On a cold but bright winter morning, a young girl named Lily wakes up to discover it is her birthday. Her older sister Helen greets her with kisses, and the household stirs with anticipation of the birthday party ahead. The joy of the morning is briefly interrupted when baby Herbert, known as Berty, tumbles from a caregiver's arms onto the nursery rug, raising a frightened commotion among the family. The incident sobers the festive mood temporarily, but the baby recovers, and cheerfulness is restored when Aunt Hatty and her son Frankie arrive unexpectedly, having traveled through the night. The family is introduced more fully: the father is the Rector of a large city parish, and the household includes Helen, Russell, Lily, and baby Herbert, as well as various nurses and servants. The rectory is a commodious home attached to the church, filled with books, Gothic windows, and a children's playroom stocked with toys. There is also a grief quietly present in the home — a firstborn child, a daughter, has been lost, mourned in hushed poetic terms as a lamb taken from the fold. As the birthday morning unfolds, gifts arrive, including a beautiful plated tea set from a family friend. The children set up a small tea party at their nursery table, joined by cousins Ida and Rose and their Aunt Mary. The gathering is full of laughter, generosity, and warmth, with the adults looking on contentedly. Russell and Lily entertain the group with playful role-playing, dressing up and imitating church ceremonies. The visit ends too soon for the cousins, who depart in their carriage. In the afternoon, Lily's mother is taken for a carriage drive in the park while the children play and listen to a story from Aunt Hatty. The mother returns visibly shaken, having witnessed a frightening runaway carriage accident in which a young girl about Lily's age was carried off by bolting horses while her injured father scrambled desperately after her. The episode ends in relief when the child is found safe in her father's arms, though the scene moves both mother and Lily deeply to tears and prayer. Shortly after, Lily falls ill at dinner, her cheeks flushed and her head aching. What begins as apparent overindulgence in pineapple develops into scarlet fever. The child endures weeks of painful illness, lying half-conscious, her faint moans distressing her mother greatly. When Lily recovers, her sister Helen is struck down with the same fever. It is a difficult winter for the family, though the parish surrounds them with sympathy. During this period, a beloved cousin named Stuart returns from years abroad and settles nearby. He becomes a source of great joy to all the children, visiting nearly every day. Baby Herbert reaches out for him instinctively, and the older children crowd around him eagerly. Stuart favors telling Bible stories about Joseph, Samuel, Ruth, Esther, and above all, the child Jesus. He also carries with him stories from his travels and visits to Sabbath schools, which he shares with the children gathered around him. One such story concerns a poor street boy named Billy who is brought to a mission Sunday school by a kind teacher named Miss Allen. There, a practical woman named Mrs. Varney scrubs him clean in a bath, transforming his appearance so thoroughly that even his own mother does not recognize him. The sight of Billy's clean face sets off a chain of reformation in his tenement building, as his mother begins washing all the children, then cleaning the rooms, inspiring neighbors to do the same. Gradually, thirty people from the building find their way to the mission school, where they encounter the Christian faith. Stuart presents the story as an illustration of how a single small act of kindness can ripple outward with profound consequences. With the arrival of spring, preparations begin for the family's annual retreat to their country home near the sea. Packing and shopping fill the rectory with busy activity, and the children rejoice at the prospect of fresh air, farm animals, cream, and berries. In early June, the whole family, along with relatives including Aunt Josephine and her children, settles into the spacious seaside property. Days are filled with croquet on the lawn, riding the pony Star, tending to chickens and lambs, and playing in a long hall above the shed that the children use for all manner of games, including Russell's improvised church services delivered from a self-built pulpit. Short lessons in geography, history, and French continue even in the summer for the older children, and the studious cousin Forrest buries himself in books regardless of the surrounding noise. The younger children, including Lily and her cousin Rose, fill their days with simple pleasures. As summer advances, the children grow wistful for the festivities of Christmas, prompting Helen to suggest an August tree celebration. With their mothers' blessing, the children plan a decorated spruce tree laden with gifts, to which all the farm workers, carpenters, and household dependents are invited. Tiny invitation notes are written by Aunt Josephine. The children select gifts, oversee decorations, and help prepare a generous spread of food. When the day arrives, the guests gather outside beneath a window, and the children lower gifts to them in a basket on a cord, a novelty that produces great delight and laughter in all. Afterward, a large supper is shared in the dining room, with the children serving as hosts. The celebration ends with the children going contentedly to bed, tired but happy. Their parents look on with quiet pride, noting that in all their play throughout the season, the children have shown consistent generosity and kindness, fulfilling without being told the apostolic counsel to be warmly affectioned toward one another.
By Madeline Leslie · First published 1865 · Genre: Children's Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Moral Fiction · 8 chapters