The owl hooted once, then twice.
As if summoned by its velveteen cry, the platinum moon broke suddenly from the clouds above the pond, transforming the water’s surface into a gleaming lake of molten pearl.
Then, clouds sailed again over the face of the moon, and in the bitter darkness, snowflakes fell thick and fast, swirling as in a shaken globe.
It was twelve minutes after six o’clock when a gray light rose above the brow of Hogback Mountain, exposing an imprint of tractor tires that linked Meadowgate’s hay barn to the cow pasture and sheep paddock. The imprints of work boots and dog paws were also traceable along the driveway to the barn, and back to the door of the farmhouse, where smoke puffed from the chimney and lamplight shone behind the kitchen windows.
From the tulip poplar at the northeast corner to the steel stake at the southwest, all hundred and thirty acres of Meadowgate Farm lay under a powdery blanket of March snow.
Light from Heaven, Ch. 1
ON FRIDAY EVENING at Holy Trinity, sheets of rain lashed the windows, rattling the panes in their fragile mullions. On the lower branches of the rhododendron behind the stone wall, a male cardinal bent his crested head beneath his wing and waited out the storm with his mate.
Down the road and around the bend, 129 squirrel tails nailed to the logs of Jubal Adderholt’s cabin whipped wildly in the blowing rain; smoke pouring from the chimney was snatched by the wind and driven hard toward the east where Donny Luster’s double-wide was stationed.
Inside the trailer, images of a revolving sapphire necklace broke into colored blocks on the television screen; moments later, the screen went black. In the darkened front room, an unfiltered Camel burned down in the ashtray as Donny Luster sat looking out the window, seeing nothing. In their bedroom, Dovey and Sissie Gleason slept as close as spoons in a drawer, oblivious to the shuddering of the trailer on its pad of concrete blocks.
Two miles to the northwest, in the well-stocked yard of the McKinney sisters, the old watering trough filled up, overflowed, and ran into a ditch worn by years of overspill. On the porch, the orange and white cat hunkered under an ancient washing machine covered with a flapping tarp.
A half mile to the west, Robert Prichard’s TV antenna was torn off the roof and flung into a stand of rotting rabbit hutches. It was briefly trapped among the hutches, then hurled down the slope behind the two-room house. It landed near a pile of stones dug from the black soil over a century ago by someone wanting a corn patch, and came to rest by a maverick narcissus in full bloom.
Scornful of calendar dates or seasonal punctuality, spring was announcing its approach on the blue mountain ridges above the green river valley.
Light from Heaven, Ch. 11
FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Mitford Trivia
Trivia Questions
Barnabas appears to be controlled by what?
Meadowgate Farm’s bay mare is known as __________ Owen.
Father Tim prefers __________ on his turnip greens.
What color are Cynthia’s eyes?
What is Sadie Baxter’s middle name?
Miss Sadie drove a 1958 __________.
Buckwheat, Bowser, Baudelaire, Bodacious, and Bonemeal live at
__________.
In the little village of less than a __________.
China Mae’s nickname for Miss Sadie was _______ ______.
Violet was invited to dine with Miss Addison and her elderly cat,
__________.
Bishop Stuart Cullen’s old flame was __________ Hathaway.
Whose wedding reception was held in the Fernbank ballroom?
What is Mule’s last name?
Stone wall overlooks the __________ of Counterpane, according
to Fr. Tim.
What does Omer Cunningham call his plane?
The Muse headline, “Man Convicted of __________ Driving.”
Emma Newland’s brown poodle is named __________.
According to The Muse, Fr. Tim and Cynthia were lost _________
hours in the cave.
What is the name of Fernbank’s restaurant?
What flour company awarded Winnie Ivey a cruise?
How much money did Miss Sadie put “where it will grow” for
Dooley?
Whom did Winnie Ivey marry?
Hope Winchester’s ginger-colored cat is named __________.
Who was Coot Hendrick’s bearded ancestor?
Father Tim reads these letters on or around his birthday every year.
