Bertha's Christmas Vision

Bertha's Christmas Vision gathers Horatio Alger Jr.'s moral tales into a holiday-tinged collection of poverty, kindness, redemption, and quiet wonder. Framed by a heartfelt dedication to his mother, the book turns its attention to children and families under pressure, where innocence is tested by hardship and restored through compassion. Stories such as "Little Floy," "Little Charlie," and "The Child of the Street" promise vivid scenes of suffering, mercy, and moral awakening. In "Little Floy; or, How a Miser was Reclaimed," the miser Martin Kendrick, hardened by loss and fear, lives in cold isolation until a shivering girl named Floy appears at his door. Her gratitude, industry, and gentle honesty transform his bleak home, and when illness deepens their bond, Martin discovers that Floy is his long-lost granddaughter, Florence Eastman. Other episodes move from a dreamlike "castle" of inner refuge to Thanksgiving and New Year's visions that reveal hidden domestic struggles: a ruined student, a clerk tempted toward theft, and a hungry mother saved by generosity. Again and again, Alger shows that small acts of mercy can lift despair and remake a life. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.