Our September free read is a short story Isabella wrote in 1910.
Mrs. Luther Smith-Mosher believes more in hard work than miracles, so when her beloved church faces foreclosure, she’s willing to do just about anything to save it. But as the foreclosure date draws near, Mrs. Mosher finds herself caught between feuding factions and impossible financial realities—until Pastor Powers challenges her to trust God completely, even when human solutions have failed.
YOU CAN READ “LINKS IN AN ENDLESS CHAIN” FOR FREE!
Isabella Alden never actually said so, but there’s an argument to be made Flossy Shipley Roberts may very well have been her favorite character. Of all the characters Isabella created, Flossy made the most appearances in her novels.
Flossy first appeared in Four Girls at Chautauqua. She was also a key character in TheChautauqua Girls at Home, Ruth Erskine’s Crosses, Four Mothers at Chautauqua, and Echoingand Re-echoing.
And while she was only mentioned in Judge Burnham’s Daughters and Ruth Erskine’s Son, Flossy made her final appearance—and played a major role—in Ester Ried Yet Speaking.
Perhaps one reason Flossie was so well-loved—by Isabella and by her readers—was that she was honest and truthful, yet deceptively strong. People constantly underestimated Flossy because she was soft spoken and was willing to please others.
But Flossy also had a strong moral sense of right and wrong. She relied on her Christian faith to give her the strength she needed to always do right rather than what others wanted her to do.
She was also kind hearted, especially when it came to children. Flossy was just as willing to teach a Sunday school class full of ragged orphaned street boys as she was to serve tea on her best china to a wealthy church deacon and his wife.
That was the case in Esther Ried Yet Speaking, when Flossy took on the task of teaching a Sunday-school class of rough street boys. During the first class, Flossy took an interest in one of those boys, Dirk Colson and his sister Mart. In the story, Flossy’s concern for them and the rest of the boys—and the actions she took to help them—reflected Isabella’s own principles.
Boys in Mullens Alley, New York, 1888, by Jacob A. Riis
Isabella was keenly interested in the problem of street children living in large urban areas like New York City. In 1889 she wrote:
There is, in New York City, a meeting known as the “Woman’s Conference.” On the second Friday of every month they meet together to discuss matters of importance and see what they can do to help along the good work which is being done in this world. A few weeks ago they took for their subject the “Street Children’s Sunday,” their object being to see what they can do to help these miserable, neglected, almost forgotten, children to something better than their sorrowful lives have yet known.
The Sun (a New York newspaper) covered that women’s conference and published an account of the meeting, including this paragraph:
At the meeting, which was presided over by Mrs. Lowell of the State Board of Charities, Mrs. Houghton, literary editor of the Evangelist, introduced a subject of the Sunday Life of tenement-house children, a large class of whom do not attend the Sunday schools, and whose Sundays, owing to the drunkenness of their parents, which is more general on that day than any other, and also to the overcrowding of the small rooms in which they live by the presence of the entire family on that day, are full of wretchedness and discomfort. “The children do not laugh enough,” Mrs. Lowell said. “They did not know how to play or to be happy.” This subject has been long of great interest to Mrs. Houghton, and out of this discussion germinated a plan to do something for those little wretched waifs of humanity to brighten their lives, and ultimately to make of them better men and women and more intelligent and worthy citizens.
Isabella strongly believed in the last line of the article: that making the lives of poor boys and girls better will ultimately help them grow to be better men and women.
Children sleeping on Mulberry Street, 1890, by Jacob A. Riis
She also had the example of Jacob Riis, a newspaper reporter who documented living conditions in New York slums. Through his written articles and photographs, he almost single-handedly educated Americans about the necessity of better living conditions for the poor. He advocated for clean drinking water, public parks, and child labor laws, and he was instrumental in implementing these and many other reforms in New York City. Riis and Isabella both attended Chautauqua Institution at the same time, and Riis was close friends with Bishop John Vincent, one of Chautauqua’s co-founders.
Jacob A. Riis in 1904 (from Library of Congress)
Isabella may very well have been thinking of Riis when she wrote about Flossy’s efforts to reach and influence the street boys in her Sunday-school class.
