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.
The 2025 Chautauqua Institution officially opens on June 21. Much has changed at the institution in the last 151 years, but thanks to Isabella Alden and her contemporaries, we can piece together what it was like to spend a summer at Chautauqua in its early days.
Before there were cottages and meeting halls, Isabella and her family spent their summers sitting on rough wooden benches as they listened to lectures in the open air, and sleeping under the stars or in tents.
The photo below was taken about 1876, which was the second year of Chautauqua’s existence. Isabella was only thirty-five years old, but she was already quite famous.
She was the best-selling author of over a dozen novels, including the first four books of her “Ester Ried” series. And The Pansy magazine was in its third year of publication, with Isabella as editor and chief contributor of stories and articles.
In those early years The Pansy magazine was sent every month (it later became a weekly magazine) to thousands of children. Isabella called each of her young subscribers her “Pansies.”
While at Chautauqua one day that summer of 1876, Isabella was walking through the grove, which was one of her favorite spots at Chautauqua. She wrote:
Chautauqua is so beautiful this year. Don’t you know, I met today one of the little Pansies! As I was walking through the grove, there came a sweet-faced little girl to me, and she said in a low, sweet voice:
“If you please, I live in Ohio, and I’m going home today, and I’d like so very much to kiss you, then I could tell all the little girls that I kissed Pansy.”
You may be sure that I gave her the very warmest kiss I had, and told her to tell all her little Pansy friends that part of the kiss was for them.
A ladies’ magazine once printed an article about Isabella and commented that one of the strongest and most attractive elements of her character was her humility in regard to the great good she accomplished through her writing. But in truth, she was keenly aware of the power she had over her readers, and she always used that power to help them come to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. Just think of the story the little girl in the grove told to her friends back in Ohio! How many of her little friends do you think were influenced to know and love Jesus, all because of Isabella’s kindness to a child and that one little kiss?
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be famous?
Isabella Alden circa 1880
Imagine walking into a room filled with people who burst into applause as soon as you enter. Then imagine that you’ve agreed to speak at an assembly that’s filled to overflowing with people, seated and standing in every available space, who hang on your every word.
That’s a little taste of what life was sometimes like for Isabella Alden. Today it might be hard for us to understand just how famous and beloved she was by people across the country. In a time before social media, television, and radio, Isabella had a nation-wide reputation as both an author and as a respected and knowledgeable public speaker on a variety of topics, including the development of Sunday-school lessons.
In 1886 Isabella and her husband, Rev. G. R. Alden, were living in Cleveland, Ohio, where Rev. Alden was pastor of a Presbyterian church. But when he wasn’t preparing sermons, and she wasn’t writing novels and stories for Christian magazines, the Aldens traveled the country to help churches design and implement well-organized, robust Sunday-school curriculums.
In June of that year they were invited to attend a conference in Wellington, Kansas, where the local churches hoped to find a way to better manage their Sunday-school offerings to children and adults. The Aldens accepted.
From The Conway Springs Star (a Kansas newspaper) on June 11, 1886
As soon as the local newspapers announced that Isabella Alden would be among the featured speakers, the churches were guaranteed to have an excellent turnout for their conference.
from The Monitor-Press (Wellington, Kansas) June 11, 1886
Here’s how the local newspaper described the scene on the first night of the conference when Isabella made her appearance:
from The Wellington Monitor, June 18, 1886.
The meetings began on a Monday afternoon and Isabella took an active role, according to the agenda:
from The Wellington Monitor, June 11, 1886
In one of the sessions she spoke about how to design Sunday-school lessons for children in the Primary Class age range of four to eight years:
from The Wellington Monitor, June 18, 1886
In another session she participated in a discussion on the proper way to prepare teachers for the work of teaching meaningful lessons:
from The Wellington Monitor, June 18, 1886
On Monday evening she read one of her short stories, “People Who Haven’t Time and Can’t Afford It,” which, the newspaper reported, “held the close attentions of the audience in spite of the discomforts of the crowded room.”
The rest of the conference was similarly busy for Isabella. The last night of the conference was “attended by an audience larger than the seating capacity of the church.” Isabella closed the evening session by reading a paper she wrote about “the Penn Avenue Church” and the difficulty the church had raising money for Sunday school purposes and for books to stock a small church library.
