Cliff is eleven years old and the oldest of six children in his family who live in Ballingsford. As Christmas nears, Cliff''s grandmother arrives for a visit. Cliff''s baby brother is rushed to the hospital with a severe illness. While he is recovering in the hospital on Christmas Eve, his family finally figure out that the "yidda yadda" he has been asking Santa Claus for is a little ladder like the one used to climb up to the top of a bunk bed. The entire family work together to build Josh a ladder and deliver it on Christmas morning. Later, Cliff''s first grade brother Brad, drives his bicycle into an ambulance and dies. The family spends the next Christmas at a resort trying to adjust to the loss of Brad but the trip does not seem to work. Their spirits rise during a New Year''s party at Aunt Pat''s house. When they arrive at the party Josh accidentally steps into Dad''s special fig pudding that they were bringing. Dad removes the shoe, smooths down the pudding and swears the children to secrecy. They all keep a straight face until Uncle Eddie says that the fig pudding is the best ever and asks Dad if he has added some new ingredient. They all laugh when the real story of the shoe is told.

Fig Pudding

In the small English village of Sodbury Cross, pretty Marjorie Wills is suspected of having poisoned some chocolates in the local tobacco-and-sweet shop, using a method pioneered by historical poisoner Christiana Edmunds. Her uncle, wealthy Marcus Chesney, believes that eye-witnesses are unreliable. He avers that to observe something, then to relate accurately what was just seen, is impossible. In order to prove his statements, he sets up a test; three witnesses are invited to witness some staged events not only in their view but in that of a movie camera. After the events, it is planned that they will answer a list of ten questions. Marcus Chesney takes a principal role in the staged events and, during them, is fed a large green capsule containing poison by a masked and disguised figure wearing black spectacles. Amazingly, the three witnesses cannot agree upon the answers to any of the questions and no one can identify the murderer. It seems as though Chesney very carefully set up the ideal conditions for someone to murder him and escape, but Gideon Fell, upon viewing the movie film, can answer all ten questions plus the eleventh—who is the murderer? it:Occhiali neri (romanzo)

The Black Spectacles

One of the most quoted parts of the book deals with the distinction which Bonhoeffer makes between "cheap" and "costly" grace. But what is "cheap" grace? In Bonhoeffer''s words: :"cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ." Or, even more clearly, it is to hear the gospel preached as follows: "Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness." The main defect of such a proclamation is that it contains no demand for discipleship. In contrast to this is costly grace: :"costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." " Bonhoeffer argues that as Christianity spread, the Church became more "secularised", accommodating the demands of obedience to Jesus to the requirements of society. In this way, "the world was Christianised, and grace became its common property." But the hazard of this was that the gospel was cheapened, and obedience to the living Christ was gradually lost beneath formula and ritual, so that in the end, grace could literally be sold for monetary gain. But all the time, within the church, there had been a living protest against this process: the monastic movement. This served as a "place where the older vision was kept alive." Unfortunately, "monasticism was represented as an individual achievement which the mass of the laity could not be expected to emulate"; the commandments of Jesus were limited to "a restricted group of specialists" and a double standard arose: "a maximum and a minimum standard of church obedience." Why was this dangerous? Bonhoeffer points out that whenever the church was accused of being too worldly, it could always point to monasticism as "the opportunity of a higher standard within the fold - and thus justify the other possibility of a lower standard for others." So the monastic movement, instead of serving as a pointer for all Christians, became a justification for the status quo. Bonhoeffer remarks how this was rectified by Luther at the Reformation, when he brought Christianity "out of the cloister". However, he thinks that subsequent generations have again cheapened the preaching of the forgiveness of sins, and this has seriously weakened the church: "The price we are having to pay today in the shape of the collapse of the organised church is only the inevitable consequence of our policy of making grace available to all at too low a cost. We gave away the word and sacraments wholesale, we baptised, confirmed, and absolved a whole nation without condition. Our humanitarian sentiment made us give that which was holy to the scornful and unbelieving... But the call to follow Jesus in the narrow way was hardly ever heard."

