This month’s free read is a short story Isabella wrote about a young man who had the courage to live his convictions.
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Quiet and thoughtful, John Cameron has always been “different” than his brother and sisters. When an opportunity arises to improve their impoverished finances, the family is ready to jump at the chance. Only John—and his inconvenient convictions—stand in their way.
This month’s Free Read is a short story Isabella wrote about the consequences of judging people based on first impressions. The story was published in a Christian magazine in 1897.
Annoying, uncultured, and uneducated. That’s the impression Irwin Ford has of young Gardner, a college student who happens to live in the same boardinghouse. Irwin does his best to avoid all contact with Gardner, until one fateful evening when their chance conversation proves to be the catalyst for change in the lives of both men.
In Isabella Alden’s lifetime, women had to rely solely upon the men in their lives for the basic necessities of life—food, shelter, and clothing. She knew all too well that unmarried women had little choice when it came to securing a respectable job, and even then they barely earned enough to eke out a living (more about that in our next post).
That’s certainly the case for Miss Esther Beekman, the heroine of Isabella’s short story “Their Providence.”
Miss Esther Beekman would dearly love to find a place where she can work for her room and board while she finishes her education. Mrs. Richards is in desperate need of help to turn her topsy-turvy household back into the perfect, well-ordered home it once was. So when Mrs. Richards allows Esther to stay on a temporary basis, both ladies find themselves on trial and wondering if it was accident or providence that brought them together.
In 1877 a rural Pennsylvania minister named Willard Parsons and members of his congregation began a program that would later become The Fresh Air Fund. The idea behind the program was simple: members of the congregation opened their homes to the neediest of children from disadvantaged neighborhoods in New York City, and provided the children with a few weeks of fresh air, healthy food, and new experiences.
Later, as the program expanded, The Fresh Air Fund opened summer camps that offered many inner-city children their first glimpse of a lake, green grass, and wide open fields.
Games on the playgrounds of the St. Vincent “Fresh Air” home for destitute children, Spring Valley, N.Y. about 1910 (courtesy the Library of Congress)
One such camp was The Salvation Army Home in Spring Valley, New York. Only 35 miles from New York City, the camp taught children to hike, grow fresh vegetables, and roam the great outdoors.
Childhood days at the Salvation Army home for destitute children, Spring Valley, N.Y. (courtesy, Library of Congress)
Isabella was a believer in the benefits of Fresh Air programs. She also believed individuals could impact the lives of destitute children just as well as large charitable organizations. That was the premise of her novel Monteagle (which you can read more about here). In the novel Mrs. Hammond helps poor Dilly West escape the summer heat by taking her along on a trip to the Monteagle Assembly in the cool Tennessee mountains.
It’s also the theme of this month’s free read, a short story Isabella wrote in 1897.
To escape the city heat, wealthy Miss Katherine Eaton spends the summer on a country farm, where she learns about the fresh air program for city waifs. Soon, her imagination takes hold of the idea, and she begins to plan her own program to teach a farm girl the benefits of city life. But it may be that Katherine is the one in need of a lesson.
In 1888 Isabella added a hint of romance to this short story about two little girls who wanted to give their favorite aunt a very merry Christmas.
Something is wrong with Aunt Mary, and Kate and Hattie are determined to find the perfect Christmas gift to make their dear aunt smile again. But with only ten cents to spend, the girls seek advice from the wisest man in town, and end up receiving a Christmas surprise of their own!
In 1893, when Isabella’s books were at the height of their popularity, a newspaper article about her mentioned that if forced to choose one word to describe Isabella’s work, that word would be “Help.”
The writer of the article made a very insightful observation. Typically, the main characters in Isabella’s books were, indeed, helpers. No doubt Isabella made them so as a reflection of her own belief that every effort counts. In her stories, no contribution was too small, and no effort was too little, as long as her characters did their best and made the most of what God had given them.
Today’s free read reflects that theme, when Mrs. Burns (one of the story’s main characters) asks the question, “How can I turn a small donation to help missions into a large and meaningful contribution?”
When Mrs. Burns is given a five-cent budget with which to help the cause of church missions, she can’t believe her ears. Five cents! What could she possibly accomplish with a small, insignificant nickel?
But with God’s help and a little imagination, Mrs. Burns soon discovers that her five-cent investment can accomplish great things.
Or you can select BookFunnel’s “My Computer” option to receive an email with a version you can read, print, and share with friends.
Reader Tip: As you read the story, be on the look-out for one of Isabella’s most beloved characters from The Chautauqua Girls series to make a brief “cameo” appearance!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for another fun drawing, giveaway or free read!