Eventually, Isabella revised that “paper” into a short story called “Circulating Decimals,” which was published two years later.
By every measure, the 1886 Sunday School Institute in Wellington, Kansas was a resounding success.
And with Isabella’s many contributions—from offering practical advice to reading stories with a message—it truly was a “feast of good things.”
One final note:
Isabella may have been a famous celebrity, but when she and Reverend Alden made these trips, they rarely stayed in a hotel. Instead, they were usually invited to stay in the home of one of the local church members. In Wellington, Kansas, they stayed in the home of George and Laura Fultz. Mr. Fultz was a leading businessman in Wellington, and he and his wife were active members of the Presbyterian church.
George Fultz
How lucky were Mr. and Mrs. Fultz! Isabella and her husband stayed with them for five nights. Imagine having your favorite author sit at your dinner table, join you in a morning cup of coffee, or share an evening on your front porch, relaxing and watching the sun set together after a full day of meetings.
If you were fortunate enough to have Isabella as a guest in your home, what kind of questions would you ask her?
All of the short stories mentioned in the post are available for you to read for free. Just click on any of the highlighted titles or cover images to download your copy from Bookfunnel.com.
Although there was a nine year age difference between them, Isabella Alden and her older sister Marcia were as close as two sisters could be. They both married ministers in the Presbyterian church, and they both helped their husbands serve their congregations with kindness and compassion.
The two families often lived together, as well. In Florida they combined their resources to build a large home where both families could live together comfortably while Isabella’s son Raymond and Marcia’s daughter Grace attended college. (You can read more about that here.)
The Alden home in Winter Park, Florida, where the Aldens and Livingstons lived while in Florida.
Marcia wrote stories and novels for all age groups, from very young children to adults; and in her adult stories she often wrote about the challenges of adult relationships. This month’s free read is a short story she wrote about newlyweds finding their way through the early days of their marriage.
Newlyweds Annette and Philip Lyman agree on everything. From the books they read to furnishing their house, their tastes are in perfect harmony. But when Philip criticizes Annette’s choices in the kitchen, their first quarrel quickly escalates until they can barely utter a civil word to each other. Who can help this once loving couple find love and harmony again?
Isabella was a teacher at heart, and one of the things she enjoyed teaching the most was how to read and study the Bible.
From an early age she developed a life-long habit of reading the Bible every morning, and she encouraged others to do the same. She regularly made notations and shared Bible verses that helped strengthen her daily walk with God, and she shared those notations to inspire her readers to make a study of their own.
Her “Daily Thoughts” differed from other Bible devotionals of her time because Isabella didn’t print the actual verse; she only gave the citation, so her readers would have to open their Bibles to read the verses themselves. She did, however, include a brief question or comment about each verse to help her readers better understand it.
Other times, she paired her study of the Bible with an interesting biography, novel or sermon she recently read. For example when her studied I John, 4:1-21, she gave the Bible chapter a title: “The Proof of Our Allegiance to Christ.”
Then, beside individual verses in the chapter, she noted a word or two about how that verse instructed her to act as someone who loved and followed Jesus:
v. 1. Thoughtfulness v. 2. Confession v. 4. Victory over error v. 5. Unworldliness v. 6. Willingness to hear and heed the truth v. 7. Love v. 8. Love v. 9. Our lives v. 11 Love v. 13 Love v. 14. The spirit that is in us v. 15. Confession v. 16. Love vs. 17, 18 Fearlessness or courage v. 21 Love
To this she added a beloved quotation from a sermon she had read by Rev. Charles Stanford, and which she felt perfectly summarized I John, chapter 4:
“Jesus asks not that our love should equal his, but resemble his; not that it should be of the same strength, but of the same kind. A pearl of dew will not hold the sun; but it may hold a spark of its light. A child by the sea, trying to catch the waves as they dash in clouds of crystal spray upon the sand, cannot hold the ocean in a tiny shell; but he can hold a drop of the ocean-water.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE METHODS ISABELLA USED TO STUDY THE BIBLE?
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE WAY TO READ AND STUDY THE BIBLE?
