Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

" A national bestseller when first published in 1901, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch endures today as one of the most memorable literary creations by a Kentucky author. This immensely popular novel spawned several movies (with such stars as W.C. Fields and Shirley Temple), countless stage productions, radio shows, and even dolls. Alice Hegan Rice spins the memorable tale of a family struggling against all odds in the Cabbage Patch, an old Louisville slum "where ramshackle cottages played hop-scotch over the railroad tracks." This hopeful story follows the Wiggs as they face eviction from their dilapidated house and take in two orphanage fugitives. Out of print for many years, this charming, funny chronicle of hope triumphing over despair is finally available to a new generation of readers.

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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.