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She didn't like to hev 'em talk much about the past, she told me, when she see what we was speakin' of, because it gener'lly made some of 'em cry, an' the i-dee was to keep the spirit of the home bright an' cheerful. 'So I see, s'I, dry. An' there was Christmas comin' on, an' nothin' to break the general cheerfulness but hot milk.
I hadn't looked the i-dee in the face an' thought about it, very financial. But I ain't sure you get your best lights when you do that. I'd just sort o' decided on it out o' pure shame for the shabby trick o' not doin' so. I hadn't said anything about it to Timothy or Silas or any o' the rest, because I didn't hev the strength to go through the arguin' agony.
"That's the i-dee," said Calliope, heartily; "if everything's foolish, it's just as foolish doin' nothin' as doin' somethin'. Will you bring over a kettleful o' boiled potatoes to my house Thanksgivin' noon? An' mash 'em an' whip 'em in my kitchen? I'll hev the milk to put in. You you don't cook as much as some, do you, Mame?" Did Calliope ask her that purposely? I am almost sure that she did.
But next morning, when we came to that scene, Signor Salvini held up his hand for a halt in the rehearsal, called for Alessandro, and, bidding him act as interpreter, said, smiling pleasantly, to me, "Now zee i-dee please you, madame?" for young Alessandro had betrayed my confidence. There was a mocking sparkle in Salvini's blue eyes, but he was politely ready to hear and reject "zee i-dee."
I ain't objectin' to good housekeepin' at all, but what I say is: Get your dust-rag big enough to wipe up somethin' besides your own dust. The Lord, He's a-housekeepin' too. "So, with that i-dee, I got above the shroud an' I begun on the woman some like she was my kitchen closet in the spring o' the year. "'What's your name? s'I. "''Leven, s'she. "'Leaven, s'I, 'like the Bible? "'Huh? s'she.
"Well, f'r Gawd's sake," exclaimed Black Tex at last, lowering his gun in a pet, "don't I git no satisfaction what's your i-dee?" "There's too much of this cat-and-mouse business going on," answered the little man quietly, "and I don't like it." "Oh, you don't, eh?" echoed the barkeeper sarcastically; "well, excuse me! I didn't know that."
"You see how I mean it. "Then comes the navy-blue woman an' says it's time for their hot milk, an' they all looked up, kind o' hopeful. An' I see that the navy-blue one had got 'em trained into the i-dee that hot milk was an event.
She sat with brooding eyes on the fire, her hands clasped about her knees. "The Lord Christ," said Calliope, "didn't hev nothin' of His own. An' yet He just give an' give an' give. An' somehow I got the i-dee," she finished, glancing up at me shyly, "that mebbe Christmas ain't really all in your stocking foot, after all. I ain't much to spend, and mebbe that sounds some like sour grapes.
You know I've always thought," she broke off, " well, you know I ain't a rill lot to do with, an' I always had an i-dee that mebbe sometime, when I got older, I might " I nodded, and she went on. "Well, I walked around among 'em up there canary birds an' plants an' footstools an' the whole thing fixed up so cheerful that it's pitiful.
The doors was to open to the general public at ten o'clock, an' the i-dee was to hev the Auxiliary get the pick o' the goods first, payin' the reg'lar, set, marked price. An' just as they was ready to begin pickin', up arrove the Proudfit pony cart with a great big box o' stuff, sent to the sale.
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