(12/20) No Holly for Miss Quinn Read Online Free PDF

shelter near the church, drawing attention to the usual Mammoth Jumble Sale, the Fur and Feather Whist Drive, and the Social and Dance, all to be held—on different dates, of course—under the roof of the Village Hall.
    As well as these advertized delights, there were more private junketings, such as the Women's Institute Christmas party, Fairacre School's concert, and a wine and cheese party for the Over-Sixties' Club.
    An innovation was Mrs. Partridge's Open Day at the vicarage, which was her own idea, and to which the village gave considerable attention.
    "You can just pop in there," said Mrs. Willet, in the Post Office, "anytime between ten o'clock and seven at night. You pays ten pence to go in, and you pays for your cup of coffee, or your dinner midday, or tea, say, at four o'clock."
    "And what, pray," said Mrs. Pringle, who was buying stamps, "do you get for dinner? And how much will it be?"
    "I think it's just soup and bread and cheese," said Mrs. Willet timidly.
    Mrs. Pringle snorted, and two stamps fluttered to the ground.
    "I don't call that DINNER," boomed the lady, preparing to bend to retrieve the stamps.
    "Here, let me," said Mr. Lamb, the postmaster, hurrying to rescue Mrs. Pringle's property. More than likely to have a heart attack, trying to bend over in those corsets, was his ungallant private comment, as he proffered the stamps with a smile.
    "Ta," said Mrs. Pringle perfunctorily. She turned again upon little Mrs. Willet.
    "And how much for this 'ere rubbishy snack?'"
    "I'm not sure," faltered Mrs. Willet. "It's for charity, you see. Half to the Church Fabric Fund and half to some mission in London that the vicar takes an interest in. Poor people, you know."
    "Poor people? " thundered Mrs. Pringle. "In London? Why, we've got plenty of poor in Fairacre as could do with a bit of help at Christmas, without giving it away to foreigners up London. Look at them Coggses! They could do with a bit of extra. That youngest looks half-starved to me."
    "Well, whose fault's that?" asked Mr. Lamb, entering the fray. "We all know Arthur drinks his pay packet—always has done, and always will. If he was given more, he'd drink that too."
    "Who said give Arthur the money?" demanded

    Mrs. Pringle, her four chins wobbling with indignation. "Give it to that poor wife of his, I say, to get a decent meal for the kids."
    "They do get something from the Great Coal Charity," said Mrs. Willet diffidently. Mrs. Pringle brushed this aside.
    "And in my mother's time she didn't rely on no Great Coal Charity," she boomed on. "She paid her way, poor though she was."
    "She didn't have anything from the Great Coal Charity," responded Mr. Lamb, "because there wasn't one then."
    "I'll have you know," said Mrs. Pringle with devastating dignity, "that that there Charity was started in seventeen-fifty because the vicar told us himself at a talk he gave the W.I."
    "Maybe," replied Mr. Lamb, "but it was started as a Greatcoat Charity, and six deserving old men and six deserving old women got a woolen greatcoat apiece to keep out the winter cold."
    Mrs. Pringle looked disbelieving, her mouth downturned like a disgruntled turtle's.
    "And what happened," said Mr. Lamb, warming to his theme, "was this. Someone left the crossing off the 't' in 'coat' when they were writing up the minutes about George the Fourth's time, and so it went on being called the Great Coal Charity, and instead of a coat you get coal."
    "Well, I never," exclaimed Mrs. Willet. "I never heard that before!"
    "Nor did I," said Mrs. Pringle, with heavy sarcasm. She picked up her stamps and made for the door.
    "Which doesn't alter my feelings about bread and cheese dinners. What's dinner without a bit of meat on your plate?"
    She banged the door behind her. Mrs. Willet sighed.
    "That woman," said Mr. Lamb, "makes me come over prostrate with dismal when she shows that face of hers in here. Now, love, what was it you wanted?"

Chapter 4
    TROUBLE AHEAD
    M ISS Q UINN was wise enough to