The Candy Cane Caper by Cynthia Blair

Author:Cynthia Blair [Blair, Cynthia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1987-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

“How would you like to help the kids at the Ridgewood Children’s Hospital have a merry Christmas?”

It was the fifth time on that Tuesday morning that Chris had stopped into one of the stores on Ridgewood Street—-and the fifth time that she had asked that question, one that the salesperson in her realized was a question that the shopkeepers of Ridgewood would have a difficult time saying no to. She had started out right after breakfast, armed with her notebook, in which there was a list of Ridgewood’s stores, a pair of warm socks, and her biggest smile.

It was the first time she had ever done anything like this. And between her naturally outgoing personality and her commitment to making the Christmas bazaar the best it could possibly be, she was really enjoying talking about the idea she and her sister had developed as a way to raise money for a Christmas Eve celebration for the children who were in the hospital.

And that idea seemed to keep on growing. That morning as Chris was making the rounds, Susan was back at the house whipping up a tremendous batch of gingerbread dough, enough to build a spectacular gingerbread house and still have enough left over to make more gingerbread boys and girls and stars and bells to sell at the bazaar. John Pratt and Andy were up in the hills right outside Ridgewood, scouring the forests for fir trees that were suitable for selling at the bazaar as Christmas trees.

Emily Pratt, meanwhile, was driving around town, visiting each one of her friends. As she stopped at each house, she added to her car another box of handmade items that her fellow craftspeople were contributing to be sold, as well as enough secondhand items, clothes and toys and housewares that they no longer had any use for, to start up a white elephant sale table. She was also collecting red and green tablecloths to cover up the folding tables that Andy had promised to scrounge up, on which the items that were for sale would be displayed. And in the midst of all these activities, she was at the same time recruiting volunteers to help out, setting up and putting on price tags and selling the things that were being collected.

So far everything was going smoothly—including Chris’s visits to all the shops in Ridgewood, where she was asking for donations. And this visit, at Shakespeare’s Bookstore, was no exception.

“I’d be happy to donate some books for you to sell,” said Dave Peabody, the proprietor of the shop, after Chris had explained all about the fund-raising bazaar. “I’ll tell you what: I’ll drop a cartonful of books by at the church first thing Thursday morning, before I open up the shop at nine-thirty. Will that give you enough time to set up the bookstall?”

“That would be perfect,” said Chris with a nod. Inside her notebook, she made a note of the contribution that Mr. Peabody had just promised to make.

“And come to think of it, there’s something else I can do to help out.

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