Barbizon, the cat, belongs to __________.
Ella __________ says the Lord calls her Ella Jean.
Who claims to be the illegitimate daughter of Josiah Baxter?
The engraved plaque on Morris Love’s house reads Nouvelle
__________ , 1947.
Hessie Mayhew’s warning: DO NOT PLANT UNTIL _____ 15!
Lace’s dog’s name, “Guber,” is short for __________.
Uncle Billy loves to peel a ________ ________ apple from the tree
in his backyard.
What line of text do Mitford Snowmen, Esther’s Gift, and Shepherds
Abiding have in common?
Absalom Greer called the small churches scattered through the
coves his __________.
What is a vicar?
Holy Trinity had stood empty for __________ years.
Holy Trinity was nicknamed __________ because of its seating
capacity of a mere __________ souls.
Jubal Adderholt called a groundhog a __________.
What were Edith Mallory’s first three words after her accident?
______ ______ ______.
Where in Miss Sadie’s Plymouth did she hide the stack of bills?
For the live Nativity scene, what was used for the infant?
Mitford Crossword Puzzle
ACROSS
1. Percy Mosely’s wife
7. “Rats in a _______”
9. Uncle Billy’s thorn
10. Puny Bradshaw’s famous potato _____
12. ____ Cottage, Whitecap
13. Fancy’s new shop, A ____ Above
14. Hope Winchester sells these
16. Not his old Buick
19. St. John’s in the ______
22. Fr. Tim’s house
23. Diabetic _____
24. “I’ll be et f’r a _____”
26. Miss Sadie’s house
27. Lew ____, Esso Station owner
30. Fr. Tim’s lane
31. An Uncle Billy remark
33. Hessie Mayhew’s ____ Spring
35. Louella’s mother, China ___
36. Esther Bolick’s cake (2 wds.)
38. Wkly. delivery to Russell Jacks
41. Capt. Willie’s boat, _____Heaven
42. Red maples along ____ Road
45. “____ no corrupt communication…”(Eph. 5:29)
46. Fr. Tim’s “Tom Sawyer”
47. Love thy _____
50. Louella’s husband,_____Marshall
52. “…world without ____.Amen.”
53. Loretta Burgess’s vehicle
54. Fr. Tim’s cousin
55. ___ rest for the wicked….
56. The ____ and Blessing event
57. Fr. Tim and Cynthia
59. Company _____
63. It was moved through the hedge
64. Primrose ___
65. ____ Skinner
66. Jan Karon was born here
DOWN
2. One of the guys
3. “Take no thought ___ the morrow”
4. Mitford malady
5. Mitford’s newspaper, The_____
6. Out to_____
7. “Philippians 4:13, for ____ sake”
8. The prayer that never _____
11.The man in the _____
13. Bishop Stuart _____
14. Barnabas, big as a _____
15. Father Timothy _____
16. Puny calls it “Old Fa
ithful”
17. No Clue
18. Fr. Tim’s favorite poet
20. ____Ivey, Sweet Stuff Bakery
21. Lord’s _____
24. Burns incense
25. “Eat Here Once, and You’ll
Be _____”
28. ____of Godlight
29. It’s found between layers
31. Mitford pet, Perry ____
32. Avis Packard’s The _____
34. Hattie Cloer’s dog
35. Hal & ____ Owen
37. Ernie’s Books, Bait & Tackle cat
39. ______ Goes to the Beach
40. ______ Roulade
43. “___ a dazzler!” Hessie says of June in Mitford
44. Familiar exclamation
45. Fernbank’s restaurant
48. Edith Mallory’s driver,____Coffey
49. Oxford Antiques,
Andrew____
51. Barnabas, “___ of consolation” (Acts 4)
54. College town (15 mi. from Mitford)
57. The Collar _____
58. Thy will be _____
60. ____ Like a Stone (Mitford chapter)
61. ____ House
62. Fr. Tim’s birth month
Trivia Answers
Scripture (At Home in Mitford, Ch. 1)
Goosedown (At Home in Mitford, Ch. 8)
Butter (At Home in Mitford, Ch. 19)
