



Produced by Donald Lainson





CY WHITTAKER'S PLACE


By Joseph C. Lincoln




CONTENTS


CHAPTER

I.--     THE PERFECT BOARDING HOUSE

II.--    THE WANDERER'S RETURN

III.--   "FIXIN' OVER"

IV.--    BAILEY BANGS'S EXPERIMENT

V.--     A FRONT DOOR CALLER

VI.--    ICICLES AND DUST

VII.--   CAPTAIN CY PROVES DELINQUENT

VIII.--  THE "COW LADY"

IX.--    POLITICS AND BIRTHDAYS

X.--     A LETTER AND A VISITOR

XI.--    A BARGAIN OFF

XII.--   "TOWN MEETIN'"

XIII.--  THE REPULSE

XIV.--   A CLEW

XV.--    DEBBY BEASLEY TO THE RESCUE

XVI.--   A REMARKABLE DRIVE AND WHAT FOLLOWED

XVII.--  THE CAPTAIN REMEMBERS HIS AGE

XVIII.-- CONGRESSMAN EVERDEAN

XIX.--   THE TOPPLING OF A MONUMENT

XX.--    DIVIDED HONORS

XXI.--   CAPTAIN CY'S "PICTURE"




CY WHITTAKER'S PLACE



CHAPTER I

THE PERFECT BOARDING HOUSE


It is queer, but Captain Cy himself doesn't remember whether the day was
Tuesday or Wednesday. Asaph Tidditt's records ought to settle it, for
there was a meeting of the board of selectmen that day, and Asaph has
been town clerk in Bayport since the summer before the Baptist meeting
house burned. But on the record the date, in Asaph's handwriting, stands
"Tuesday, May 10, 189-" and, as it happens, May 10 of that year fell on
Wednesday, not Tuesday at all.

Keturah Bangs, who keeps "the perfect boarding house," says it was
Tuesday, because she remembers they had fried cod cheeks and cabbage
that day--as they have every Tuesday--and neither Mr. Tidditt nor Bailey
Bangs, Keturah's husband, was on hand when the dinner bell rang. Keturah
says she is certain it was Tuesday, because she remembers smelling the
boiled cabbage as she stood at the side door, looking up the road to
see if either Asaph or Bailey was coming. As for Bailey, he says he
remembers being late to dinner and his wife's "startin' to heave a
broadsides into him" because of it, but he doesn't remember what day it
was. This isn't surprising; Keturah's verbal cannonades are likely to
make one forgetful of trifles.

At any rate, whether Tuesday or Wednesday, it is certain that it was
quarter past twelve, according to the clock presented to the Methodist
Society by the Honorable Heman Atkins, when Asaph Tidditt came down the
steps of the townhall, after the selectmen's meeting, and saw Bailey
Bangs waiting for him on the opposite side of the road.

"Hello, Ase!" hailed Mr. Bangs. "You'll be late to dinner, if you don't
hurry. I was headin' for home, all sail sot, when I see you. What kept
you?"

"Town business, of course," replied Mr. Tidditt, with the importance
pertaining to his official position. "What kept YOU, for the land sakes?
Won't Ketury be in your wool?"

Bailey hasn't any "wool" worth mentioning now, and he had very little
more then, but he mopped his forehead, or the extension above it, taking
off his cap to do so.

"I cal'late she will," he said, uneasily. "Tell you the truth, Ase,
I was up to the store, and Cap'n Josiah Dimick and some more of
'em drifted in and we got talkin' about the chances of the harbor
appropriation, and one thing or 'nother, and 'twas later'n I thought
'twas 'fore I knew it."

The appropriation from the government, which was to deepen and widen our
harbor here at Bayport, was a very vital topic among us just then. Heman
Atkins, the congressman from our district, had promised to do his best
for the appropriation, and had for a time been very sanguine of securing
it. Recently, however, he had not been quite as hopeful.

"What's Cap'n Josiah think about the chances?" asked Asaph eagerly.

"Well, sometimes he thinks 'Yes' and then again he thinks 'No,'" replied
Bailey. "He says, of course, if Heman is able to get it he will, but if
he ain't able to, he--he--"

"He won