How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page B

the men made a fuss, and told me I shouldn’t sell, that I should marry and let my husband run the farm instead, but I knew that they were already making calculations in their heads. What was the lowest price they could offer to a woman who, by reason of her gender, certainly wouldn’t have the intelligence to recognize the amount wasn’t nearly enough? So over the next few days, one by one they came to my hut and made their bids, and every time went home shaking their heads and muttering about this extremely unfeminine woman who drove such a hard bargain. But it was a good farm, certainly a profitable one, and after a week or so I made a very fine sale indeed. I collected the money, got together the few belongings I wanted to take with me, and prepared to leave Niobrara and embark on my great adventure.
    This was when I began to understand the extent of my challenge.
    I had a good-sized pouch of coins strapped inside my cloak, with cotton mixed in with the coins to keep them from jingling. I hadn’t yet been out much in the world, but I knew well enough that thieves lurked everywhere, and any of them would be eager to rob a female traveler with money. Still, I could afford to rent a cart and mule—my plan was to return to Myra, pray at Bishop Nicholas’s tomb myself, and then begin my own gift-giving mission wherever whim and fate might take me.
    But no one in Niobrara would rent me a mule and cart. Everyone said it was simply too dangerous for a woman to travel to Myra all by herself. I was certain I would be safe, so long as I was careful, but no one would hear of it. When I said I would walk to Myra instead, they said they could not allow it and would restrain me if necessary. I had to wait impatiently for almost three days before a farm family from town set off to Myra, and allowed me to ride along with them in their wagon. It was a very frustrating trip. The whole way, the husband and wife kept telling me how foolish I was to be leaving such a nice, safe place—surely I would rather marry and settle down instead of risking my life on some dangerous, lonely trip.
    They dropped me off in the market at Myra with many final recommendations that I should come to my senses. I managed not to reply that I was being quite sensible, thank you very much. Then I found that things would be just as difficult for me in Myra as they were in Niobrara, if not more so.
    Since I planned to stay for several days, buying and then distributing gifts to the very poorest people in Myra I could find, I first needed to take a room at an inn. I wanted the inn to be clean but inexpensive. Every coin I spent on my own comfort would be one less I had for gifts. But I must have gone to a dozen inns where I was turned away. In the big cities, it seemed, unmarried adult women traveling by themselves were assumed to be of very bad character. How could they be otherwise, if no men were willing to marry them? It was almost dark when I finally found a place to stay. The innkeeper grudgingly took my money and warned me to behave myself.
    â€œI run a nice place here,” he said, waving a hand at a very dirty collection of bug-ridden rooms.
    â€œAnd a very expensive place, too,” I replied, handing over more coins than I’d intended to pay for a few nights’ shelter.
    â€œIf you don’t like the price, feel free to go elsewhere,” he said, his tone quite insulting. “My guess is, no one would have you, and you’d have to sleep in the street.”
    â€œIs this the same price you would charge a single man for a room?”
    â€œIt’s what I’m charging you. ”
    I hoped that he would be unique in my travels, but, sadly, he wasn’t. No matter where I went, people always seemed to look with disdain on me for being a woman who traveled alone, and I knew I was often charged more than what was fair for rooms. And, as I would soon discover, unfair costs of lodging were to be among the