The Secret Bliss of Calliope Ipswich Read Online Free PDF Page B

hoping they’ll begin any night. I so love to go to sleep listening to them.”
    “And then in summer when the frogs are croaking in the grass behind the house and down by the creek —heavenly!” Evangeline added.
    Lawson chuckled. “I guess you girls aren’t missing the busy streets of Boston tonight then?”
    “Not a w hit,” Evangeline answered.
    The Ipswich family sat quietly in the cool tranquility of the evening for a time, the soft squeak of the porch swings swaying to and fro and the gentle breeze the only sounds.
    “This is sublime!” Kizzy whispered, exhaling a heavy sigh as she closed her eyes, savoring the feel in the air.
    “Here comes the lamplighter,” Shay exclaimed, although quietly. “I love to watch Mr. Gates light the street lamps,” she added. “Up that little ladder he carries to light a lamp, then down again and onto the next one. I wonder if he ever gets tired of lightin’ the lamps, Daddy. Do you think he does?”
    “I don’t know, Shay,” Lawson answered. “But I would guess that he wouldn’t continue to do it if he didn’t enjoy it to some extent.”
    Shay looked up to her mother. “Would it be wrong if I asked Mr. Gates if he ever gets tired of lightin’ the lamps, Mama?”
    Kizzy smiled. “I don’t think it would be wrong, honey. Just make certain you ask in a very polite manner, all right?”
    Smiling with excitement, Shay jumped up from her seat on the porch swing, racing down the steps to the street and the lamp in front of the Ipswich home.
    “I notice that Mr. Gates’ s limp isn’t nearly as severe as when we first met him last summer, Daddy,” Evangeline noted. “I suppose that whatever his ailment was, it’s improving.”
    “It would seem so,” Lawson agreed.
    Calliope smiled. Oh, how she loved the simple conversations of evening. Easy conversation was so consoling somehow, especially while enjoying out of doors and midst a sweet spring breeze.
    Calliope joined the rest of her family as they watched Shay scurry up to Rowdy Gates. Her little voice carried on the evening air, and it seemed its melodic lilt brightened the spirits of the man lighting the lamps of Meadowlark Lake, for he smiled as Shay babbled on to him.
    Rowdy Gates propped the small ladder he carried with him when lighting lamps against the lamppost just in front of the Ipswich home. He stepped up several rungs of the ladder, lit the gas lamp with the small torch he carried for that purpose, and then descended the ladder again.
    Calliope smiled when she heard Shay ask the man if he ever got tired of lighting the lamps.
    “Sometimes I sure do,” the man answered. His voice was deep, with a resonance of strength that yet somehow conveyed calm.
    “Then why don’t ya quit doin’ it?” Shay asked.
    Rowdy Gates chuckled. “Well, somebody has to light the streets, right?” he asked. “And besides, I hurt my leg a couple years back, and it started stiffenin’ up on me. But I found the more I made my knee bend, even when it pained me some, the better and better my leg got. Goin’ up and down this little ladder every night and mornin’ keeps my leg limber, you see?”
    Shay smiled. “Why, Mr. Gates, that’s the best reason I could ever imagine for lightin’ the lamps of town,” she exclaimed. “And I’m so glad it makes your leg better to do it.”
    Rowdy Gates chuckled, tweaked Shay’s chin , and looked up to where the rest of the Ipswich family sat on the front porch swings.
    “Good evening, Rowdy,” Lawson greeted. “Why don’t you come on up and visit a moment with us?”
    Calliope watched as Mr. Gates paused , obviously uncertain as to whether he wanted to linger in visiting.
    But Shay Ipswich was not one to be put off easily , and taking his hand, she said, “Oh, come on and linger awhile, Mr. Gates. You’re almost finished with the lamp lightin’ anyway.”
    Calliope was certain that there wasn’t a person who walked the earth that would be able to refuse the sweet