Read Online The True Gift by Patricia MacLachlan - Free Book Online

Atheneum Books for Young Readers
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people,
or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents
are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual
events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2009 by Patricia MacLachlan
Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Brian Floca
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in whole or in part in any form.
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Book design by Jessica Handelman
The text for this book is set in Venetian 301BT.
The illustrations for this book are rendered in graphite and ebony pencil.
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
MacLachlan, Patricia.
The true gift : a Christmas story / Patricia MacLachlan ;
illustrated by Brian Floca.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: While spending Christmas at their grandparents’ farm,
Lily becomes convinced that her younger brother Liam is right
about White Cow being lonely and helps him seek a companion for her,
leaving little time for Christmas preparations or reading.
ISBN: 978-1-4169-9081-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN: 978-1-4169-5617-9 (eBook)
[1. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 2. Cows—Fiction. 3. Books and reading—
Fiction. 4. Grandparents—Fiction. 5. Christmas—Fiction.
6. Farm life—Fiction.] I. Floca, Brian, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.M2225Tru 2009
[Fic]—dc22     2009000375

This is for John; Pony and Ella; Jamie and
Lauren; and Emily, Dean, and Sofia.
Love to you all.
    With special thanks to Donna Cowan
—P. M.

THE
True Gift

    White Cow stood alone in the big meadow.
    Her eyes were sad, though she might not have known what sad was. She looked down the road searching for something.
    There was a time when she had company, a donkey the color of biscuits, but the farmer who owned the donkey had taken her away.
    Sometimes a red fox came to drink from the stream. Sometimes deer came through the meadow to nibble crab apples left on the tree by the barn.
    Crows clattered overhead.
    But most days White Cow stood alone in the big meadow.

Chapter One

    Liam and I sit on the backseat of Papa’s old car. The car heater isn’t working, so Liam and I share a blanket. We can see our breath in the air.
    â€œHow many books did you bring?” whispers Liam.
    Liam and I share a worry. Our school closes for ten days, and we’re going to Grandpa and Gran’s house. We always gothere in December, waiting for Christmas and Mama and Papa to come Christmas Day. We worry about not taking as many books as we’ll need.
    â€œI brought fifteen books,” I say.
    â€œI brought thirty-seven,” says Liam.
    I burst out laughing.
    â€œDon’t worry, Lily. There is the stone library if you run out.”
    Liam runs out of books all the time. Sometimes he reads three chapter books in one day.
    I smile.
    We love that stone library, our second home at Grandpa and Gran’s farm.
    â€œThe lilac library,” Liam says.
    It’s true. No matter what time of year—winter or summer or fall or spring—that library smells like lilacs.
    Liam takes a book out of the bag at his feet. I smile. I am three years older than Liam, and I have a