Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net _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?"