In the winter of 1776 the Smith family of Newport, R.I., enjoyed a crowded but gay time sheltering six homeless people under their roof. Everyone, from the bumptious twins Milo and Joseph to the aged Dame Otis, learned to get along with each other and adapt to the hardships of Revolutionary War times.
With a trick the children were able to discourage the British from billeting soldiers with the Smiths. And an amusing scheme of Dame Otis enabled the family to keep their cow despite British orders. Abel Smith, 12, wanted a more dangerous role in the Patriot cause. Joining with Konrad, a Hessian soldier, Abel helped Hessian deserters to cross the Sakonnet River to freedom.
—from the dust jacket
About the author:
As wife of a Commander in the Navy, Cora Cheney has lived in many States, among them Florida, Alabama and California. She has four young children, and they are all living in Newport, R. I. at present, the site of Christmas Tree Hessian. She says she writes "with assorted children on, under, beside, and behind me," and that besides being a writer she is kept busy being "nursemaid, cleaner, laundress, Navy wife, Sunday School teacher, and a grandmother to 22 dolls."
Edith Ballinger Price is well-known, especially in Newport, as the author-illustrator of 18 children's books. She writes she is "a Colonial Newport enthusiast" (and so) "the Christmas Tree Hessian was particularly good fun to work on."
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