William, the Good

William's Christmas holidays begin with influenza and end in a series of glorious misunderstandings, as the bedridden boy turns his boredom into a crusade. Trapped indoors and denied adventures with Ginger, Douglas, and Henry, he reads a sentimental tale about an angelic reformer and promptly decides he has found his true calling: rescuing the wicked. That noble impulse collides with village reality when he mistakes Ethel's secretive behavior and bottle of cold medicine for signs of drink, theft, and vice, and sets out to save her with solemn, catastrophic earnestness. Meanwhile, the all-female Literary Society is scrambling to raise money for a cinematograph by staging a Christmas Eve production of As You Like It, a venture ripe for satire as lofty ideals meet amateur theatricals. Ethel, desperate for the role of Rosalind and trying to hide a cold, becomes the center of William's mistaken moral campaign. His interference nearly ruins the casting, but the chaos only deepens the comic fun. Elsewhere, William's world of rivalries and loyalties continues: he reluctantly spares the swaggering Clarence Bergson for Miss Holding's sake, then rejoices when Clarence antagonizes the Outlaws and Farmer Jenks, setting up new schemes of revenge. Throughout, the story skewers pretension, celebrates mischief, and keeps William's grand intentions in delicious collision with common sense. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.