reared
alike; and now look at you! What's the matter, I say?"
The little man cast a look toward the door, a duplicate of the look
which Calvin Parks had seen cast from the other side of it. Then he
leaned forward, and fixed his sharp gray eyes on his visitor.
"Calvin Parks," he said, "you never was a twin!"
"No, I warn't!" said Calvin Parks.
The little man waved his hand. "That's all I've got to say!" he said.
"We was. That's the situation. I've nothin' against Samuel, nor he as I
knows on against me; but we have had a sufficiency of each other, and we
are havin' us a rest, Calvin. We eat together, but otherwise we don't.
But I'll tell you one thing," he added, leaning forward and dropping his
voice, while his eyes narrowed to pinpoints. "When I don't like a man, I
don't like him any better for bein' twin to me, I like him wuss!"
He leaned back again, and then repeated aloud, "Not that I've anything
against Samuel, or fur as I know, Samuel against me."
"Well! may I be scuttled," said Calvin Parks, "if ever I see the beat
of this! Why, Sim Sill--"
At this moment another door opened behind him, and a clear, pleasant
voice said,
"Dinner's ready, Cousin Sim! Cousin Sam, dinner's ready!"
Mr. Simeon Sill made a gesture of introduction. "Calvin," he said, "let
me make you acquainted with my cousin Miss Sands!"
Calvin Parks rose and made his best bow. "Miss Hands," he said, "I am
pleased to meet you, I'm sure!"