The Cost of Discipleship

The first half of the book, titled "The General," tells how the Galactic Empire, now well into its collapse but led by skilled General Bel Riose, launches an attack against the Foundation. The Empire still retains far more resources and personnel than the Foundation and Riose is willing to use that advantage to its fullest. Devers, a native of the Foundation, intercepts a message that summarizes the General''s doings, and escapes to Trantor, trying to see the emperor and show him the message. He fails and is nearly killed, but the emperor finds out anyway. In the end, the emperor decides that Riose is a threat to his status and to the balance of the Empire and has him executed. Psychohistory gives members of the Foundation a full understanding of the struggle for power between generals and emperors that takes place inside the Empire. The characters of Emperor Cleon II and Bel Riose in this story are based on those of the historical Roman Emperor Justinian I and his general Belisarius. Their story was familiar to Asimov from his recent reading of Robert Graves''s novel Count Belisarius, and of his earlier study of Edward Gibbon''s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, on which the entire series is loosely based. "The General" was first published in the April 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction under the title "Dead Hand". The second half of the book, titled "The Mule," takes place approximately one hundred years after the first half. The Empire has ceased to exist, Trantor has been sacked by a "barbarian fleet", and only a small rump state of 20 agricultural planets remain. Most of the Galaxy has split into barbaric kingdoms. The Empire entered into an even more rapid phase of decline and civil wars. The Foundation has become the dominant power in the Galaxy, controlling its regions through its trading network. Leadership of the Foundation has become degenerate. In response to the internal corruption within the Foundation, roughly 30 outer planets belonging to the Foundation who have become wealthy on their own through extensive trade begin to plan a secession war against the Foundation. In addition, an external threat arises in the form of a mysterious man who is known only as the Mule. The Mule (whose real name is never revealed) is a mutant, and possesses the ability to sense and manipulate the emotions of others, usually creating fear and/or total devotion within his victims. He uses this ability to take over the independent systems bordering the Foundation, and has them wage a war against it. The Foundation is incapable of fighting back and as the Mule advances, leadership in the Foundation assumes that Hari Seldon predicted this attack, and that the scheduled hologram crisis message appearance of Hari Seldon would tell them how to win, just like with Bel Riose. To their surprise, they see the tape run and discover Seldon never predicted the existence of the Mule. Foundation citizens Toran and Bayta Darell along with psychologist Ebling Mis and refugee clown named "Magnifico Giganticus" travel to different worlds of the Foundation, and finally to the Great Library of Trantor. The Darells and Mis seek to contact the Second Foundation, which they believe will be able to defeat the Mule. They also have suspicion the Mule wishes to know the location of the Second Foundation so that he can use the First Foundation''s technology to destroy it. At the Great Library, Ebling Mis works continuously until his health fatally deteriorates. As Mis lies dying, he tells Toran, Bayta, and Magnifico that he knows where the Second Foundation is. Just before he reveals the Second Foundation''s location, however, Bayta kills him. Bayta had shortly before realized that Magnifico was actually the Mule, who had used his powers in every planet they had visited before. In the same way he had forced Mis to continue working and find what the Mule was looking for. Bayta killed Mis to prevent him from revealing the Second Foundation''s whereabouts to the Mule. The Darells are left on Trantor. The Mule leaves to reign over the Foundation and the rest of his new empire. Existence of the Second Foundation, as an organization centered on the science of psychology and mentalics, in contrast to the Foundation''s focus on physical sciences, is now known to the Darells and the Mule. Now that the Mule has conquered the Foundation he stands as the most powerful force in the galaxy, and the Second Foundation is the only threat to his eventual rule over the entire galaxy. The Mule promises that he will find the Second Foundation, while Bayta asserts that he will not have enough time before the Second Foundation reacts. "The Mule" was first published in the November and December 1945 issues of Astounding Science Fiction.