Dwellings of Death by Jacob A. Riis
In one scene, Flossy gets lost in the slums while trying to visit Dirk, and a street boy named Nimble Dick helps her find Dirk’s house.
Mrs. Roberts uttered an exclamation. The house was one of the most forlorn in the row, seeming, if the miserable state of the buildings would admit of comparison, to be more out of repair than the others. It came home to her just then, with a sudden, desolating force, that human beings such as she was trying to reach, and such as she hoped would live in heaven forever, called such earthly habitations as these homes. What possible idea could they ever get of heaven by calling it “home”?
“Do they have the whole of the house?”
She asked the question timidly, for the building looked very large, but she was utterly unused to city tenement life.
“The whole of that house?” Dick fairly shouted the sentence, and bent himself double with laughter. “Well, I should say not, mum! As near as I can calculate, about thirty-five different families have that pleasure. The whole of the house! Oh, my! What a greeny!” And he laughed again.
Mrs. Roberts exerted herself to laugh with him, albeit she was horror-stricken. Thirty-five families in one house! How could they be other than awful in their ways of living?
“I know almost nothing about great cities,” she said. “My home was in a much smaller one.”
This was the truth, but not the whole truth. Instinct kept this veritable lady, in the truest sense of the word, from explaining that she knew nothing about the abject poor, when she was speaking to one of their number.
But Flossy quickly set about learning all she could about Dirk, his sister, and their neighbors because she felt a distinct calling to help them. When she returned a second time to Dirk’s tenement building—this time accompanied by her husband—other residents of the tenement warned her to stay away from Dirk.
It was strange, she could not herself account for it; but with every added word of misery that set poor Dirk Colson lower and lower in the scale of humanity, there seemed to come into this woman’s heart, and shine in her face, an assurance that he was to be a “chosen vessel unto God.”
A Tenement Yard by Jacob A. Riis
To Flossy, helping Dirk and the rest of “her boys” was essential. And when someone tried to change her mind by asking what good Flossy could possibly do for such creatures, she replied:
“Don’t you think that Jesus Christ died to save them? And don’t you think he wants them saved? And will he not be pleased with even my little bits of efforts if he knows that my sincere desire is to save these souls for his glory?”
Her “little bits of efforts” may seem small at first, but Flossy soon begins to see results with “her boys.”
You can read all about the plan Flossy came up with, and how the boys responded, in Isabella’s novel, Ester Ried Yet Speaking.
You can read Isabella’s novel Ester Ried Yet Speaking for only 99 cents! Choose your favorite e-book retailer. (Your purchase from The Pansy Shop helps support this blog.)
In Isabella’s early days of teaching Sunday school, the blackboard was an innovation. In her books, Isabella often wrote about how intimidating the blackboard was for many teachers, and some refused to use it.
That’s what happened in her 1878 novel Links in Rebecca’s Life. In the story, a young woman named Almina had the charge of teaching young children their Sunday-school lesson, but she refused to use a blackboard:
“It is quite the fashion to rave over them … but I won’t have one. What could I do with it? I don’t know how to draw, and as for making lines and marks and dots … I am not going to make an idiot of myself. What’s the use?”
Isabella saw things differently. With inspiration from her old Chautauqua friend Frank Beard (creator of “Chalk Talks”), Isabella embraced the blackboard as a teaching tool, especially for her youngest students who were just learning to read.
Of course, not all Sunday-school teachers had Frank Beard for a friend and guide. And not all teachers had a talent for drawing and diagramming.
Publications like The Sunday School Times recognized that, and published “Blackboard Hints” in many issues of their magazine, showing teachers that simple lettered blackboard illustrations could be just as effective:
It was Isabella’s opinion that any lesson could be better taught by the use of a blackboard or a slate.
“Children are invariably more impressed with what grows into being before their eyes then with what is brought in a completed form before them,” she said.
In her Sunday school lessons, Isabella used pictures and objects whenever she could to illustrate her lessons, but she liked the blackboard better.
“I never attempt elaborate drawings. In the first place, I cannot draw anything. In the second place, but I would not if I could, in a Sunday school room. There is not time. The barest outline is all you can spare time for in all that you need. A blackboard used constantly throughout the lesson — a mark for this one, a dot for that, a crooked line for a river, and oval for a lake — that is better for an [children’s] class than a careful summing up of the lesson at the close.”
