Sample Sunday: The Romance of a Christmas Card

          

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The newest addition to the Legacy Vintage Collection is a heartwarming tale set in Beulah, New Hampshire, in 1916, where one special Christmas card has the power to unite the town in the spirit of the season, as two wayward sons find their way home and a lonely young mother’s prayers are answered. In this sample from Chapter Two, Reba Larrabee, the minister's wife, finds inspiration for a Christmas card in her best friend Letty:

Letty, do you remember I told you I'd been trying my hand on some verses for a Christmas card?"

"Yes; have you sent them anywhere?"

"Not yet. I couldn't think of the right decoration and color scheme and was afraid to trust it all to the publishers. Now I've found just what I need for one of them, and you gave it to me, Letty!"

"I?"

Sample Sunday: At the Sign of the Jack O' Lantern

      

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In this sharply funny tale from the bestselling author of Lavender and Old Lace, newlyweds Harlan and Dorothy Carr have no idea what they're getting into when they inherit an old house from a distant relative and decide to spend a summer there to escape the city life, because it turns out that even though Uncle Ebeneezer is dead and gone, he still has plans for his house! And one by one, Uncle Ebeneezer's other relatives start showing up until the house is filled with colorful characters and ulterior motives.

So rather than post a chapter excerpt today, we thought we'd do things a bit differently and share some words of wisdom from one of our favorite characters, the oft-married Mrs. Dodd:

Mrs. Dodd on psychology:

(Mr. Perkins) “They are doing wonderful things now in the psychological laboratories. They have a system of tubes so finely constructed that by breathing into one of them a person’s mental state is actually expressed. An angry person, breathing into one of these finely organized tubes, makes a decided change in the color of the vapor.”

“Humph!” snorted Mrs. Dodd, pushing back her chair briskly. “I’ve been married seven times, an’ I never had to breathe into no tube to let any of my husbands know when I was mad!”

Sample Sunday: When A Man Marries

     

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A scene from Chapter Seven, in which our heroine, wealthy socialite Kit McNair, trapped in a houseful of quarantined high-society dinner guests with no staff to assist them, has drawn kitchen duty and attempts to cook breakfast with the help of the equally clueless yet irresistibly charming Tom Harbison.

I went downstairs despondently, and found that Mr. Harbison had discovered some eggs and was standing helplessly staring at them.

"Omelet—eggs. Eggs—omelet. That's the extent of my knowledge," he said, when I entered.

"You'll have to come to my assistance."

It was then that I saw the cookbook. It was lying on a shelf beside the clock, and while Mr. Harbison had his back turned I got it down. It was quite clear that the domestic type of woman was his ideal, and I did not care to outrage his belief in me. So I took the cookbook into the pantry and read the recipe over three times. When I came back I knew it by heart, although I did not understand it.

Sample Sunday: To Have and to Hold

      

A scene from chapter three, the aftermath of the arrival of a ship carrying brides for the new colony of Virginia, in which a few would-be husbands get carried away, and Captain Ralph Percy comes to the rescue of the beautiful woman he's had his eye on:


At the far end of the meadow, near to the fort, I met young Hamor, alone, flushed, and hurrying back to the more populous part of the field.

"Not yet mated?" I asked. "Where are the maids' eyes?"

He answered, with an angry laugh. "If they're all like the sample I've just left, I'll buy me a woman from the Paspaheghs!"

I smiled. "So your wooing has not prospered?"

His vanity took fire. "I have not wooed in earnest," he said carelessly, and hitched forward his cloak of sky-blue taffeta with an air. "I sheered off quickly enough, I warrant you, when I found the nature of the commodity I had to deal with."

"Ah!" I said. "When I left the crowd they were going very fast. You had best hurry, if you wish to secure a bargain."

"I'm off," he answered; then, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, "If you keep on to the river and that clump of cedars, you will find Termagant in ruff and farthingale."

Sample Sunday: The Prince and Betty

      

A scene from Chapter Seven, where Betty confronts John after learning that he is a prince and that he is in on her uncle's schemes to promote his new casino:

In days of old, in the age of legend, omens warned heroes of impending doom. But today the gods have grown weary, and we rush unsuspecting on our fate. No owl hooted, no thunder rolled from the blue sky as John went up the path to meet the white dress that gleamed between the trees.

His heart was singing within him. She had come. She had not forgotten, or changed her mind, or willfully abandoned him. His mood lightened swiftly. Humility vanished. He was not such an outcast, after all. He was someone. He was the man Betty Silver had come to meet.

But with the sight of her face came reaction.

Her face was pale and cold and hard. She did not speak or smile. As she drew near she looked at him, and there was that in her look which set a chill wind blowing through the world and cast a veil across the sun.

And in this bleak world they stood silent and motionless while eons rolled by.