Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/41

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UMPQUA ACADEMY 31 work up a similar scheme on Lowery Watson, acting in col- lusion with some of the other bachelors' roost boys. One evening Lowery called at the Miller home and stayed quite late and George proposed that he remain until morning. Lowery retired to bed, and along a little before daylight, he reached out for his clothes and found them gone. He got up and found that while there were none of his own clothes, there was a pair of Dr. Miller's long-legged trousers placed for his use. Dismayed, he began a search for his clothes but was unable to find them. He did not feel like calling on the family for assistance, or advertising his predicament. The position was certainly disconcerting. The Bible says some- where that, "Some bless with their mouths, while they curse inwardly." It is easy to imagine one could, under such circumstances, have some of the "cuss inwardly" feeling. There seemed to be no other alternative, and so Lowery pulled on the doctor's pants, rolled up the redundant length and then made a flying dash out into the rain, across the prairie, making a halo of webfoot spray around him as he paddled his way to the bache- lors' roost. There he found his chums were ready to open up their artillery on him. Of course they guyed him, but he took his medicine and was game. He lived to distance some of his practical joker friends in the race of life, became an honored member of the legal profession and sat on the judge's bench. Even while yet in school, some of the students exhibited gen- eral talents or abilities that foreshadowed their future. Henry Byars, who was in my classes, excelled in mathematics and mechanical and engineering drawing. Parrish Willis was good at mathematics and bookkeeping, and was very studious and methodical. He then had a heavy, shocky head of hair that was inclined to kink and curl about his neck and ears. It was probably this that gave him the "nick-name" "Kink" Willis. He had a good mind and was a credit to the Academy, became an attorney of ability, and held positions of honor and trust in Portland and Multnomah County, Oregon.