In 1891 when Isabella Alden was the editor of The Pansy magazine, she took up a very special project on behalf of her readers.
She wrote to several prominent Christian leaders and asked them to share the one thing they wished they had done, or not done, or managed differently in their lives.
Quite a few of the replies she received were from well-respected ministers who had regrets about their early Christian life. Here are a few:
“I regret that in my boyhood I did not read the Bible more, and did not memorize a greater number of its most precious promises.”
E. Hez Swem Pastor, Second Baptist Church, Washington D. C.
Pastor E. Hez Swem
“My most painful regret in regard to my early life is, that I did not become a member of the Church before my mother died, that she might have carried into eternity the comfortable knowledge of the fact that her only child was on the Lord’s side, a thing she greatly desired. It was simply postponing my public profession; and she died without the sight!”
Charles F. Deems Pastor of the Church of the Strangers, New York, New York
“There is nothing in my life that I regret so frequently and so deeply, as that I was not a more earnest and active Christian during the years of my college life. A professed Christian when I entered the institution, though without a thought of the ministry of Christ, my life was largely one of spiritual idleness. It was in the future that I hoped to serve my Master. Present opportunities were neglected.”
Rev. Henry Darling, D. D. President of Hamilton College
Rev. Henry Darling
Some of the responses were about not making the most about the time they were given:
“I look back over my life and feel as if I had walked like one with a string of priceless pearls in his hand, and the cord had been carelessly broken, and they had slipped off one by one as I walked, and were forever lost. Only the days are so much more precious than pearls!”
J. H. Ecob, D.D. Pastor Second Presbyterian Church, Albany, New York
“The great regret of my life is my failure to realize the value of life till the larger part of it has slipped away. I have always been what might be called “a busy man,” but the thing which troubles me is, that I have for the most part been busy with trifles, and have trifled so much with life’s real business.”
P. S. Henson Pastor, Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois
A few wrote about not recognizing the value of opportunities they let pass:
“I greatly regret an early want of thoroughness. I was too willing, in my early days, to let a hard thing balk me. Such an enemy of early unthoroughness has been in my late days a miserable and plaguing nuisance.”
“I regret having failed to understand the value of such accomplishments as may be gained along with a more substantial education. For instance, I do not know music, so useful to a pastor, as well as so important to a father as an aid to making his home pleasant to his children. I might easily have gotten it in spare hours at any time before entering my profession; but now there are no spare hours! This is only one of several things that I once underestimated, but whose value I now see very clearly.”
Dr. Teunis S. Hamlin Pastor of President William Henry Harrison Pastor, Church of the Covenant, Washington, D. C.
Dr. Teunis S. Hamlin
Isabella and her husband were close friends with Rev. George Hays, who wrote the next “regret.” She noted that despite Rev. Hays’ many plans for his life, he was instead “led, as a child, by his Father’s hand.”
“The number of foolish ambitions that entered my head when young was large. The hard work done to fit myself for places from which God’s good providence saved me, is not any part of my regrets. Not one of the positions I wanted did I ever get.”
Rev. George P. Hays, D.D., LL.D. Pastor Second Presbyterian Church, Kansas City, Missouri
Some “regrets,” like this one, were about showing kindness to others:
“I regret that I have not better acquired the art of pleasantly acknowledging the kindnesses shown me, and of showing my appreciation of people whom I really do appreciate. My influence with many would be greatly increased if I could but make them understand how warmly my heart goes out to them.”
Dr. William J. Beecher Professor of Hebrew in Auburn Theological Seminary
Dr. William J. Beecher
Last, but not least, is a letter Isabella received and almost didn’t share, because she didn’t want it to appear she was praising her very own magazine:
“The greatest regret that I have for lost opportunities in my youth is that I did not have the benefit of such magazines as The Pansy. No amount of reading in after years can make up for this serious loss in youth. I feel this so keenly that I seek every opportunity in my lectures and writings to impress upon parents the necessity of feeding the minds as carefully as they are wont to feed the bodies of the young immortals entrusted to their care. So I thank God for The Pansy, which has such a sweet, tender, yet strong way of putting thoughts into the heads and hearts of the young people.”
