Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

Nothing and nobody can break the spirit of the optimistic Mrs. Wiggs -- not her deceased husband, who "traveled to eternity by the alcohol route," leaving his wife and five children impoverished; not her home in the Cabbage Patch, an old Louisville slum; not even the plight of her oldest son Jim, who has assumed the crippling responsibilities of head of household at the tender age of fifteen. One family tragedy, however, leaves even Mrs. Wiggs shaken. Robbed of her oldest child and at even greater pains to support the ones who remain, she turns to Lucy Olcott, a beautiful and benevolent young woman who had helped the family on the previous Christmas. Despite her wealth and comfort, Lucy, too, is beset by problems. Hiding from her sorrow by performing good deeds for Mrs. Wiggs, Lucy little suspects that her actions will also bring her happiness in the end. Alice Hegan Rice's Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch was a national bestseller in 1901 and endures today as one of the most memorable literary creations by a Kentucky author. With a new foreword by Wade Hall, this charming, funny story of hope triumphing over despair is finally available to a new generation of readers. Book jacket.

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1901. In the shanty town called the Cabbage Patch, Mrs. Wiggs scrabbles for survival with her brood of five children. The story begins: My, but it's nice an' cold this morning'! The thermometer's done fell up to zero! Mrs. Wiggs made the statement as cheerfully as if her elbows were not sticking out through the boy's coat that she wore, or her teeth chattering in her head like a pair of castanets. But, then, Mrs. Wiggs was a philosopher, and the sum and substance of her philosophy lay in keeping the dust off her rose-colored spectacles. When Mr. Wiggs traveled to eternity by the alcohol route, she buried his faults with him, and for want of better virtues to extol she always laid stress on the fine hand he wrote. It was the same way when their little country home burned and she had to come to the city to seek work; her one comment was: Thank God, it was the pig instid of the baby that was burned. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.