Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1894-06-23
AUNT CALISTA'S WAY.
How She Brought Happiness to a
Needy Sister.


Needy Sister.
This was the letter Aunt Calista
Jones stopped washing her dishes 70
write one May morning;
JOKES STATION. 3 IA lsq2
DEAR jim n JANE; Ihave a trick Of asking
favors Of folks and I, is right and proper that
your turn should come to do something for me
/ want you to slip down here and keep house
for me a spell. You write Jim that You have
been sick. Itake It that by this time You are
Just we'll enough 10 come down and look after
the farm. and see that the hired man doesn I
loaf away more than half OF each day. And
there are the Jerseys TO look after and the cur
rent bushes TO spray, and l fancy Il will seem
good and old fashioned to you, Jane, 20 De on
the farm once more. To have chickens and
pigs about you and make butter and sell eggs
and things, and take care Of the garden as you
used to before you married that Jim OF yours
who insisted upon being a carpenter instead OF
q farmer and live In the city and have had luck
and never get on" IN the world, aS we both
know he deserved 70. And speaking OF being a
carpenter-I will mention this for fear shall
forget it when you come, for come you must,
as I shall not take no for an answerI wish,
Jane, you would remind Jim 10 build q
new grape sroor and flower stand for
my geraniums. You will find paint TO
smarter them UP in the Toulouse over
the door. You see right AWAY that | intend
| YOU shall be kept busy while | am gone, and
which. laws a me, I haven't said a word about
yet. But there is time enough now. The
truth is l banker for a change and a resting
spell. l find / am getting worldly and rheu-
matte and l must declare q halt before Il is too
late. have enough money and to spare and l
yearn TO squsnder IT. Ny James might be nv-
ing now and thi. very minute smoking his pipe
on the front porch had he taken the world q
bit easier and treated himself 10 a picnic now
and then. There is a lonesome, homestck
feeling creeps into my heart when | reject
what a lonely old woman l SIN. Jim dead and
the children scattered; you must come and
give me o chance to pick up and throw on this
melancholy. There is no telling where shall
60 when I once get started. / may developinto
a great traveller yet 1t is possible l may even
visit your city and stop at hotel and put on
more airs than a few. There is no guessing
what cspers an old woman may cut up when
once she gets fairly on her mettle. lnclosed
find railway fare. and enough besides 10 buy
whatever you think YOU may need, And
wish you would bring me a Jardinier for my
Anna Maria pellargonium Such as l want
will cost a dollar Your loving sister,
CALIsrA JONES.
The world had been very kind to
Aunt Calista and it was highly proper
that it should be, She deserved a fair
share of the good that was going. She
was a seventh daughter of a seventh
daughter-it this genealogical coinci-
dence counts for anything-and in the
light Of circumstances 1t is reasonable
to believe that it did, for she was so
agreeably different from all of her sis
tiers, except Aunt Jane. They were
an average lot and very like the aver
age of mankind, or womankind. They
were ambitious and thrifty and married
well one after another; grew more
thrifty and money making and money
saving, and all were comfortably set
tied in comfortable homes, which they
very gingerIy enjoyed, which was as
much as their narrow, selfish natures
would permit them to do. All mar
ried good. substantial farmers, pos
sessed of a fair amount of intelligence,
but whose highest ambition was to
make money. Their summers were
one long day Of toll and their winters
a school and season of scheming to ad-
vance their thrifty projects,
But poor Aunt Jane Poor Jennie
was the one black sheep of this gener.
GUS fold. She lacked hard horse
sense" her sisters said. tAll said so
but Aunt Calista.) She had married
badly. just as might have been ex-
pected, they all agreed. with but
one dissenting voice, Aunt Calista's.l
She had taken her chickens to a poor
market and was now enjoying the dis
comfort of a bad bargain. All were
unanimous in this conclusion, with
Aunt Calista counted ont.
She had in a manner defied Provi-
dence. had Jane, when she recklessly
married jim lIanly, with his hand
some face, his warm, true heart and
his kit of carpenter tools which he had
just learned to use, Jane might have
married old man Brewster, with his
eighty acres of land and nearly wears
enough on his stubborn head to match
every one Of them; his bank, barn, and
his windmill and club foot, and a TEN.
per not conspicuous for its mildness.
But she wantonly declined this rise in
life, brilliant and ornate as it was,
married Jim Hanly and moved away to
the city, with not much to begin life
with except their love and courage
and Jim's tool chest. But they had
not prospered as the world reckons
prospecting. There was never a day
when their courage failed or their
love let go, but many a time came
when Jim and Jennie sat hand in hand
wondering what misfortune would be-
fall them next. Children were born
to them and each last one was the most
welcome, each bringing them added
love and care. But sickness came and
swept the city: neither rich nor poor
were spared. 1t was a cruel monster,
that red-breathed fever, but it showed
no favor, and in Jim's and Jennie's
home in The pleasant suburb of the
city, it claimed all. Not one was left.
The sad old story Of the vacant chairs
and the empty hands and desolate
hearts was repeated in all its sorrow
full details. The little half-worn
clothes on the nails behind the door,
and the little worn shoes in the corner,
told their silent and wordlcss story to
their bereaved and stricken hearts.
And when sickness and trouble had
once found Its way into their home, it
kept coming and coming as il it liked
the pathway that led up to the neat
little cottage. Now 1t was Jennie now
it was Jim, and with this came loss and
distress, and poverty stood gaunt and
grinning just outside the door with
almost courage to raise the latch. The
little home in which their children
were born had long since ceased to be
theirs, and yet they held to 1t as some
thing too sacred for strangers to pass
over its threshold.
But never in their direst need had
there been a complaint or had they
asked for aid or betrayed their want,
and it was only by chance that the
sisters discovered their condition, and
they each said as with one voice lalI
except Aunt Calista): Jane has mad,
her bed and now she must sleep in it,
and they closed their hearts as they
had ever closed their doors ant
thanked God they were not as she, ant
had been wise and wary in their da,