Anna Robinson (2)

Ashamed that he is not able to contribute to his friends' effort to buy a toboggan, and irritated at his younger brother Tell for insisting on his turn on their coaster, young Harry Sutherland gives in to a moment of anger, and pushes his brother while on the stairs into school. When this loss of control results in a terrible fall, and a grave head injury for Tell, Harry is horrified at his own actions, but reluctant to speak of his deed, when those around assume it was an accident. As Christmas approaches, and Tell lies unconscious at home, Harry wrestles with his own weakness, and the temptation to which he has yielded, in not owning up to his wrongdoing, and in lying multiple times to prevent his family and friends from knowing the truth. Can he conquer himself, and his own moral frailty, in time to observe the holiday as it should be observed...?

Published in 1906, Harry's Temptation; or, Christmas in Canada is the eighth entry in Boston-based publisher Dana Estes and Company's Christmas in Many Lands series that I have read. It is credited to an "R.E.C." as the main author, and adapted by an Anna Robinson, who also adapted the subsequent entry in the series, Mary Cowden Clarke's Little Paulina: Christmas in Russia. Unlike a number of other entries in this series, I have not been able to track down the original source of the story, nor to discover who "R.E.C." was. I would think that either the original story was intended for adults, and therefore needed to be adapted for young readers, or that it was longer than the 32-page limit to which the books in this series are limited. I suspect the latter, given the child protagonist and viewpoint. In any case, although this one was a little heavy-handed in its moralizing, I still thought it was engaging, and I appreciate both the story and the accompanying artwork from Bertha G. Davidson. I would be interested to know whether R.E.C. was a Canadian author, and if so, what else he wrote in this vein. Recommended to readers looking for vintage Christmas stories, with a Canadian (specifically, Halifax) setting.… (más)