Foundation and Empire

Set in eighteenth-century Italy, Cry to Heaven focuses on two characters: peasant-born Guido Maffeo, who is castrated at the age of six to preserve his soprano voice, and fifteen-year-old Tonio Treschi, the last son of a noble family from the Republic of Venice, whose father, Andrea, is a member of the Serenissima''s Council of Three. Although Guido becomes a star of the opera as a teenager, he loses his voice at eighteen, like many castrati. After a failed suicide attempt, he becomes a music teacher in the Naples conservatorio. Tonio, on the other hand, learns that his older brother, Carlo, was exiled for embarrassing the family. While Andrea attempts to cut Carlo out of the family, after his death, Carlo returns and plots to regain his original position. Revealing that Tonio is actually his illegitmate son, he has Tonio castrated, and sends him off with Guido to study in Naples. However, although everyone in Venice is inclined to believe that Carlo was behind his castration, Tonio cannot accuse him of the crime because doing so would result in the "extinction" of the Treschi family. After some soul-searching, he decides to remain in Naples and study under Guido, holding off on revenge until after Carlo and his mother (also Carlo''s lover and later wife) have children to ensure the family line. Because of Tonio''s almost unhuman soprano voice, Guido is roused from his depression, and takes him as a star student. Tonio progresses in his lessons extremely quickly. Guido also has Tonio perform some of his original compositions, which begin to impress audiences at the conservatorio. Tonio, for his part, struggles to come to terms with his castrato status - in his own mind, he is "less than a man." At first, he finds it difficult to even associate with his fellow castrati. As time goes on, he has a love affair with another castrati boy, Domenico, and after Domenico leaves, with Guido himself. He comes to dominate the conservatorio - in addition to being a star student, he soon befriends all the boys his age and becomes something of a leader and confidant. Also, Tonio continues his studies in fencing and firearms, which, in Guido''s words, make him into a "hero" to his fellow students, especially after he kills (in self-defense) a student who vowed to kill him. Because he was raised to be a gentleman, and because he was castrated relatively later in life, he continues to act like a man, unlike the more effeminate poses of castrati boys. Despite the fact he''s a castrato, even local noblemen come to respect him both as a sparring partner and a friend. However, Guido and others need to scheme to finally get Tonio out of the conservatorio and onto the stage. After his debut, Guido and Tonio travel to Rome for his premiere opera, where he gains the patronage of a powerful cardinal, Calvino, and befriends a powerful count from Florence, di Stefano. Although he is almost booed off the stage for upstaging the operatic star Bettichino, he proves a great success, and both he and Guido have a bright future in front of him. He even becomes lovers with an English noblewoman and widow, Christina, which seems to restore him to his former status. However, Tonio is unable to break free of the desire for revenge against Carlo. After having two children by Carlo, Tonio''s mother, Marianna, dies. Soon afterwards—and before his Fat Tuesday opera performance—hitmen sent by Carlo try to kill him. Against the wishes of all his friends, Tonio vows to return in time for an Easter opera, then disappears. In Venice, Carlo has become a pathetic alcoholic wreck. Disguised as a woman (a trick he learned for the opera), Tonio succeeds in "seducing" his father and capturing him. Intoxicated, Carlo curses ever coming back to Venice, and even wanting to take Tonio''s place, finding the city decadent and confining. Although he promises never to try and hurt Tonio again, he attempts to kill him the second he has the opportunity. In response, Tonio finally kills Carlo. He then returns to his friends, finally able to fully pursue his life.

Cry to Heaven

Jeanne Chatel is an orphan who lives with her grandfather until he dies of illness when Jeanne was only 10. Unable to live alone, Jeanne moves into a convent. She is an adventurous, boisterous girl, creating and telling the other girls grand, romantic stories. She also shows an aptitude for healing and herbal medicine. At the age of 18, Jeanne is offered to become a King''s Daughter and travel to New France. Jeanne immediately agrees to this and sets out to New France with her friend Marie. Together they embark on their 41-day trip across the Atlantic ocean. Along the way, Marie falls in love with a sailor named Jean. The two girls arrive in New France in August, 1672 and are welcomed by the Lieutenant, their fiancées and a group of Hurons. Marie, having fallen in love along the way, becomes saddened at the thought of marrying someone else. Jeanne realizes that in order for Marie to be happy, someone else must marry the man that was chosen for her. Jeanne then takes the decision to get married in Marie''s place. When Jeanne meets her new husband, she is sorely disappointed. Simon de Rouville is rude, callous, and unfriendly. However, the ever-determined Jeanne decides to stay and make the best of her situation. As her new life in the wilderness begins, Jeanne faces many hardships. And, in spite of constantly being told that she reminds everyone of Simon''s first wife, Aimee, Jeanne stays to make a better life for her husband and his two children, Nicholas and Isabelle. Eventually, Jeanne and Simon fall in love with each other, and Jeanne grows strong as a result of her new life. She also cultivates her talents as a healer and becomes well known in the area. The book ends with an attack from the Iroquois aboriginals, a constant threat in New France. The de Rouville family survives, after many other conflicts.