Like sapphires, with a nearly violet hue (A Light in the Window, Ch. 1)
Eleanor (A Light in the Window, Ch. 18)
Plymouth (At Home in Mitford, Ch. 2)
Meadowgate Farm (At Home in Mitford, Ch. 2)
Thousand (At Home in Mitford, Ch. 4)
Little Toad (At Home in Mitford, Ch. 19)
Palestrina (A Light in the Window, Ch. 7)
Susan (A Light in the Window, Ch. 5)
Olivia Davenport and Dr. Walter Harper (A Light in the Window,
Ch. 20)
Skinner (At Home in Mitford, Ch. 2)
Land (These High, Green Hills, Ch. 2)
Ragwing taildragger (These High, Green Hills, Ch. 7)
Wreckless (These High, Green Hills, Ch. 7)
Snickers (These High, Green Hills, Ch. 8)
Fourteen (These High, Green Hills, Ch. 11)
Lucera (Out to Canaan, Ch. 19)
Golden Band (Out to Canaan, Ch. 16)
One and a quarter million dollars (Out to Canaan, Ch. 17)
Thomas Kendall from Topeka, Kansas (Out to Canaan, Ch. 19)
Margaret Ann (A New Song, Ch. 1)
Hezekiah (A New Song, Ch. 2)
St. Paul’s letters to Timothy (A New Song, Ch. 2)
Hélène Pringle (A New Song, Ch. 3)
Bridgewater (A New Song, Ch. 8)
Hélène Pringle (A New Song, Ch. 16)
Chanson (A New Song, Ch. 14)
May (In This Mountain, Ch. 2)
Gubernatorial (In This Mountain, Ch. 18)
Rusty Coat (Shepherds Abiding, Ch. 3)
Each book closes with this line: “After all, it was Christmas.”
Little handfuls (Light from Heaven, Ch. 2)
“A vicar is the priest of a church that isn’t a parish church.” (Light
from Heaven, Ch. 3)
Forty (Light from Heaven, Ch. 3)
Little Trinity…40 (Light from Heaven, Ch. 3)
Whistle pig (Light from Heaven, Ch. 7)
God…is…good (Light from Heaven, Ch. 19)
Dome light (Light from Heaven, Ch. 19)
A loaf of bread (wrapped in Lace’s blouse) (Light from Heaven, Ch. 21)
Crossword Puzzle Answers
Reading Aloud
The Gift of Gifts
Entire books have been written about reading aloud. One of the best-known is Jim Trelease’s The Read-Aloud Handbook.
According to these books, reading aloud can foster (and nurture) all sorts of wonderful benefits for the reader as well as the listener. It can, for example, increase vocabulary, sharpen grammatical skills (“Grammar is more caught than taught,” says bestselling author Trelease), cultivate curiosity and learning, extend one’s attention span…
You get the idea.
To all the above, I say as the Baptists often say, Amen and amen!
Now here’s how I condense the knowledge contained in these books into one simple wisdom:
When you read aloud with a true heart, to children or adults, friends or spouse, it isn’t just words that pour out. Love pours out.
It has long been my belief that reading aloud to one another is The Gift of Gifts in this mortal world. It wraps us closer. It gives wings to the imagination. It fosters conversation and the sharing of ideas. It makes us feel loved and secure. It heightens, and sweetens, the sense of family or friendship. I could go on and on.
Over and again, I’ve heard from entire families who enjoy reading the Mitford series together. Often, a mother and father take turns reading to the children. And if the children are of reading age, they pitch in also.
I was once sent a photograph of a young ranch family reading a Mitford book. The photo was taken on a bitter winter day when the power had gone out and the father got to spend a whole afternoon snuggled close to the woodstove with his family, reading aloud from These High, Green Hills.
