Miss Tootsie’s Surprise Guest

Sunday morning dawned bright and warm, as if the weather had no recollection of the dark, stormy time two days ago. Miss Tootsie sat down to a breakfast of ham and eggs, biscuits, and gravy. Sunday was a day of leisure and relaxation. With Cocoa curled in her basket in front of the wood-burning cookstove, […]

Dear Me, Santa

Mrs. Claus: Are you feeling better, Dear? How about a nice, hot cup of coffee? Santa (throwing back the quilts and rolling out of bed): Just what I need. The trip was hard this year. Mrs. Claus: Did the reindeer behave? Was the sleigh over-loaded? Did you face a head-wind? Santa: Yes, no, and no. […]

Break-In at the Bakery

Miss Tootsie was sure she wouldn’t sleep ever again; she’d be listening for someone to break in. What a thought! It gave her a headache. When she let Cocoa out to do her nightly business, she shut and locked the door behind her, then waited anxiously for the little dog to scamper back and scratch […]

Music

Sometimes when things start to get me down, broken water pipe, stopped up drain, etc., I go to the piano and play the old songs. I mean the really old songs, “I Was Seeing Nellie Home”, “Darling Nellie Gray”, “Mocking Bird Hill”, “The Tennessee Waltz”; then, the not quite so old songs, “Til I Waltz  Again […]

Beggars Would Ride

“You know,” I said, “I was looking again at Marvie Saunder’s book.”             “No, Ned,” Pat interrupted. “Remember, you’ve given that up. You’re going to let Cade and Gerald handle whatever is going on about that house. You are fixating on that book of poetry so, stop it!”             Stung, I said, “What a thing […]

Little Cedar and the Big Storm

Fierce winds tugged at Little Cedar. His scrawny boughs bent and swayed but he dug his roots deeper and hung onto the rock buried beneath the mountain soil. “The wind is so cold,” said Little Cedar. He shivered from his topmost limb to the bottom of his twisted trunk. “It must be nearly Christmas again.” […]