The valley lay like a ribbon thrown into the midst of the encompassing hills. The grass which grew there was soft and fine and abundant; the trees which sprang from its dark, rich mould were tall and great of girth. A bright stream flashed through it, and the sunshine fell warm upon the grass and changed the tassels of the maize into golden plumes. Above the valley, east and north and south, rose the hills, clad in living green, mantled with the purpling grape, wreathed morn and eve with trailing mist. To the westward were the mountains, and they dwelt apart in a blue haze.

Clearly a literary great, Mary Johnston gave her great gift to the world many years ago with this historical fiction classic. "To Have and To Hold," takes the reader on an interesting journey of a Virginian explorer during the 1600s. Enjoy Johnston's imagination as you discover what life was like for an adventure-bound Captain during the early years of colonization. Richard Foster Classics Collection

But if we return not from our adventure," ended Sir Mortimer, "if the sea claims us, and upon his sandy floor, amid his Armida gardens, the silver-singing mermaiden marvel at that wreckage which was once a tall ship and at those bones which once were animate, --if strange islands know our resting-place, sunk for evermore in huge and most unkindly forests, --if, being but pawns in a mighty game, we are lost or changed, happy, however, in that the white hand of our Queen hath touched us, giving thereby consecration to our else unworthiness, --if we find no gold, nor take one ship of Spain, nor...