The Secret Bliss of Calliope Ipswich

by McClure, Marcia Lynn

  Having said that, however, I love Calliope Ipswich for the very reasons some people love summer. So I’m hoping that you felt that while reading her story.

  Another aspect of this book that I hope you enjoyed (because it was one of my very favorite things) was the whole Tom Thumb wedding thread. I know that if you weren’t familiar with Tom Thumb weddings before, you certainly are now, right? But just for fun, let me give you a little more history on how the Tom Thumb wedding originated, okay? I’ll try to be brief (which is hard for me when referencing things I’m really intrigued by).

  A boy named Charles Sherwood Stratton was born on January 4, 1838. Within five years of his birth, Charles Stratton (a little person) was touring the world with his distant relative, P.T. Barnum. Mr. Barnum gave Charles Stratton’s his stage name—General Tom Thumb.

  Tom Thumb was somewhat the Shirley Temple of the mid- to late 1800s, in that he began performing at the age of four. By 1843, General Tom Thumb was a world-renowned performer. But it was in 1863 when General Tom Thumb really made headlines! On February 10 of that year, Charles “General Tom Thumb” Stratton married the woman he had “at first sight” fallen in love with. Her name—Lavinia Warren. Lavinia was also a little person in the employ of P.T. Barnum. She and Tom Thumb were married in an extravagant affair held at Grace Episcopal Church. Fellow little person performer George Washington Morrison Nutt (stage named Commodore Nutt) stood as General Tom Thumb’s best man. Lavinia’s sister (who was even smaller than Lavinia) was Lavinia’s maid of honor.

  Following the wedding ceremony, Tom Thumb and Lavinia stood atop a grand piano in New York City’s Metropolitan Hotel to receive reception guests. The beautifully bedecked couple greeted some ten thousand well-wishers! In fact, a sentence in the New York Illustrated News read, “The History of General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren reads so much like some fanciful fairy legend that it is nearly impossible to regard the affair in any other light.”

  During their honeymoon trip, Charles and Lavinia were invited to the White House for a visit with President Abraham Lincoln! I mean, wow, right?

  (The above photo is of “The Fairy Wedding Group”—including Commodore Nutt, General Tom Thumb, Lavinia Warren, and Minnie Warren. At the time of their marriage, General Tom Thumb stood 2 feet 11 inches, and Lavinia stood 2 feet 8 inches.)

  The Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren wedding became known as “The Greatest Little Wedding” and was so adored by all that people began performing plays—miniature weddings with children as actors. These plays were dubbed Tom Thumb weddings. The popularity of these Tom Thumb wedding plays was so enduring that thirty-five years after the actual event itself, a publisher in Boston published The Tom Thumb Wedding in 1898. Many schools and churches performed Tom Thumb weddings merely for entertainment, while others performed them as fundraisers.

  Performances of Tom Thumb weddings strongly endured through the Edwardian period, and once in a while, you’ll still hear of one being performed today. If I were to ever jot down a real “dreams to do” list, putting on a Tom Thumb wedding would definitely be near the top! I’ve always been intrigued by the idea and would love to produce one. Naturally, I’d want to do everything in Victorian or Edwardian style—swallowtail suit coats for the boys, fancy, fancy dresses for the girls. Ridiculous excess would be the result of a Tom Thumb wedding I would do!

  And seriously, didn’t you just love the Tom Thumb wedding Calliope and everyone else in Meadowlark Lake pulled off? How fun! I would have loved to attend.

  And now my thanks to you for taking the journey through Rowdy and Calliope’s story. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it for you!

  Yours,

  Marcia Lynn McClure

  Snippet #1—Wanna know what the most difficult part of writing The Secret Bliss of Calliope Ipswich was? The fact that Evangeline’s story was so, so, so strong and forefront in my mind that I found it hard to focus on Calliope’s! It took me so long to push Evangeline’s story aside so that I could write Calliope’s.

