This warm tale starts at the beginning of a cold Montana winter in 1911. A young woman who had been a teacher on an Indian reservation school until she lost her job when the U.S. Government Bureau of Indian Affairs closed the school. Julianna Mitchell finds herself in a country store overlooked by a very suspicious store clerk who is just sure that the four young Indian children with her are going to steal or damage some of his merchandise. Julianna is beside herself with worry since she has no money and no place to go for food or shelter.
Lincoln Creed, a local rancher, comes into the store and notices that Julianna is pale and shaking and asks what is wrong. Though she doesn’t tell him her story it becomes clear to Lincoln that she and the kids are in great need of help. So, Lincoln bundles them all up in his buckboard and takes them with him out to his ranch.
So begins the process of getting to know each other, falling in love and eventually getting married and adopting two of the Indian children while returning the older two to their family in North Dakota. What with going through brutal winter weather and the birth of a child in a cabin of one of the ranch hands the two of them get closer and closer. We readers also feel closer to them and really feel it when they finally determine to make their lives together.
Every year around Christmas time I try to find one of these warm Christmas stories. One should read this kind of warm cozy books at least once a year and Christmas is the best time in my opinion.
“A Creed Country Christmas” is a wonderfully warm cozy story and gets a 9 of 10 on the Weaver meter.