Indeed, family read-alouds had a great heyday in the time of Mr. Dickens. When one of his fiction installments was released, fathers thronged to join the queue and surrender their coin. At home in the evening, these Victorian dads would sit and read through the new installment, making certain there was nothing too dire or traumatic for young ears. That done, and supper eaten, in would troop the whole darned family to listen, enraptured, as Father read the latest episode of what was always, always a fine and captivating story by the gifted Charles Dickens.
But reading aloud isn’t just for families. Consider the couples.
Often, the passenger reads to the driver as they wend their way somewhere in the car. Or, they listen to the Mitford audio tapes or CDs, read aloud by your author, or by the gifted actor John McDonough, who, say his legion of fans, is Father Tim. And many tell me they read my books together in bed. Indeed, not a few have said, “Your books are so wonderful, they put us to sleep at night.” I love this!
I also love the story about the man who flatly refused to read my books, aloud or otherwise.
I was doing a book signing when a woman came through the line. “My husband, Harold, won’t read your books,” she said, plenty aggravated, “because there’s no sex in your books!”
I peered at Harold, who stood nearby, looking sheepish.
“Harold, honey,” I said, “there’s plenty of sex in my books. You just don’t know where to find it!”
Take, for example, this line from a short scene written about Father Tim and Cynthia, and found, as I recall, in Out to Canaan:
She turned to him, smiling in the dark.
That is, indeed, my finest hour when it comes to sex scenes.
There are also legions who report they’re reading the Mitford series aloud to residents of nursing homes, or to an elderly or ill relative or friend; and quite a few have read the series to the blind. What a sacrificial gift, to read aloud to someone—and a whole series, for heaven’s sake!
This may be a bit irregular, but I confess I sometimes read aloud in the evening. To myself! (So, sue me.) The perfect evening, however, would be this:
Sitting with a loved one by the fire, thumbing through Wordsworth or Longfellow, or relishing a good yarn by A. B. Guthrie, Jr., who really got the westward movement.
There are several scenes in the series in which Father Tim and Cynthia read aloud to one another. Forthwith, an episode from Light from Heaven:
They had prayed their Lenten prayer, eaten their modest supper, and made the pie—which would doubtless improve by an overnight repose in the refrigerator.
Now, they drew close by the fire, to the sound of a lashing March wind; she with Mrs. Miniver and he with The Choice of Books, a late nineteen
th-century volume he’d found in the Owens’ bedroom. He was vastly relieved that she’d made no more mention of his hair, what was left of it.
“Listen to this, Timothy.”
Cynthia adjusted her glasses, squinting at the fine print. “‘It’s as important to marry the right life as it is the right person.’”
“Aha! Never thought of it that way.”
“I considered that very thing when I married you.”
“Whether I was the right person?”
“Whether it would be the right life,” she said.
“And?”
“And it is. It’s perfect for me.”
His wife, who preferred to read dead authors, put her head down again.
“How dead, exactly, must they be?” he once asked.
“Not very dead; I usually draw the line at the thirties and forties, before the mayhem began setting in like a worm. So…moderately dead, I would say.”
He tossed a small log onto the waning fire; it hissed and spit from the light powder of snow that had blown into the wood box by the door. A shutter on the pantry window made a rattling sound that was oddly consoling.
“And here’s something else,” she said.
“‘This was the cream of marriage, this nightly turning out of the day’s pocketful of memories, this deft, habitual sharing of two pairs of eyes, two pairs of ears. It gave you, in a sense, almost a double life: though never, on the other hand, quite a single one.’”
He nodded slowly, feeling a surge of happiness.
“Yes,” he said, meaning it. “Yes!”
Over the years, I’ve heard from literally hundreds of readers who espouse the joys of reading aloud, and I urge you from my heart to discover these joys for yourself.
Here’s a little something to get you started.
Make four copies of the following script, taken from the many scenes set in the rear booth of the Main Street Grill. Round up three people who’re fun to be with. Look over your scripts. Now. Gather ’round the fire, or the kitchen table, and start reading.
Tip: Be serious about developing your character; really try to nail his personality. The fair sex can read these male roles, too, for what it’s really all about is interpretation—and, of course, fun.
* * *