  Snippet #2—I don’t know what it was about this book, but whenever I mentioned biscuits and butter, my mouth would just start watering so badly that I would have to stop writing and go whip together a batch of biscuits. I’m not kidding! In fact, one evening I went down to make some biscuits (so that I could take them right out of the oven, slather them with butter, and then eat them as the melting butter dripped all over my fingers), and my oven wouldn’t heat up! Can you imagine the panic I felt at that moment? Fortunately, I have an angel for a daughter. I quickly called my Sandy and asked her if she would take pity on her mother and make some biscuits for me. Now, keeping in mind that this was at about eight p.m. and that she’s the young, sleep-deprived mother of two energetic little boys, the fact that she instantly agreed and showed up on my doorstep twenty minutes later with piping hot biscuits for me to slather butter on is proof that she’s an angel! And since Kizzy’s biscuits are made from my own recipe, I thought I’d share it with you here in the author’s note snippets. You’ll love them! But there are a couple of little things that will help them turn out extra yummy that aren’t in the recipe. First of all, make sure the dough is sticky. Not too wet and gooey but sticky. Also, when you cut your biscuits, make sure the dough slightly swells up in those two little holes at the top of the biscuit cutter. We don’t want our biscuits thin and wimpy, right? Lastly, be sure and dab a little bit of milk over the surface of each biscuit before you pop the glass pan in the oven. I always bake mine in a glass baking dish, and I never grease the dish before putting the biscuits in. Yummy!

  Kizzy Ipswich’s Biscuits

  (Makes 6–8 biscuits in an 8×8 pan. Double recipe and bake in a 9×13 for more!)

  Ingredients:

  ¼ cup butter

  1 ¾ cup flour

  3 teaspoons baking powder

  ¾ teaspoon salt

  ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons milk

  Preheat oven to 450°F.

  Combine all dry ingredients, and mix well. Cut in butter until butter chunks are about the size of peas. Mix in milk. Dough should be kind of sticky.

  Dump dough onto floured surface, and press out or roll to same thickness as a biscuit cutter (approximately 7/8 of an inch). Cut into biscuits and place in glass baking dish. Smooth a little milk over the tops of each biscuit to help with browning. Bake at 450°F for 10–14 minutes.

  Note: I’ve been using this biscuit recipe since nearly the day I got married. I had to fiddle with it a little bit, but this one works just right! However, you may or may not want to increase the salt, per your personal preferences.

  Snippet #3—Why yes, Rowdy Gates is named in honor of Clint Eastwood’s character Rowdy Yates in the old TV western Rawhide! In truth, I’ve never seen one episode of Rawhide, although you know what a big fan I am of Clint Eastwood’s old spaghetti westerns like A Fistful of Dollars. However, for as far back as I can remember, my mom would tell me how handsome she thought Rowdy Yates was on Rawhide. And since the Three Little Girls Dressed in Blue trilogy was inspired by and dedicated to my mom, I thought a hero whose name she would associate with a handsome cowboy would be just perfect!

  Snippet #4—Mr. Longfellow and Evangeline are examples of my subconscious working without my knowing. I’ve always loved the name Evangeline. The meaning of Evangeline is very sweet: bearer of good news, or messenger of God. But I just think it’s a very pretty name. I will confess that I derive my knowledge of the existence of the name from the most famous source—the poem Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Evangeline was Longfellow’s first epic poem and was published in 1847. It’s a story of profound devotion and faithfulness—but with a very bittersweet ending. Thus, I’ve never read it all the way through. However, being that I do love the name so very much, one of Judge Lawson Ipswich’s daughters was named Evangeline. It wasn’t until I was almost finished writing this second book in Three Little Girls Dressed in Blue that I realized I’d included the character “Dex Longfellow” i
n the first and second books (whose name I derived from glancing over at a Longfellow poetry book when I was writing Amoretta’s story)—and that I had Mr. Longfellow being somewhat smitten by Evangeline. Ha ha! Mr. Longfellow and Evangeline Ipswich—proof that my subconscious sometimes pops things into my stories without my realizing it!