The King''s Daughter

The Hardy Boys head to sea to solve the theft of mercury shipments and a government missile and to foil a terrorist plan to create havoc in the United States. They discover that the gang is hiding in a hotel in Baltimore, where their father, Fenton Hardy, is staying under the name L. Marks. An attempt is made on their father''s life when his cover is blown, but the Hardy Boys save him in time. Using devices such as ear bugs, they spy on the gang. With the help of an Admiral at the Pentagon, the boys uncover the gang''s nefarious plot. The gang wants to blast a cave containing nerve gas with a Super S missile that can''t be redirected. This will cause the nerve gas to spread in the USA, which in turn will help overthrow the US government. The Hardys learn that an Indian freighter, Nanda Kailash, is going to dock at Baltimore. They explore the ship as all the clues point towards India. There, an attempt is made on Joe''s life. The Hardys also capture the Mercury gang. They find a new friend, Akshay, who takes them to a ship called the Bombay Batarang, where they uncover some clues to the mystery. In the end, with trickery the Hardys capture the rest of the gang. Later they are abducted, but they fight off the criminals and capture the mastermind in the end..

The Bombay Boomerang

In the story, the Cowardly Lion believes that he has depleted the reserve of courage imbued in him by the Wizard (as told in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). Someone soon misdirects the Lion into thinking that he can only replenish his courage by eating a courageous man. Since the Lion dislikes the notion of harming anyone, he resolves to do the deed as quickly as possible, and so embarks on his quest. Unbeknownst to the Lion, he is being hunted by two would-be hunters: a circus clown named Notta Bit More, and an orphaned boy named Bobby Downs, whom Notta calls Bob Up. Notta accidentally said the magic spell that sent Bob and him to the Munchkin land of Mudge, where the tyrannical and cranky ruler, Mustafa, sends them on their quest: two cowardly lion hunters hunting a Cowardly Lion. The three meet; complications ensue. The adventurers meet bird people on the Skyle ("sky isle") of Un, as well as Nikadoodle, the bird with a telephone beak. They fly about in a Flyaboutabus, and encounter the bottled city of Preservatory. The more usual characters, Dorothy, Glinda, and their compatriots, become involved before a satisfactory conclusion is reached.

The Cowardly Lion of Oz

The anthology comprises nine dramatic stories, taken together, spanning a century. In each story, a slice of life of various American women is revealed. *"Lucky Chow Fun" takes place in the mythical Templeton (Cooperstown, New York), the setting of her first novel. In this tale, Seventeen-year-old Lollie hopes to leave for college without looking back, but sinister events end up causing her to fear for the safety of her little sister and the future of her once-safe little town. *"L. Debard and Aliette" is a crafty re-telling of the story of Abelard and Héloïse in New York amidst the 1918 flu pandemic. *"Majorette" is a story of a young woman''s personal growth in Hershey, Pennsylvania and the events that make her more worldy and the father and grandfather that always hold their little girl in deep affection. *"Blythe" is the story of a bored, introverted Philadelphia attorney who has turned into a stay-at-home mom whose life changes when she takes a night class and meets an extroverted and eccentric woman who draws her out. *"The Wife of the Dictator" is a character study of a simple American girl who marries a Latin American Dictator. Her fate is inexorably bound up with his. *"Sir Fleeting" is a story where a Midwestern farm girl on her honeymoon in Argentina falls into lifelong lust for a French playboy. *"Watershed" is a tragedy, between a husband and a wife, which proves the maxim "don''t say things you''ll later regret". *"Delicate Edible Birds" takes place during the fall of France. A disparate, but close group of War correspondents are held against their will by an evil French Farmer who exacts a steep price in exchange for not turning them over to the Nazis.