So Isabella often began her lessons by putting a dot or a simple symbol on the blackboard, just to get the attention of everyone in her class—at least until they found out what that mark was for.
“If I need such a dot or mark or line as the most mischievous and troublesome [child] there can make for me, I have won him as a rule for that day.”
You can learn more about Frank Beard and his “Chalk Talks” by clicking here.
You can read Isabella’s novel Links in Rebecca’s Life for only 99 cents! Choose your favorite e-book retailer. (Your purchase from The Pansy Shop helps support this blog.)
Our August free read by Faye Huntington is a delightful story about two topics very close to the author’s heart: the Christian Endeavor movement, and how sowing seeds of good can result in a bountiful harvest of blessings.
Like everyone in impoverished Castle City, twelve-year-old Tom Gates has given up hope of making a better life, until he has a chance encounter with a group of stranded Christian Endeavorers. Their kindness and faith inspire Tom; for the first time in his life he wants something the town has never had before: A Sunday school.
With his sister Lucy and their friends, Tom uses his wits to raise money and secure a building; and along the way, he ignites a fire of change that will shape the town for generations to come.
In previous posts we’ve talked about the great number of letters Isabella received on a regular basis from parents and children. She made a point of answering each of them, and one of the innovative methods Isabella used to keep up with the demand was to print her replies to their letters in The Pansy magazine.
The Pansy was a weekly publication she edited, with stories, poems, Bible verses for children of all ages. In almost every issue of the magazine, Isabella encouraged her young readers to join The Pansy Society, and pledge to overcome their faults, “in Jesus’ name.”
Here’s an example from an 1883 issue of The Pansy where she encouraged Pansy Society members to continue their good deeds, and charmingly replied to children who wrote to tell her of their progress.
DEAR PANSY SOCIETY:
My thoughts toward you this summer day — my good wishes and my hopes. Do you know where the book is that holds them? It is a wide-open book. I did not write it, and yet, the thoughts and pictures it holds just express what I would like to say to you.
Open your eyes and look above, beneath, around, and see if you cannot guess my riddle.
Does not the blue sky bend in blessing over you? the trees rustle out soft, loving words? the little birds sing “cheer up, cheer up?” The clear brook, gurgling over the stones, says “be true.” The buzzing bee says “be busy.” The daisies smile up into your faces, saying “be glad, be glad,” and the white lily bell re-echoes God’s own word, “be pure.” Then the rare fragrance from mountain-top and tree and flower floating all about you this sweet day— could it say anything but, “I love you, I love you, I love you”?
And these are my thoughts toward you; these too are God’s thoughts about you, written clear and plain in the book his own hands have made.
In the springtime just passed I presume many of you have made gardens and now have lovely blossoms as rewards.
Some of our boys and girls have been hard at work sowing pansy seeds; not those royal velvet or creamy white pansies, alone —they may have sown those, too —but I am talking now about our magazine.
Among those who have done faithful work in this way, is Fanny, a little Indiana girl. When those Western girls take hold of a thing they do it with their own souls.
Some new members have come into the Society; let me introduce them. Here are two little city boys, Eddie and Bertie. They both want to be “better boys.” They can, if they go and whisper that wish to Jesus.
Here is Maggie, a little Maryland girl, Maude, too, from Maryland. She writes a plain, clear hand. May her life be as free from faults.
Bessie sends us a pretty letter three inches square, very small, but holding more and better things than we’ve sometimes found in a whole sheet of foolscap. May the dear Lord help Bessie to be a true disciple of his. We are glad to welcome her to the Pansy Society.
Then there are Willie Porter, Claire Colman, Mabel and Lena and Addie; a little Pansy by the name of Lulu in Wisconsin, and Clarence Lathrop.
Minnie is working hard to put her “bonnet and books” in their place. If she keeps on she will someday be an orderly housekeeper, and maybe some of the Pansies will go and take tea with her. Won’t that be nice?
Lillie’s teacher says she is improving. Good news!
“Speaking back” has annoyed a certain little fellow in Philadelphia by the name of Jamie. But he “has made up his mind” to drop it. Stick to that, my dear boy. Remember, too, that if you must speak back, “a soft answer turneth away wrath.”