Helen M. Gougar Attorney, newspaper journalist, and women’s rights advocate
Helen M. Gougar
There are many adults today who will agree with Mrs. Gougar!
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE REGRETS THESE CHRISTIAN LEADERS SHARED?
Isabella Alden and her best friend Theodosia Toll (who wrote novels and stories under the pen name Faye Huntington) were as close as sisters. Although they both lived in New York state—Isabella near Johnstown and Theodosia near Rome—their homes were over seventy miles apart. Despite the distance, they visited each other often, and were well-loved “adopted” members of each other’s family.
Isabella stayed at the Toll family home so often, she came to know the neighbors, and became close and dearly-loved friends with them, as well. From simple family dinners to celebrations of major life events, the Toll family and their neighbors included Isabella among the invitees.
So, when Mr. and Mrs. Hall—one of the Toll neighbors—decided to commemorate their fiftieth wedding anniversary with a party, Isabella received an invitation. At the time, she was a married woman, living with her husband in Indiana, where he was pastor of a Presbyterian church; but Isabella did not want to miss the occasion. She made the journey to New York, and a few years later, she published an account of the family and their remarkable history:
GOING WEST SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO.
Seventy-five years ago young Samuel Hall left his wife and babies in the old home in the Connecticut Valley and came into what was then “the West” prospecting. If you look on the map, following the Mohawk River along its westward course, to where it seems to turn to the north, you will find its source in that direction.
Just to the west of this turn you may find the city of Rome set down; not the Rome of ancient and sometimes fabled history, but our quiet little city of Central New York, known before the Revolutionary War as Fort Stanwix, and during the war as Fort Schuyler. It was Fort Schuyler which was besieged by Colonel St. Leger in 1777. He had under his command an army of British soldiers, some Americans who favored the Royal party and were known as tories, and a large number of Indians. About seven miles east of the fort, at Oriskany, a company of American soldiers, on the way to help the people at the fort, fell into an ambush and four hundred of them were killed or taken prisoners by the Indians. General Herkimer was so badly wounded that he died a few days later. I have been upon this old battle-ground and seen what is left of the tree under which they say the brave old general lay after he fell from his horse.
It was here on this historic ground that young Mr. Hall determined to make a home for his little family. Striking out from the then small village of Rome, he passed through, dense and unbroken woods, not only unbroken, but untrodden. A narrow trail led to some small settlements further on. At length his choice was made, the home was located. It was spring, and soon a clearing was made, ground plowed and corn planted. A cabin of logs was built—things made as comfortable as possible. Then he went back for his family, expecting to return in time to harvest his crop of corn and get settled for the winter. With two strong horses and a covered wagon such as was called an “emigrant wagon,” he conveyed his family and all their household goods to the new country.
Sketch of an “emigrant wagon” Isabella included with her history of the Hall family.
What a sad parting that was which took place as they all left the old home. It was then a long way to Central New York! Farther than half around the world would seems now! Mails were infrequent, so that communication as well as visits must necessarily be rare. Day after day for more than a week they rode until one morning a few hours only after they broke camp, they came out upon a rise of ground where there was a clearing before them, and Mrs. Hall exclaimed, “What a pretty view!”
There was a stream of water winding through the valley, and Mrs. Hall afterwards said:
“I never dreamed it was to be my home, but I thought it was the prettiest spot I had ever seen, and I have never changed my mind about it.”
And it was home. Upon the brow of the hill stood their cabin in which they were soon settled. And after a little the neighbors began to call upon these new-comers. Their nearest neighbor was two miles away! Three miles in another direction was the second! These settlers had helped the young pioneer with his log-rolling and now came with their wives to welcome the family.
Undated, hand-colored photo of a farm near Rome, New York.
Soon others came to settle near them, then others, until the whole country was inhabited. A schoolhouse and a church were built, and presently a large frame-house took the place of the little log one, and the children grew up and married, and the old people lived on in the same place till they went to their home above.
Only a few years ago, not many months since, I attended a golden wedding in the old house; one of the little ones who travelled in that emigrant-wagon on that long, slow journey up the valley of the Connecticut, winding through the passes of the range of hills that bounds the New England States on the west, then keeping to the low ground of the Mohawk Valley. One of these had been fifty years married, and relatives and friends came together to celebrate. Some of the guests had likewise travelled in emigrant-wagons and lived in log-cabins, and the younger ones gathered around to listen to their stories of pioneer life, and some way, as we listened to these reminiscences, we seemed to be living in a very tame period.