  Snippet #4—You know what I think is so sad? That nowadays elementary school kids can’t play kiss-and-chase! Some of my best elementary school memories involve being chased by boys at recess and chasing them back in return. Those were the days! Kids can get expelled for doing that now. It’s ridiculous. (Heavy sigh!) What is this world coming to when little boys and girls can’t even play kiss-and-chase at recess? Simple pleasures are being taken from us left and right. I’m just so glad that Warren Ackerman and Shay were able to play kiss-and-chase—just for the nostalgia it brings to those of us who loved it so much when we were kids. (That Warren…what a little dickens, eh?)

  Snippet #5—Photographs of vintage Tom Thumb wedding plays are very rare. And when you do come across one, it is very expensive! In fact, in my vast collection of vintage wedding photos, I only have one Tom Thumb wedding play photo (shown below), and I came by it purely as a stroke of luck! It’s also not as old as others I’ve seen, but I cherish and adore it. I count it as one of my greatest photographic treasures! Do you just adore the pastor to the left? What a cutie pie!

  The little bride and groom in the photo below look to be more Warren and Shay’s age. Too adorable! :)

  And now that you have a wee bit of history on Tom Thumb wedding plays, I’m sure you can see exactly why the idea so thoroughly appealed to the Ipswich sisters—especially Calliope!

  And now, just in case you missed the first book in the Three Little Girls Dressed in Blue Trilogy, enjoy the first chapter of

  The Bewitching of Amoretta Ipswich

  by Marcia Lynn McClure.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “But it is what it is, Amoretta,” Evangeline reiterated. “We’re here now. We’re not going back to Boston. And Daddy is so happy here…happier than he’s been since Mama died.”

  Evangeline paused, and Amoretta mumbled, “I know.”

  “Calliope and I are finding things to like about the West,” Evangeline continued. She wasn’t nagging—only offering encouragement. Therefore, Amoretta wasn’t at all perturbed with her older sister; she just wished she owned a bit of Evangeline’s endurance and ability to make anything seem positive.

  “Of course it’s very different here, but linger on the beauty of the vistas, if nothing else, Retta,” Evangeline buoyed with exuberance. “Just three steps out of town and the entire world seems to roll out before you!”

  “And people are so kind and friendly,” Calliope interjected. “Everyone has been so welcoming and helpful. I know you miss Boston, Amoretta, but out here…” Calliope paused to inhale a breath of fresh western air. Smiling, she continued, “Out here things seem so adventurous and new. And after all, you’ve got a more adventurous spirit than either Evangeline or I. Quite frankly, I’m surprised it’s you who seems so unhappy with our move.”

  Amoretta shrugged, still disheartened and nursing an inescapable feeling of lonesomeness—even for the sweet, loving company of her beloved sisters.

  “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she admitted. “So many things flit around in my brain, things that worry me to near nausea. And yet they’re all things I know shouldn’t bother me at all.”

  “Such as?” Evangeline prodded.

  But Amoretta shook her head. “You both will think I’m silly, petty, and just a plain old pouty baby.”

  “No, we won’t,” Calliope assured her. “We all have our secret strangenesses, Amoretta. All three of us.”

  “Exactly,” Evangeline agreed. “Everyone in the whole world owns little idiosyncrasies. It’s what individualizes us. So tells us, Amoretta…what kinds of things are bothering you so? What’s keeping you from being happy here in Meadowlark Lake?”

  Amoretta Ipswich looked from one of her sisters to the other. She wondered in that moment how miserable life may have been if she hadn’t been blessed with such loving siblings. She wondered how she would’ve endured her mother’s and baby brother’s deaths when she was just ten years old. She wondered whom she would’ve played with, confided in, and loved if not for Evangeline and Calliope.

  She felt a smile curl the corners of her mouth as she studied her older sister. Two years Amoretta’s senior, Evangeline Ipswich owned the strongest, most persevering character of the three of Judge Lawson Ipswich’s daughters—at least that’s how Amoretta felt. Evangeline had been just twelve when their mother had died, and yet she had comforted and cared for Amoretta and Calliope nearly as perfectly as their mother had. Amoretta had always admired Evangeline’s classic beauty as well—her raven hair and dark green eyes. She’d always thought that, other than their mother, there was no more beautiful woman ever born than Evangeline Ipswich.