How many Pansies, I wonder, say to their tired mothers, “wait a minute,” and want their own way every time? Amy thinks them very bad habits and proposes to have no more to do with them; that is good.
But I really must stop, so good-by.
Lovingly, Pansy.
How exciting it must have been for a child to see their name in print in their favorite magazine! Do you think Isabella’s brief words of encouragement helped the children in their daily struggles to conquer their faults, “for Jesus’ sake”?
You can read more about the letters Isabella received in these posts:
In 1891, Isabella wrote this bit of advice for parents, adults and children:
Too many readers are all eyes for what they are reading, but have neither ears to hear the questions of those who notice their absorption, nor lips to tell to others the good things they are absorbing.
There is no better training of the memory than to talk over what you read. Try it in your home. Encourage the children to give, in their own language, the substance of the last story they have read, or the last book that has been given to them. When public lectures were the “fashion,” many a home intellect was encouraged and strengthened by the request to sketch, in brief, the points and conclusions of the last lecture. The same thing can be done with books and with even more lasting and beneficial results.
Isabella’s timeless wisdom encourages us to actively engage with what we read. Her call to action — “Try it in your home” — is as relevant today as it was over a century ago.
She knew that when children are encouraged to retell a story or narrative in their own words, they strengthen their memory of what they read, and their understanding of it.
It’s interesting that Isabella mentioned public lectures. She delivered quite a few lectures herself — at Chautauqua, at church meetings and schools, and in front of small gatherings in private homes. She knew that the practice of having a post-lecture discussion wasn’t just about sharing information; it was about analytical thinking and comprehension. And she knew the same benefits apply to books. When you talk through what you’ve read, you’re not just recounting facts; you’re processing ideas, forming connections, and perhaps even challenging your own understanding.
So when you think about it, many of us have been following Isabella’s advice without even realizing it!
If you’ve ever read a book with a child, then asked them to tell you about their favorite part … If you belong to a book club where you can discuss a book’s theme, characters, or plot with others … If you keep a reading journal to jot down thoughts and questions about a book you’re reading … you have followed Isabella’s advice!
What methods do you use to deepen your understanding of what you read? Share your tips in the comments section below.
What’s one book or article you’ve discussed recently that truly stuck with you, and why?
Isabella was a great reader and regularly read a variety of magazines, books, and newspapers. She enjoyed fiction, poetry, and biographies, and in the evenings, when her day’s work was done, she often read aloud to her family; she even read aloud in a Scottish brogue or other accents, depending on the characters in the book she was reading!
Being a teacher at heart, it’s not surprising Isabella would want to share her favorite stories and authors with the young subscribers of the magazine she edited, The Pansy. Several times she shared poems by one of her favorite writers, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Wiki Commons)
She frankly admitted that some people found Mrs. Browning’s poems too difficult for young people to understand or enjoy. “It is true that many, especially of her longer works, require a good deal of study, and were written for older readers” she wrote. But Isabella encouraged her young readers to try, and recommended Mrs. Browning’s “The Poet and The Bird” and “The Cry of the Children,” because they had always been favorites of hers.
In another issue of The Pansy, Isabella printed portions of Barrett’s poem “Aurora Leigh,” along with this illustration of the title character.
In 1892 she published a biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in The Pansy for her young readers, and it’s apparent that she admired Mrs. Browning a great deal. In the biography, Isabella tells the story of how Elizabeth was injured in a fall from her horse because she was over-eager “to do the thing she wanted to do, the moment she wanted it, and not wait for anybody.” Perhaps Isabella felt Elizabeth was a bit of a kindred spirit, because in her younger years Isabella was also impatient and had a tendency to want her own way.
She ended her biography by hinting at the admiration she had for Mrs. Browning, saying, “I have told you very little about the sweet, strong poet whose writings I hope you will learn to know and love. All I hoped to do was to introduce her and get you interested.”
You can read Isabella’s biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning by clicking here. Please note that near the end of the biography, Isabella references an illustration for Browning’s poem “Mother and Poet,” but the illustration did not, in fact, appear in The Pansy magazine.
What do you think of Isabella’s choice of Elizabeth Barrett Browning as one of her favorite poets? Have you ever read any of Mrs. Browning’s poems? Do you share Isabella’s appreciation for her work?
