Beth's Wonder-Winter

Beth's Wonder-Winter by Marion Ames Taggart

Beth Bristead is an eleven-year-old orphan raised in a Massachusetts village by her strict, truthful-minded great-aunt Rebecca, who values plain, useful things — especially aprons, which Beth despises — over ornament or luxury. When Aunt Rebecca scolds her for tearing an apron while playing "Watchman, Tell Us of the Night" in an apple tree, Beth confesses that she often escapes into elaborate daydreams of impossible riches, though she insists this "make-believe" never makes her discontented. The village dressmaker, Lydia Tappan, then delivers a letter: Beth's rich uncle James Cortlandt of New York and his wife Alida want to bring their late sister Nannie's daughter to spend the winter with them and her three unknown cousins. Aunt Rebecca reluctantly consents, insisting on outfitting Beth herself rather than letting the Cortlandts do it. A brusque but kind lady's maid, Anna Mary, fetches Beth by train, giving her a first taste of luxury — a Pullman car, an elaborate dinner, gifts of flowers and chocolates — before delivering her to the Cortlandts' immense brownstone. There Beth is overwhelmed by extravagant rooms, a private bathroom like a fairy grotto, and a maid of her own, Frieda. She meets her glamorous Aunt Alida, her jovial Uncle Jim, and her cousins: elegant fifteen-year-old Natalie, fussier Alys, and mischievous, unloved-feeling Dirk. Beth's plain country wardrobe is replaced overnight with beautiful new clothes, and she begins lessons alongside her cousins under their governess, Miss Deland, where her love of literature and hymns proves a match for their French and worldly accomplishments. Beth's warmth quickly softens the household. She takes Dirk's side after he is wrongly blamed for tripping Alys in church, earning his loyalty, and she works to smooth the frequent friction between the Cortlandt children. She is coached by her cousins in dancing and taken to a fashionable dancing class, discovers the mansion's ballroom, picture gallery, music room, and conservatory, and is fitted for a Thanksgiving costume ball, where she is dressed as Priscilla Alden while Natalie plays a witch in a hunting-dance pageant. At the ball's close, Beth alone remembers all the words to "My Country 'Tis of Thee," moving her uncle deeply. Beth also joins the children's gymnasium club, the "Tanagers and Bluebirds," under kindly instructor Mr. Leonard, and grows closer to Dirk, who finally finds in her a cousin who doesn't dismiss him. While being dressed one day, she coaxes out of Frieda the secret that her small sister, Lotta ("Liebchen"), is crippled and unable to afford a curative operation. Beth is determined to help and eventually tells her aunt and uncle. Taken by Uncle Jim to see his stable, Beth is astonished to be given a pony of her own, Trump — and when her uncle later tests her by asking whether she would give up Trump to pay for Liebchen's surgery, Beth tearfully agrees to sacrifice him. Moved by her selflessness, Mr. Cortlandt declares he will pay for the operation himself, sparing her the sacrifice, and Beth and Frieda later visit Liebchen recovering happily in the hospital after her operation, amid the wider spectacle of a hospital ward that both saddens and instructs Beth about suffering and charity. Uncle Jim also gives Beth a hundred-dollar Christmas allowance of her own to spend as she likes. As December advances, the family realizes Christmas is close at hand, and Beth, Natalie, and Alys begin compiling gift lists — Natalie and Alys debating an elaborate system of present-giving among their many wealthy friends (the "Commonsense Christmas Contributions" club), while Beth, accustomed to the simple exchanges she shared with her poorer friend Janie at home, feels the gulf between her old life and her new one. She is still working out her own short list of people to remember when the text breaks off.

By Marion Ames Taggart · First published 1914 · Genre: Children's Literature, Bildungsroman, Literary Fiction · 19 chapters · 123,787 words

First lines

"Beth Bristead, did you tear -- how did you tear your apron so? " demanded / Beth's aunt. She held up the accusing rent to explain the change in the / form of her question; it left no room for doubt that the apron was torn.

Beth, small and quiet for her eleven years, answered unexpectedly:

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children's literature · early 20th century · American author · young adult · winter setting · domestic fiction · coming-of-age · morality tale · New England · classic literature · story · illustrated

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