If you’ve read Isabella’s novel The Little Card, you’ll remember that Teenie Burnside used her artistic talents to draw and embellish a little card on which she had written one of the Bible’s Golden Texts. Teenie hoped that by sharing the cards she could encourage someone to read God’s Word.
But when Teenie’s health prevented her from fulfilling that dream, the girls in her Sunday-school stepped in and began to make more cards. Some were exact copies of the one Teenie made; others were embellished and colored with paint. But no matter their design, the cards all included a Bible verse of God’s promises to us.
Today’s giveaway is a collection of ten Golden Text Bible verses you can color and embellish, just as Teenie and her friends did.
Isabella Alden and Theodosia Foster were not just best friends—they were writing partners, too.
Like Isabella, Theodosia was a prolific writer, and published her work under the pen name “Faye Huntington.”
When they got together to write a story, their styles were so similar, and they were so in tune with each other’s talents, it’s impossible for us to tell which of them wrote what chapter or scene.
Today’s free read is a novel they wrote together about the love of money and how it can change (or reveal) someone’s true colors.
Lawrence Brenholz always knew he would inherit his grandfather’s millions once he satisfied the provisions of the will. But on the eve of that momentous day, when all the Brenholz millions would be his, Lawrence’s ornery old Uncle Amos—long thought to have died in the wilds of Colorado—makes a shocking appearance that threatens Lawrence’s inheritance.
With Uncle Amos’ unreasonable demands disrupting every area of his life, how can Lawrence ever again find peace for himself and those he loves?
When Isabella edited The Pansy magazine, she made sure each issue included (in addition to her own stories) a wide variety of content, such as essays on science, history, life in foreign countries, and biographies of famous people.
Her family members regularly contributed articles, anecdotes, stories, and poems.
Isabella’s husband, her son, her sister, and even her niece Grace Livingston (who, as Grace Livingston Hill, later became a best-selling author just like her aunt Isabella) all wrote poems for The Pansy.
The Giveaway
Today’s giveaway is an e-book of some of the best-loved poems from the pages of The Pansy magazine.
Sometimes soulful, sometimes charming or funny, Poems of Faith from The Pansy is the perfect read when you’re in the mood for a bit of whimsy or a quiet moment of reflection.
You can read Poems of Faith from The Pansy for Free!
By the early 1900s Isabella’s career as an author began to fade. After forty years of writing Christ-centered novels and countless magazine and newspaper articles, the American reading public began to label her writing style as “old-fashioned” and “narrow.”
Magazine editors cut ties with Isabella; they cancelled her regular advice columns and declined to publish her serial stories.
After her book publisher, Daniel Lothrop, died in 1892, his publishing company changed ownership, and the new owners declined to publish any more of Isabella’s novels.
But Isabella was still writing at that time, and she did her best to find a publisher willing to accept her stories. In 1911 she submitted two novels to Gorham Press in Boston, Massachusetts. The titles were:
Her Own Way
Nell Jenkins
Today, we would call Gorham Press a “vanity publisher”; meaning, they printed and distributed an author’s book at the author’s expense.
Gorham’s owner, Mr. Richard G. Badger, immediately accepted Isabella’s submissions and sent her contracts to sign.
Ultimately, Gorham published Her Own Way in 1912, according to this entry found in the Cumulative Book Index of American Literature dated 1913:
However, there’s no record to indicate Her Own Way was ever distributed to stores; nor was it ever reviewed in newspapers or Christian periodicals from that period. It’s possible Isabella paid to have a limited number of copies printed, which she distributed herself.
Fortunately for us, Nell Jenkins (the second novel Isabella submitted to Gorham) was one of the last serial stories Isabella had published in a Christian magazine. Even more fortunate, all the magazine issues survived so we can piece together the chapters and enjoy the entire story!
Rebecca Kent finds herself in a difficult situation when her best friend’s husband asks her to keep a secret. It doesn’t take long for Rebecca to realize something strange is going on, and the secret she vowed to keep could very well ruin her best friend’s marriage.
If you like a bit of mystery in your Pansy stories (as in her novels Pauline and Wanted), you’ll enjoy Nell Jenkins!
Or you can select BookFunnel’s “My Computer” option to receive an email with a version you can read, print, and share with friends.
Hurry! Nell Jenkins will only be available as a free read through October 31, 2023.
REMEMBER: There’s still time to enter the Promises From God Giveaway drawing. Just leave a comment below or on Isabella’s Facebook page no later than 11:59 p.m. (EDT) on Thursday, September 7.
The winners will be announced on Friday, September 8. Good luck!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us tomorrow for another fabulous giveaway!
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Isabella Alden 