Though she thinks that learning these chores is important, Callie cannot understand why her brothers cannot do domestic work so that she could have time for science. She is, however, not allowed to take science classes but is expected to spend her free time learning how to cook, knit, and play the piano in order to be a proper lady. In fact, Lula wins prizes for her embroidery and her proper ladylike character makes Callie’s three brothers fall in love with her.Īt school, she attends lessons of spelling, reading, arithmetic, and deportment, where she gets an unsatisfactory result for Use of Hankie and Thimble, making her mother really disappointed. Unlike her, Callie's best friend Lula Gates is a real lady, who succeeds in all pursuits that Callie miserably fails. She is forced totake piano classes and cook to prepare herself to enter the society to one day find a husband and keep her own house.

Much to Callie’s fright, she buys her a book “The Science of Housewifery” as a Christmas gift. However, her mother has different plans for her and relentlessly tries to turn her daughter into a respected lady. Her summer becomes more interesting as she follows him along river banks to collect specimen and observe bacteria through a microscope (Lauren, 2011).

This becomes the beginning of collaboration and friendship between the two, and Callie soon finds herself spending all of her time with her grandfather. Fortunately for her, her grandfather has a copy of the book in his library, which he lends to her. After the incident, Calpurnia is forced to gather her courage and consult her grandfather about grasshoppers. Calpurnia, therefore, is forced to look for the book in the other place. Unfortunately, this resulted in an unpleasant encounter with the lady librarian, who refuses to lend her the book because it is not good for a Christian girl. She, therefore, decides to borrow a controversial book “Origin of the Species” by Charles Darwin from the public library. She wonders why the yellow ones are much bigger than the green ones and why they appear only in summer. One day, Calpurnia notices grasshoppers in the lawn around her house. Her interest in exploring nature and science leads to an increasingly close and life-changing relationship with her grandfather, an avid naturalist who had been a mysterious and daunting figure with a fondness for only appearing at mealtime. Loves nature and writes interesting questions and scientific observations down in her red notebook given to her by Harry, her oldest brother.

The evolution of calpurnia tate