Delicate Edible Birds

Set in the small town of Guadalupe, New Mexico just after World War II, Antonio Márez y Luna (Tony) tells his story from the memories of his adult self, who harkens back to his childhood and reflects on his growing up. Anaya uses the basic structure of the Bildungsroman to weave a tale from the child''s point of view of good and evil, of life and death, of myth and reality that challenges young Tony''s beliefs about God, his family and his destiny. His progress in learning about life is grounded in Ultima, an aged and wise member of the community who is highly respected by Tony''s parents. Tony has a very special relationship with her, as she was the midwife at his birth. Throughout the story she passes on her wisdom and knowledge to Tony. The novel begins as Tony''s parents, Gabriel and Maria, invite Ultima to come and live with them when Tony is about to turn seven—just reaching the age of reason. As Tony, with Ultima''s guidance, searches for his true identity and his rightful destiny, he witnesses several deaths, assists Ultima in purging his uncle Lucas of an evil spell, experiences a crisis of faith in the Catholic tradition, embraces the myth of the golden carp, discovers the sordidness of his older brother, survives a harrowing illness and realizes that he may be the only heir to the cultural and spiritual legacy that was Ultima, for Ultima is the last of her kind. Throughout the novel Tony struggles with his identity. In the first chapter Anaya establishes the roots of this struggle through Tony''s dream—a flashback to the day of his birth. In his dream Tony views the differences between his parents'' familial backgrounds. His father''s side, the Márez (descendents of the sea), are the restless vaqueros who roam the llanos and seek adventure. The Lunas, his mother''s side, are the people of the moon, religious farmers whose destiny is to homestead and work the land. Each side of the family wants control of the newborn''s future. But, as the dream ends, Ultima intercedes and takes on the responsibility for knowing and guarding Tony''s destiny herself.His mother''s dream is for him to become a Roman Catholic priest, His father''s dream is to embark on a new adventure and move west to California with his sons to recapture the openness of the Llano he has foregone in moving to the town. Early on Antonio must come to grips with the opposition between good and evil. Ultima, in her role as protector, uses her knowledge of healing and magic to neutralize the evil witchcraft the three daughters of Tenorio Trementina have wrought on Tony''s uncle, and toward the end her soul struggles against the evil of Tenorio himself. Over the course of the novel Antonio becomes disillusioned with the faith and through Cico, one of his closer friends learns of another god. Throughout the novel Tony keeps trying to reconcile the complexity of his mixed familial heritage Lunas with the Márez,and his mixed religious heritage: traditional Catholicism with the Native American religion. Ultimately, the Catholic Church, concentrated on the Virgin Mary and a Father God, and on ritual, is unable to answer Tony''s questions. At the same time, realizing that the Church represents the female values of his mother, Tony cannot bring himself to accept the lawlessness, violence and unthinking sensuality which his father and older brothers symbolize. Instead through his relationship with Ultima, he discovers a oneness with nature. Through his discovery that "All is One" he is able to resolve the major existential conflict in his life. Antonio realizes at the end of the novel that the conflict he feels as he is pulled between the free, open landscape of the llano, and the circumscribed river valley of the town, between the Márez''s way of being and that of the Lunas, and between Catholicism and the indigenous religion of the golden carp, does not require him to choose one over the other. He can bring both together to form a new identity and a new religion that is made up of both. Antonio says to his father:

Bless Me, Ultima

June, 1942: SS "Reichsprotector" Reinhard Heydrich barely survives an assassination attempt in Prague (in reality, Heydrich was killed. This is where the story makes its first turn.) February, 1943: Shortly after the fall of German-held Stalingrad, Reichsprotector Heydrich meets with Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Schutzstaffel (S.S.). Foreseeing Germany''s probable defeat, Heydrich convinces his superior to begin preparations for a possible partisan campaign should German forces lose the war. Two years later, Allied forces have conquered Germany. With the Nazi government having surrendered, Heydrich''s forces begin a series of attacks against the occupying forces, using car bombs, anti-tank rockets, and suicide bombers. The terrorists assassinate Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev and American general George S. Patton. Though occupation officials quickly become aware of the campaign, they are unable to find any quick solutions to it. The American military attempts to tighten security in their sector, while the NKVD spearheads a ruthless suppression of German civilians, including deportations and reprisal killings. As the casualties mount, Americans at home begin to question the effort. An Indiana housewife, who is informed that her son died on occupation duty, turns against American policy and forms an organization agitating to bring American soldiers home. Her Congressman, a Republican, uses the issue to launch attacks against the Truman administration and is soon joined by other members of his party. In Germany, a truck bomb destroys the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, killing several officials and forcing a postponement of the trials of Nazi war criminals. In Berlin, dozens of Soviet officers are killed at a New Year''s Eve party when the insurgency succeeds in poisoning their drinks using wood alcohol. Though the demonstrations in America grow, the Soviets respond by tightening their crackdown further. Undeterred, Heydrich continues his campaign. The American attempt to establish democratic institutions is thwarted when a mortar attack at a rally kills Konrad Adenauer, while the recapture of German nuclear physicists (during which Werner Karl Heisenberg is killed) leads Heydrich to a supply of radium that he uses in a dirty bomb which contaminates the American residential compound in Frankfurt. The Americans and the Soviets enjoy small successes against the insurgency, but the spectacular destruction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Westminster Cathedral and St. Paul''s Cathedral in London by truck bombs further erodes Western resolve to remain in Germany. In the United States, the Republicans win the midterm Congressional elections of 1946. Now in control of Congress, they increase pressure on President Truman to withdraw American forces, refusing to fund their further presence. Though American officers appreciate the need to remain, discontent grows with the enlisted ranks, as many draftees begin staging protests demanding to be returned home. Another attempt to convene war-crimes trials against the Nazi leadership in the Soviet sector is frustrated when a C-47 Skytrain loaded with explosives crashes into the courthouse, killing the judges and staff inside. With American troops now being withdrawn in increasing numbers, the latest attack finally brings about a degree of cooperation between the Soviet and American counterintelligence services. At a meeting the Soviets turn over a Holocaust survivor who worked as a slave laborer constructing the bunker system Heydrich is using. He leads American forces to the bunker where the insurgent leader is hiding, and Heydrich dies while trying to escape. This success does not end the insurgency, however; Joachim Peiper takes over and orders the hijacking of three civilian airliners. While the Soviets remain committed to the occupation and to crushing the resistance, the Americans and British complete their withdrawal, leaving the Nazis ready to reemerge.