  Amoretta looked to her younger sister Calliope next. Instantly a giggle bubbled in Amoretta’s throat, for there wasn’t a person on earth that could keep from smiling once they’d gazed at Calliope Ipswich. There was something in her countenance—a sweetness and implication of constant mirth—that bred amusement in whomever looked at her. Her sunshine-colored hair flounced when she walked, and her bright blue eyes seemed to hold the same twinkle of starlight. Calliope was exactly two years younger than Amoretta—to the day—and in that moment Amoretta grew anxious at the realization that she and her sisters were quite grown up. Calliope was already seventeen, officially a young woman, and somehow it caused a great melancholy to settle in Amoretta’s bosom.

  Looking from Evangeline to Calliope and back once more, Amoretta sighed, for there she sat—Amoretta Ipswich, with her plain brown hair and her plain green eyes. There she sat (plain old Amoretta Ipswich) right between the raven-haired beauty of Evangeline Ipswich and the golden-haired loveliness of Calliope Ipswich. She always mused how simply kaleidoscopic the three of them seemed, especially for sisters. Raven hair and emerald eyes—plain brown hair and plain green eyes—hair like spun sunshine and eyes as blue as the sky. Yes, it was how Amoretta perceived the physical appearances of herself and her sisters, like the varying patterns that appeared in the kaleidoscope her father had gifted their mother one Christmas.

  Oh, Amoretta wasn’t envious on any level. She just felt plain and simple in comparison with her sisters. She pondered a moment how different their personalities were as well, nearly as different as their physical appearances. Evangeline—strong, enduring, loving, and nurturing. Calliope—lighthearted and a bit silly-minded at times. Amoretta—adventurous, superstitious, and curious as a cat. She thought that if all three of Judge Ipswich’s daughters were combined into one, they might well make the perfect woman.

  Amoretta giggled at the thought, and Calliope urged, “What? What’s so amusing? And you’re supposed to be telling us your concerns.”

  “Yes,” Evangeline confirmed. “What’s bothering you? These things that are worrying you and keeping you from blooming where you’re planted?”

  Amoretta rolled her eyes with exasperation. “Evie…you know I hate that phrase,” she sighed. “I’ve been hearing it from the moment we arrived here, and I’m tired of it.”

  But Evangeline was neither vexed nor impatient. As always she smiled with understanding.

  “Just tell us your concerns, darling,” she said. “Calliope and I will help you sort things out.”

  Exhaling a heavy sigh of resolve, Amoretta began. “Well, things like…like…and I know it’s silly, for I know good and well Mama and baby Gilbert are in heaven and not here.”

  “But?” Calliope urged.

  “But we just left them there!” Amoretta exclaimed. “We just left them there in their lonely grave, all alone, with no one to visit and no one to talk to! It haunts me…haunts my thoughts in the middle of the night.” Amoretta wiped a sudden tear from her cheek. “I just think of them the
re all alone, cold when winter comes, no one to visit or talk to…no one to leave pretty flowers on their grave.”

  “But that’s why Father had them buried together, Rettie,” Calliope offered, “so that they wouldn’t be alone there…even though they’re truly in heaven and not even in the grave.”

  Amoretta nodded, brushing another insipid tear from her cheek. “I know that. But it haunts me all the same.”

  “And what else is haunting you, Rettie?” Evangeline asked.

  “I’m not telling you the other things,” Amoretta announced. “You’ll think I belong in the lunatic asylum.”

  Evangeline giggled as Calliope said, “Oh, we already know you belong there, Rettie. That’s not anything new.”

  Amoretta smiled, though she rolled her eyes with feigned disgust all the same.

  “Come on now,” Evangeline said. “Out with it. What else is keeping you from—”

  “Blooming where I’m planted…I know, I know!” Amoretta interrupted.

  “Besides Mama and baby Gilbert being left behind, what else is it?” Evangeline asked.

  Amoretta shrugged. She knew she might as well confess—for she knew neither Evangeline nor Calliope would let her escape their interrogation and efforts to help until she did.

  “It’s the…well…it’s the S in the peelings, if you must know,” Amoretta purged.

  “The Halloween apple peelings S?” Calliope exclaimed.

  “Oh, heaven help us!” Evangeline sighed with exasperation.