Princess in Calico

Available from Keepers of the Faith and Amazon
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Katura lived a hard life with her stepmother and her children until an uncle invited her to spend the summer with his family. During her visit she met an older lady, Tryphosa, who lived in daily pain but radiated the joy of Christ. A certain nice young man who Katura admired, Richard Everidge had prompted the visit to Tryphosa. Her uncle asked her to stay longer with them, and study in the city, and Katura had for some time when her father asked her to come home, as her stepmother was ill, and could not run the household. Before she left, Katura visited Tryphosa and told her that she had become a daughter of the King. Tryphosa encouraged her in her walk.

When Katura reached home, she found a lot of work and much unpleasantness from the family. Her stepmother died, and the workload devolved on Katura. Her father began having a progressively harder time dealing with everything, and he also died. Through it all, Katura’s sweet, Christlike spirit kept things together. One day her brother Lemuel brought a letter in with her name on it, but refused to give it to her. He told her he was trying to get her mad, as another brother had promised him a pocketknife if he could cause Katura to lose her temper. She never did, but she never saw the contents of the letter until years had passed. She found it was not from her cousin, but from Richard Everidge, asking to visit her, and saying that if she did not respond to the letter, he would take it that she was not interested in him. By the time Katura read the letter, he had been married for three years and had a daughter. This was hard to bear, but Katura found peace, joy and contentment in her relationship with Christ. There were other heartbreaks, but Katura remained steadfast in Christ, on a plane above her trials.

Years later, Katura had some visitors due to a problem with their engine, one of whom we discover to be Richard Everidge’s daughter. She wrote her father that Katura looked just like princess, with a mass of soft, white hair for a crown. She said that she had found that Katura even claimed to be a princess, a daughter of the King. Her father responded that he had known Katura previously and that she was “pure gold,” and it delighted Katura to hear that.

The book is summarized in the last thee paragraphs:

“But, Princess,” said Muriel wistfully, “farm work and cooking and washing dishes over and over – it seems such drudgery.”

A great light broke over Katura’s face, and she cried in a low exultant tone, “ ‘Blessed be drudgery!’ Christ bore it for thirty years, why should I mind it for forty-nine? I have only to wait a little now for the ‘fullness of joy’ and ‘pleasures for evermore.’ “

Muriel threw her arms about Katura and kissed her softly. “Then the princess will be at home,” she whispered, “in the palace of the King.”