The Man With the Iron Heart

The orphanage outside Mill Valley has closed for Christmas, and the children have been dispatched to various homes for the holiday. Only one child, Ivy, is overlooked. The head of the home cannot take Ivy home with her, so she decides to send her to an infants'' orphanage some distance away. Ivy suggests that she could instead go to her "grandma''s house"&nbsp;&ndash; but she has no grandmother. Ivy is put on a train, which passes through the town of Mill Valley. While it is stopped, Ivy looks out of the window and notices that, due to a malfunction, the illuminated welcome sign no longer reads MILL VALLEY but instead reads I V Y. She takes this to indicate that she really does have a grandma, and that she lives in that town. She leaves the train, and it departs without her. Meanwhile, a beautiful new Christmas doll named Holly is standing in the display window of Mr. Blossom''s toy store, wishing for a little girl to come and take her home. The toy owl next to her, Abracadabra, treats her with undisguised contempt, and suggests that, since no one will want Holly after the holiday, she will wind up spending the year in the back room with him. Elsewhere in Mill Valley, Mrs. Jones suggests to her husband that they have a Christmas tree that year, but her husband refuses, saying that it would be a waste of money since they have no children to enjoy it. Despite his words, Mrs. Jones buys a Christmas tree and decorates it. After a very hectic afternoon, Mr. Blossom''s toy store finally closes. Neither Holly nor Abracadabra has been sold. Mr. Blossom is tired from a long day''s work, so he asks Peter to lock up the store for him, telling him that he can pick a toy for himself as a bonus. Peter locks up the store, but the key slips out of a hole in his pocket without him noticing, landing in the snow outside the shop. Meanwhile, Ivy''s search for her grandma has not gone well. Feeling very discouraged, she is walking past the toy store when Holly catches her eye. The doll is exactly what she wanted, but she is outside, and the store is locked. She finds the key that Peter dropped, and decides to keep it. Night falls, and she takes shelter in a nearby alley. The next morning, she returns to the toy store to look at Holly, and overhears a conversation between Peter and Officer Jones, who has been on patrol all night. Peter is distraught about losing the key to the shop. Ivy realizes that was the key that she found, and returns it. Peter goes in to check the store. Officer Jones quickly realizes that Ivy is on her own, and decides to take her home for breakfast. Peter ensures that the store has not been robbed. Since little Ivy saved his job, he decides to use his bonus to select a present for her, and chooses Holly. Abracadabra, furious that Holly''s wish is about to come true, hurls himself at Peter and winds up in the trash. When Mr. Blossom goes to retrieve him later, he has mysteriously vanished. At the Jones''s house, Ivy realizes that they have a beautiful Christmas tree and no children, which means that she has found her grandma. Shortly after, Peter delivers a beautifully wrapped box, which contains Holly. Everyone''s wishes have come true: Ivy has a family and a Christmas doll. Holly has a little girl love her. And when they adopt Ivy, the Joneses have the child they always wanted.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Fig Pudding

By Ralph Fletcher

The Black Spectacles

By John Dickson Carr

The Cost of Discipleship

By Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Foundation and Empire

By Isaac Asimov

Cry to Heaven

By Anne Rice

The King's Daughter

By Suzanne Martel

The Bombay Boomerang

By Franklin W. Dixon

The Cowardly Lion of Oz

By Ruth Plumly Thompson

Delicate Edible Birds

By Lauren Groff

Bless Me, Ultima

By Rudolfo Anaya

The Man With the Iron Heart

By Harry Turtledove

The Story of Holly and Ivy

No Author Listed