Have you ever asked a famous person for their autograph?
After seeing a play, did you ever go backstage or wait outside the theater at the stage door to congratulate a performer and ask them to sign the play bill?
Or at a sporting event, have you had a chance to talk to one of your favorite players and ask them to sign your hat or team jersey?
For many people, collecting autographs is an expression of genuine admiration for a person’s talent or achievements. It’s also a way for them to feel closer to someone they admire from afar.
That was the case for Leona McGill, a teenager growing up in Winona, Minnesota in the 1920s. She was an avid reader, and gained fame in her home town by collecting autographed letters from every author whose book she read. In July 1920 her hometown newspaper wrote an extensive article about her efforts.
In some of her letters to authors, Leona expressed her admiration for their writing talents. In other letters she asked authors for advice on how to launch her own writing career. She wrote hundreds of letters, and received an almost equal number of replies!
The majority of the replies she received were short and to the point, like this one from Booth Tarkington:
Zane Grey, famous for his novels about the American West, was a bit more friendly with his reply:
Another famous author Leona wrote to was Isabella Alden’s niece, Grace Livingston Hill. In her reply to Leona, Grace sounded very much as if she were writing to an old friend. Here is what she wrote:
I am afraid you will think I have been a long, long time getting an answer to your lovely letter, but if you could see the pile of letters lying on my desk that I have waded thru before I got yours and could know how very busy I have been all this fall and winter I’m sure you would forgive me. I write very few letters by hand because I have not time and the typewriter is so much faster but because you have asked it, I am writing this. Boys and girls are very near my heart and when they want something I know how much they want it.
You ask about “The Mystery of Mary”—yes—that is one of mine—one of what I call my “crazy” stories in distinction from the more serious ones.
I am sure I ought to be very proud to be put in the same list with such distinguished writers as have written you and I want to thank you for your pleasant words about my stories.
Leona must have written a very persuasive letter to receive such a lovely and thorough response! Or perhaps Grace simply knew the sort of letter a teenage girl would love to receive.
You can read the entire article about Leona McGill and see more of the authors’ replies by clicking here.
This month’s free read is a short story Isabella wrote in 1898 for a popular Christian magazine. It’s the story of the Pemberton family and the difficult year they endured leading up to a 4th of July celebration.
Nettie Pemberton can hardly believe it: the family fortune is gone! Although she finds a job working for a kind family, Nettie watches long-time friends disappear from her life. Even Edward Field—whom Nettie has known and loved since childhood—seems to have forgotten her very existence. Now, as the Independence Day holiday approaches, Nettie must face another disappointment that may turn out to be more than her broken heart can bear.
As editor of The Pansy magazine, Isabella Alden received a lot of mail. Some of it was business related; some letters were from adults or from parents of children who were influenced by her books. But the majority of correspondence she received was from the children who read The Pansy magazine.
Children wrote to Isabella for all sorts of reasons. They asked her for advice, and told her what they wanted to be when they grew up. They wrote to tell her about the kindnesses they did for others in Jesus’ name, and how well they took care of their pets. Just about anything one friend might tell another friend, they told Isabella.
Some of the things children shared in their letters, wound up in the pages of The Pansy. When Isabella began publishing acrostic puzzles each month in the magazine, her young readers made up acrostics of their own and sent them in, hoping to see them published someday in the magazine. And some of them were!
Others children sent stories, essays about their travels, and poems. Isabella read them all and selected the best to publish.
In 1887 Isabella published this sweet poem that captures the essence of the summer season. It was written by fifteen-year-old Mollie Gerrish.
Wandering in the meadows, Playing in the woodlands, Clambering o’er the hilltops In the summer sun, With the little squirrels Chasing one another— Truly it is summer That brings the children fun.
Summer at the seaside, Summer in the mountains, Summer in the country, Summer everywhere; How the people hasten Soon as summer cometh, Going far away From city’s bustling cares.
Yes, it’s truly summer That brings the happiest pastimes, Though sometimes dark clouds O’ercast the lovely sun. But soon vacation’s ended, And all return to duties, For the autumn dawns upon us, And our pleasant summer’s gone.
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Isabella Alden 