April Gold Read Online
April Gold (Love Endures)
© 2013 by Grace Livingston Hill
Print ISBN 978-1-62029-388-1
eBook Editions:
Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-62416-028-8
Kindle and MobiPocket Edition (.prc) 978-1-62416-027-1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without written permission of the publisher.
All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, and/or events is purely coincidental.
Cover design: Faceout Studio, www.faceoutstudio.com
Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.barbourbooks.com
Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses.
Printed in the United States of America.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
1930s
The house was low and white and rambling with lemon-colored blinds and a moss-green roof. There were frills of daffodils all down the garden walks and around the edges of the white picket fence and a mist of golden forsythia in a semicircle at the back.
But the story began way back the summer before.
Rilla was just out of high school and planning to go to college the following fall. Thurl had been in college two years. Mr. and Mrs. Reed felt it would be good for Marilla to have one year at home with her mother before she went away to school, she was still so young. The Reeds had old-fashioned ideas and loved to have their children around them. Thurlow came home every weekend. His college was only a matter of fifty miles away and he could make it on his bicycle in a short time.
The Reeds were comfortably situated. They owned their own home and had saved a tidy little sum every year. They had begun when their babies were in their cradles to save up for their education. They were trying to take life as easily as they could, not rushing into great expense, but looking ahead and providing for the necessities that were likely to come.
The summer was hot and Father Reed had not been up to his usual robust strength. He came home from the office earlier than usual some days and complained of headaches. It seemed a strange thing for Father not to be in the best of health, for the family to have to keep quiet on his account and consider how to save his strength. He had always been the cheerful, strong, breezy head of the family.
Then one day he was brought home unconscious. He roused only to give them a farewell smile and was gone.
They were dazed at first. They couldn’t believe it was true that Father was gone. It didn’t seem possible to go on without him.
Thurlow suggested that perhaps he ought to give up college and find a job, but his mother said no, the money was in the bank for that purpose and his father would not like him to change his plans. He and his sister must have their education. The mother was strong and sweet about it, though she looked so frail and appealing when she said it that it sent a pang through both the children’s hearts. They resolved to get through their education as swiftly and thoroughly as was possible and get ready to take care of Mother. Of course there was money enough saved up to keep her in comfort while they were studying. Then they would both get good positions and keep Mother just as she had always been kept, in simple, pleasant comfort in her own quiet home.
But again the unexpected stepped in.
Early in the fall, the bank where the savings had been confidently put in trust closed its doors. Things were said to be in bad shape. One of the officials was missing, as also were stocks and bonds and much money. It was appalling.
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