Other editions of book The Big Blue Soldier

Aunt Marilla Chadwick wants to find a young man for her lovely young friend, Mary Amber. She sees a tall young soldier walking slowly toward her house. It doesn’t matter that his uniform is bedraggled and dirty or that she had never seem him before in her life, for Aunt Marilla has an idea, a plan, a sudden inspiration—and soon she, Mary Amber, and the mysterious soldier are all entangled in an adventure that will change their lives forever.

Aunt Marilla Chadwick wants to find a young man for her lovely young friend, Mary Amber. She sees a tall young soldier walking slowly toward her house. It doesn't matter that his uniform is bedraggled and dirty or that she had never seem him before in her life, for Aunt Marilla has an idea, a plan, a sudden inspiration--and soon she, Mary Amber, and the mysterious soldier are all entangled in an adventure that will change their lives forever. It’s a story about hope, rejection, rescue, and several different kinds of love.

Aunt Marilla Chadwick wants to find a young man for her lovely young friend, Mary Amber. She sees a tall young soldier walking slowly toward her house. It doesn't matter that his uniform is bedraggled and dirty or that she had never seem him before in her life, for Aunt Marilla has an idea, a plan, a sudden inspiration--and soon she, Mary Amber, and the mysterious soldier are all entangled in an adventure that will change their lives forever.Grace Livingston Hill is the beloved author of more than 100 books. Read and enjoyed by millions, her wholesome stories contain adventure, romance, and the heartwarming triumphs of people faced with the problems of life and love.

Aunt Marilla Chadwick wants to find a young man for her lovely young friend, Mary Amber. She sees a tall young soldier walking slowly toward her house. It doesn't matter that his uniform is bedraggled and dirty or that she had never seem him before in her life, for Aunt Marilla has an idea, a plan, a sudden inspiration―and soon she, Mary Amber, and the mysterious soldier are all entangled in an adventure that will change their lives forever. Grace Livingston Hill is the beloved author of more than 100 books. Read and enjoyed by millions, her wholesome stories contain adventure, romance, and the heartwarming triumphs of people faced with the problems of life and love.

“And you don’t think maybe I ought to have had lemon custard to go with the pumpkin instead of the mince?” Miss Marilla Chadwick turned from her anxious watching at the kitchen window to search Mary Amber’s clear young eyes for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. “Oh, no, I think mince is much better. All men like mince-pie, it’s so—sort of comprehensive, you know.” Miss Marilla turned back to her window, satisfied. “Well, now, if he came on that train, he ought to be in sight around the bend of the road in about three minutes,” she said tensely. “I’ve timed it often when folks were coming out from town, and it always takes just six minutes to get around the bend of the road.” All through the months of the Great War Miss Marilla had knit and bandaged and emergencied and canteened with an eager, wistful look in her dreamy gray eyes, and many a sweater had gone to some needy lad with the little thrilling remark as she handed it over to the committee: “I keep thinking, what if my nephew Dick should be needing one, and this just come along in time?” But when the war was over, and most people had begun to use pink and blue wool on their needles, or else cast them aside altogether and tried to forget there ever had been such a thing as war, and the price of turkeys had gone up so high that people forgot to be thankful the war was over, Miss Marilla still held that wistful look in her eyes, and stillspoke of her nephew Dick with bated breath and a sigh. For was not Dick among those favored few who were to remain and do patrol work for an indefinite time in the land of the enemy, while others were gathered to their waiting homes and eager loved ones? Miss Marilla spoke of Dick as of one who still lingered on the border-land of terror, and who laid his young life a continuous sacrifice for the good of the great world. A neat paragraph to that effect appeared in The Springhaven Chronicle, a local sheet that offered scant news items and fat platitudes at an ever-increasing rate to a gullible and conceited populace, who supported it because it was really the only way to know what one’s neighbors were doing. The paragraph was the reluctant work of Mary Amber, the young girl who lived next door to Miss Marilla and had been her devoted friend since the age of four, when Miss Marilla used to bake sugar cookies for her in the form of stogy men with currant eyes and outstretched arms. Mary Amber remembered Nephew Dick as a young imp of nine who made a whole long, beautiful summer ugly with his torments. She also knew that the neighbors all round about had memories of that summer when Dick’s parents went on a Western trip and left him with his Aunt Marilla. Mary Amber shrank from exposing her dear friend to the criticisms of such of the readers of The Springhaven Chronicle as had memories of their cats tortured, their chickens chased, their flower-beds trampled, their children bullied, and their windows broken by the youthful Dick. But time had softened the memories of that fateful summer in Miss Marilla’s mind, and, besides, she was sorely inneed of a hero. Mary Amber had not the heart to refuse to write the paragraph, but she made it as conservative as the circumstances allowed.

Aunt Marilla Chadwick wants to find a young man for her lovely young friend, Mary Amber. She sees a tall young soldier walking slowly toward her house. It doesn't matter that his uniform is bedraggled and dirty or that she had never seem him before in her life, for Aunt Marilla has an idea, a plan, a sudden inspiration--and soon she, Mary Amber, and the mysterious soldier are all entangled in an adventure that will change their lives forever. Grace Livingston Hill is the beloved author of more than 100 books. Read and enjoyed by millions, her wholesome stories contain adventure, romance, and the heartwarming triumphs of people faced with the problems of life and love.

Miss Marilla Chadwick has been preparing a celebration for her nephew Dick's return from the war. Her young neighbor, Mary Amber, has agreed to help but she isn't excited by the prospect. She remembers the child Dick from years before as nasty and unfeeling but it means a lot to sweet Marilla to welcome her "war hero" in style. When a telegram from Dick arrives turning down the invitation, Marilla hides it and her disappointment from her friend, pondering what to do next. Then she sees a tall, young soldier walking down the road toward her house and hatches a plan. Lyman Gage's return from the battlefields of World War I is a disaster. His girl is engaged to another man and he owes her father money from a business deal. He immediately sells his property and repays the debt, wanting nothing more to do with the pair. Broke and broken, he wanders on to a train and gets off at a country station, ambling down a road with no destination. That is, until a little old lady approaches him and asks him to dinner. Her request is curious but she's a charming lady and he's hungry, so why not? He'll happily pretend to be nephew Dick in exchange for a good meal. But things get complicated when skeptical Mary Amber soon questions his identity and suspects him of deceiving her dear friend.

Miss Marilla read in the paper what day they would sail, and that they were expected to arrive not later than the twenty-ninth; and, as she read, she conceived a wild and daring plan. Why should not she have a real, live hero herself? A bit belated, of course, but all the more distinguished for that. And why should not Mary Amber have a whole devoted soldier boy of her own for the village to see and admire? Not that she told Mary Amber that, oh, no! But in her mind’s vision she saw herself, Mary Amber, and Dick all going together to church on Sunday morning, the bars on his uniform gleaming like[10] the light in Mary Amber’s hazel eyes. Miss Marilla had one sudden pang of fear when she thought that perhaps he would not wear his uniform home, now that everybody else was in citizen’s clothing; then her sweet faith in the wholesomeness of all things came to her rescue, and she smiled in relief. Of course he would wear it to come home; that would be too outrageous not to, when he had been a hero. Of course he would wear it the first few days. And that was a good reason why she must invite him at once to visit her instead of waiting until he had been to his home and been demobilized. She must have him in his uniform. She wanted the glory of it for her own brief share in that great time of uplifting and sacrifice that was so fast going into history.