The Romance of a Christmas Card

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The Romance of a Christmas
Card

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Douglas Wiggin This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no
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Title: The Romance of a Christmas Card
Author: Kate Douglas Wiggin
Illustrator: Alice Ercle Hunt
Release Date: January 4, 2006 [EBook #17456]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ROMANCE OF A CHRISTMAS CARD ***

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The ROMANCE of a CHRISTMAS CARD

BY KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN
ILLUSTRATED BY ALICE ERCLE HUNT

BOSTON and NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The
Riverside Press, Cambridge
1916
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE BUTTERICK PUBLISHING
COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY KATE DOUGLAS RIGGS

[Illustration: Frontispiece]
The Romance of a Christmas Card

I
It was Christmas Eve and a Saturday night when Mrs. Larrabee, the
Beulah minister's wife, opened the door of the study where her husband
was deep in the revision of his next day's sermon, and thrust in her
comely head framed in a knitted rigolette.
"Luther, I'm going to run down to Letty's. We think the twins are going
to have measles; it's the only thing they haven't had, and Letty's spirits
are not up to concert pitch. You look like a blessed old prophet to-night,
my dear! What's the text?"

The minister pushed back his spectacles and ruffled his gray hair.
"Isaiah VI, 8: '_And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying whom shall I
send?... Then said I, Here am I, send me!_'"
"It doesn't sound a bit like Christmas, somehow."
"It has the spirit, if it hasn't the sound," said the minister. "There is
always so little spare money in the village that we get less and less
accustomed to sharing what we have with others. I want to remind the
people that there are different ways of giving, and that the bestowing of
one's self in service and good deeds can be the best of all gifts. Letty
Boynton won't need the sermon!--Don't be late, Reba."
"Of course not. When was I ever late? It has just struck seven and I'll
be back by eight to choose the hymns. And oh! Luther, I have some
fresh ideas for Christmas cards and I am going to try my luck with
them in the marts of trade. There are hundreds of thousands of such
things sold nowadays; and if the 'Boston Banner' likes my verses well
enough to send me the paper regularly, why shouldn't the people who
make cards like them too, especially when I can draw and paint my
own pictures?"
"I've no doubt they'll like them; who wouldn't? If the parish knew what
a ready pen you have, they'd suspect that you help me in my sermons!
The question is, will the publishers send you a check, or only a copy of
your card?"
"I should relish a check, I confess; but oh! I should like almost as well a
beautifully colored card, Luther, with a picture of my own inventing on
it, my own verse, and R. L. in tiny letters somewhere in the corner! It
would make such a lovely Christmas present! And I should be so proud;
inside of course, not outside! I would cover my halo with my hat so
that nobody in the congregation would ever notice it!"
The minister laughed.
"Consult Letty, my dear. David used to be in some sort of picture

business in Boston. She will know, perhaps, where to offer your card!"
At the introduction of a new theme into the conversation Mrs. Larrabee
slipped into a chair by the door, her lantern swinging in her hand.
"David can't be as near as Boston or we should hear of him sometimes.
A pretty sort of brother to be meandering foot-loose over the earth, and
Letty working her fingers to the bone to support his children--twins at
that! It was just like David Gilman to have twins! Doesn't it seem
incredible that he can let Christmas go by without a message? I dare
say he doesn't even remember that his babies were born on Christmas
eve. To be sure he is only Letty's half-brother, but after all they grew up
together and are nearly the same age."
"You always judged David a little severely, Reba. Don't despair of
reforming any man till you see the grass growing over his bare bones. I
always have a soft spot in my heart for him when