Seven Xmas Eves

Seven Christmas Eves begins in the warm, comic voice of washerwoman Mary Cheevers, who tells of a poor but decent home and the hidden children who transform it. When Mary discovers ragged, starving Nick and Nan huddled in an attic like "Babes in the Wood," she and her husband bring them downstairs, feed and clothe them, and quietly make them part of the family. Their bond grows into a lasting affection that the narrator treats as proof that kinship can be formed by care, not blood. But the book's Christmas tenderness is shadowed by poverty, loss, and moral danger. Nick's innocent gift of a red ribbon to Nan is followed by the return of his long-absent mother, a ruined woman whose despair ends in suicide at Waterloo Bridge. Mary's grief is tempered by compassion, and the story insists on mercy for the desperate. In another lively episode, Nick and Nan's good-hearted mistake leads them to a foundling baby, and their kindness is rewarded with money and a donkey. The final movement shifts to David Dix, a night watchman whose sober testimony brings a darker tale of crime, trial, transportation, and unfulfilled love, as Nick is sentenced to seven years and Nan is left behind. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.