Idaho Springs siftings., 1902-12-20

1t was the unanimous opinion of all
Tunket. crystallized by Sophrony
Crockett
Forty-iwo years before, an energetic
infant came to the home of Elon
Tubbs, the most shiftless-nay, the
only shiftless farmer in Tunket She
was namel Calista the name selected
and laid by in readiness by her fore
handed mother, along with the bibs
and frocks. Elhanan was the alterna-
tive. had the case required it.
Calista Tubbs grew to be an eager
faced little girl who took her small
joys with shining eyes and closed lips;
her small griefs likewise. But oh, the
difference between those two shinings
and silencesl
But only her tongue was quiet.
Light on her feet as a thistle down,
alert as the little chipmunks which she
so dearly loved, it seemed as though
she only perched upon a chair ready
to take flight on the moments notice.
There were so many things to do in
the world, and it was so pleasant to
be doingl Calisty sometimes wished
that her well-beloved pa" felt that
way about it. But no one ever heard
her express any such desire. When the
idea became too insistent she took
refuge in the reflection which her
mother so often voiced: "The Lord
didn't make us all alike" and thereby
accounted for, and excused many
things which otherwise would have
been trying.
When it seemed as though strawber-
ries must be about the only fruit she
was tall enough to reach. she would
take her little basket betimes, tuck a
compact luncheon into her Invaluable
pocket, and spend whole days in the
fields, jubilantly bearing her treasures
home at tea time, to be taken next
morning to the village store to help
buy the scant patterns" of print and
gingham which made her own and her
mothers dresses. In winter she en-
Enthusiastically pulled hastings and
sewed on buttons to help on the tall
oring with which Esther Tubbs, an eX-
pert and tireless needle woman, filled
the short winter days and long winter
evenings. Later. as her mothers health
failed, she took the whole burden up
on her own slight, but erect shoulders.
The years went on and at length
she was left alone, and with desperate
ly lonely heart, but always CHEEKY
VOICE anu SIulltr Snt SCI hCA AoCAA ~
raise the mortgage on the farm SO dear
to her, the only home she had ever
known, though more than one had been
offered her, and refused for the loyal
love she bore her own.
Tailoring, berrying. summer board
ers, and work on the farm, assisted
only by a neighbor's boy and a few
weeks help in haying and planting
times-and still the goal was far away
and Calistys step had lost some of its
spring. though her voice and manner
were buoyant as ever, when suddenly
the unexpected happened. A small
legacy from an erratic and long-un~
heard from uncle in the West put the
farm safely into the tired and toll
worn, but unresting hands, and left
reassuring margin.
1t was at this time that it was rea-
sorably conjectured that "Calisty
might sit down hull heft."
At first it seemed that she might sat
isfy the prophets and prophetesses.
She had Uncle 81 Hill come and paint
the house outside and in, had the
rooms re-papered, re-carpeted. white
washed, kalsomined. curtained and
draped as only Miss Calisty could
have done without caustic comment.
Then, when all was swept and garn-
ished, she put the capstone on our
towering amazement by boarding the
bi-weekly stage attired and equipped
for travelling. Mehitabel Fogg assert
ed that Almiry Tucker had told her
that Miss Calisty had said that she
was going for trip to visit friends in
the city, but not one of us had ever
heard of her knowing anybody there,
and we keenly resented the semblance
of superior information in one who
was not really of us, having lived
all her life in the village. Therefore
we forebore to question or comment,
and awaited developments.
They came-two of them. They were
thin and big-eyed and distressingly
speckless and "slicked-up." They
were twins and eleven, and Calisty got
them at Home" and she was radi-
ant.
Then we knew-what we ought to
have known before-that Miss Calisty
did not want "to sit down hull heft,
that nothing would induce her to do it,
that it was as far from her ideal of
happiness as the East is from the
West
We soon grew to know Amos and
Janet and to like them right well And
after Miss Calisty had shown them
where the best berries grew and they
had spent scores of long, sweet, sunny
hours gathering them. their chests filled
out, and their cheeks grew rosy and