We said within ourselves, “What wonderful material these people have for story-telling. We shall have nothing like it to tell our grandchildren when we are old.”
We never rode in a great canvas-covered wagon, nor hunted a bear, nor were lost in the woods, nor rode forty miles to mill and the post office. But one old lady summed it all up by saying:
“Marvellous are the ways by which the Lord has led us.” That comforted us; we could say that.
Do you have family stories that have been handed down through generations?
In last week’s post we talked about Isabella’s talent for writing, and how she created characters and dialog that were realistic and relatable.
But Isabella didn’t hesitate to change her writing style from time to time, if it meant she might attract more readers and win more souls for Christ.
In 1884 she published a collection of short stories that were unique for Isabella. Each story took place in either France or Greece and each was written in the style of a fable or old-fashioned fairy tale.
This month’s free read is one of those short stories. “The Mysterious Benefactor” is set in France and tells the story of a wealthy Parisian lady who embarks upon a tour of the French countryside where she comes upon a family in need.
Famous opera singer Madame de G— anonymously embarks upon a tour of the French countryside to find rest and peace from the demands of her notoriety. But when she comes upon a family in need, she feels compelled to help them. Can she do so without revealing her true identity?
You can read “The Mysterious Benefactor” for free!
There’s no question that Isabella Alden was a talented writer. The plots for her novels were inventive and realistic, and each of her characters were carefully drawn.
Her niece, author Grace Livingston Hill, wrote that when she was old enough to learn to read, she “devoured [Isabella’s] stories chapter by chapter.” And when Isabella wrote the final chapter to one of the novels she’d been writing, the family often crowded around her, knowing Isabella would read her work aloud. Grace said:
“We listened, breathless, as she read, and made her characters live before us. They were real people to us, as real as if they lived and breathed before us.”
They were probably real people to Isabella, too. When she was interviewed in 1892 for a Philadelphia newspaper, she talked about her writing process. For many years she used a typewriter to write her stories (you can read more about that here), but by the time she was interviewed for the newspaper article, she was using dictation. It greatly increased the speed with which she wrote her books, and added an inadvertent element of entertainment to the task. Here’s how it was described in the article:
“The morning hours are devoted by Mrs. Alden to her literary work, and a person standing in the hall in front of the studio door is highly amused to hear the animated conversation with the varying tones indicative of stern displeasure, then of baby prattle, to be followed soon by the earnest and softened accents of the lover’s pleading; a monologue by Mrs. Alden as she personates her various characters. They are all seen in life, they must all appear in her books.”
Isabella’s characters seem alive and real to us because she wrote about the kind of average people we meet every day; and when her characters come to a crossroads in their lives and face tough decisions, we understand what they’re going through because we (or someone we know) has dealt with similar situations. Her characters cause those of us who read her books to search our own hearts and “see ourselves as God saw us.”
Grace wrote that Isabella’s characters “still live within our memories like people we have known intimately and dwelt among. Ester Ried and Julia Ried, the Four Girls at Chautauqua, Mrs. Solomon Smith—I almost expect to meet some of them in Heaven.”
Do you have a favorite character from Isabella’s books?
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![Newspaper clipping: The committee in charge of the arrangements make this further announcement: “We desire again to call the attention of all parents, Sunday School workers, and especially all young people, to this unlooked for opportunity to meet and greet Mrs. G. R. Allen [sic], “Pansy.” She is known and loved as the author of such helpful and thrillingly interesting books as “Ester Ried,” “Four Girls at Chautauqua,” “The Hall in the Grove,” “One Commonplace Day,” etc. Her engagement with the State Sunday School Assembly at Ottawa, Kansas, brings her west at this time and we trust that a “crowded house” will show our appreciation of the extra effort she is making to come to Wellington. The other speakers from abroad, and those among us who have kindly agreed to assist in these meetings, will give us a feast of good things. Come everybody and enjoy the feast.](https://isabellaalden.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-11-05.jpg)
Isabella Alden 