Eighteen-year-old Betsy Blake yearns for love and romance, but the unattached men of Virginia City are all ill-mannered ranch hands without the gentlemanly qualities she desires. When her friend Susannah finds a husband by writing a mail-order groom advertisement in the paper, Betsy decides to pen her own ad specifying her wish for a well-dressed, mannerly husband from the east, and she excitedly awaits a response from the man of her dreams.Roderick Mason's reputation as an architect in NYC has earned him great success, but he hasn't been as lucky in love. The women of his circle are perfectly lovely, observing every etiquette with practice and ease, but he longs for adventure and a woman who will challenge him. When he reads an ad in the paper requesting a gentleman groom, he decides it's time to abandon life as he knows it and head to the wild west.Roderick and Betsy are immediately smitten, but they soon discover that not everyone in Virginia City is pleased by their match, especially one man who wants Betsy as his own. As Betsy's stalker becomes increasingly threatening, Roderick realizes he will go to great lengths to protect his sweet little country girl, including taking her over his knee for some painful discipline when she misbehaves or puts herself in danger. Will Betsy learn to face her problems and accept Roderick's love and discipline, or will he never succeed at what he desires most-protecting and catching Betsy?Warning: Catching Betsy is a historical western romance containing sexual scenes and domestic discipline, including punishment spanking. If these themes offend you, please don't buy this book.
This work explores the story of a young, brilliant and gorgeous girl, whom everybody called "the clever Betsy." The book is full of romance, personal growth, wit, and humor. The brilliant storyline and engaging characters introduced by the author contributed to this work's success. Clara Louise Burnham was an American author who wrote more than 26 novels. Her novels were well appreciated, and many were adapted for stage and screen. Excerpt from The Clever Betsy ""Hello there!" The man with grizzled hair and bronzed face under a shabby yachting-cap stopped in his leisurely ramble up the street of a seaport village, and his eyes lighted at sight of a spare feminine figure, whose lean vigorous arms were shaking a long narrow rug at a cottage gate. "Ahoy there—The Clever Betsy!" he went on."
She wasnt a dog anyone wanted. Bald from the nape of her neck to the tip of her tail, she was a scrawny little black dog with little to recommend herself to anyone other than the little tricks she used to perform to amuse people. A loser dog. But then, I wasnt a person anyone wanted either. A loser in the eyes of the world. A neer do well named Jamie Fairchild, who, at the age of forty-one, had tried his luck in many places and invariably had failed. For twenty years, I had become a stranger even to the members of my own immediate family. I didnt want a dog. I wasnt even looking for one. But God has a way of intervening, regardless of our hopes, dreams, and personal wills, not necessarily giving one what one wants but what one needs. Th ey tole me you needed me, Betsy told me. Who told you? My superior offi cers, she smiled, elevating her chin toward heaven. Th ings hasnt been goin so well with ya these past twenty years. I hear tell ya had big dreams once, but you went bust, was homeless jes like me fer awhiles. I also hear tell them folks of yourn aint much of a family. But then, mine twerent neither. I hears ya likes adventure, aint afeerd of takin risks. I aint either. I also hear tell ya likes to perform. I does too. But ya lost your confi dence along the way. Well, Im here to give it back to ya. Before long, Betsy was putting me through my paces. Ah-ten-tion! shed bark at me. Th ats what our C.O. always barked at the fellas I worked with in New Guinea. Saunders was his name. Man, he was a doll, but he could also be one mean sonofabitch, let me tell ya. When Saunders barked them orders, them guys all shot up straight as ramrods. Shoulders up, ass in, chest out. Now, lissen up, Pop. Ah-ten-tion! Git that chin up! What goods it doin hangin down thataways on your collarbone? Well, no one would be able to cuff me under it if its hanging down. Lissen, Pop, she would say. No ones gonna cuff you under the chin. And if they does, Ill take care of em so good, they wont need to wear no shoes! No one messes with a Marine. Not if they know whats good for em. Now lissen up! Chin up! Shoulders back! Ass in! Awkward as these unaccustomed positions felt to me, I complied with her commands. Yeah, her muzzle widened into a grin. Th ats more like it, Daddy. If Betsy had set me onto the road of physical exercise, she also corrected my posture. If it hadnt been for the disciplines that she imposed upon me, Id now be a walking question mark. Why are ya walkin with your shoulders down on your chest? shed bark. You wanna be a hunchback one day? No, I said. Th en stand straight and stop hangin your head, she said. How are ya ever goin to see where youre a-goin lookin down at the ground all the time? You look at the ground when you sniff , Id say. Yeah, but thats only to get the smell of direction. Its in the dog world what you call a map in the human one. But ya caint go nowheres by always lookin at the map. Time comes when youve gotta keep your eye on the road. Th is was the army now, and I had become Private Jamie to Sergeant Betsy. When I would slump down into that easy chair, one of whose armrests she had completely disemboweled, and had sunk into those pointless ruminations about what I should or should not have done so many years before, Betsy would approach my feet and deposit at them the tug o war rope, fall back on her rear haunches, her big brown eyes shining with excited anticipation, her muzzle dropped open in an eager smile. Come on, Dad, lets play. Oh, please, not now, Betsy, Id say. Oh yes, now, she insisted. Come on. What goods settin there goin over things you caint do nuthin bout? When you does stuff like this, youre like me when a fl ea gets on my tail and I keep tryin to bite it off of it, but the more I turns around, that tail jes keep gittin further away from me. Memories is like fl eas, Dad. You chew on em too long, they gets your tail sore. Ya gotta keep your eye on your star. Th eres one up yonder thats yourn and yourn alone. Keep your eye on it, and it wont be forgettin ya. You jes take a hold on my tail, Pop, and Ill take ya to your highest dreams.
The main plot of Th e App le of Love is based on a true story: During the Great Depression Harry and Emily had a fi ve year love affair as young adults that reignites sixty years later when Harrys wife is in a nursing home. The drama unfolds through the eyes of an old man, his convalescent wife and their daughter, Marie. Marie uses her perception of what her parents experienced, her understanding of what they told her and her wild imagination to tell the story.
In Betsy's Adventures, Betsy, a school teacher, explores the secrets of Santa Cruz County. She starts her family and along the way meets many of the characters in the county's rich history. She helps to found a state park. Betsy finds two children while exploring in the mountains. She eventually marries a rich lawyer from San Francisco after a long engagement. She rides on the InterUrban streetcar, loses her best friend in a cave, experiences the 1918 earthquake with her boyfriend. With wit, intellect and morality, Thomas-Zucker crafts a cast of ordinary characters that are easy to relate to and display a broad range of human emotions. Thomas-Zucker hopes Betsy's Adventures will inspire anyone who reads it to go and explore the "secret" places that are mentioned in Betsy's Adventures and create their own adventures and fall in love with the beautiful area as she has. Maybe even uncover a mystery or two that still lurches around creating intrigue and mystery.
After a strange and alarming phone call from her elderly uncle Pete gets abruptly cut off, kindergarten teacher Betsy McGovern returns to her hometown of Eagle Point, Maine. She soon learns that her beloved uncle Pete and godmother, Lily Mae Warren, the lighthouse keeper of Eagle Point Light, have been kidnapped. Eagle Point sheriff Francis Willette helps Betsy unravel the puzzling family secrets and shocking local murders that welcome her home. Betsy and the handsome sheriff sort out the clues to the case while they sort out the feelings they have for each other. Betsy also has to keep Eagle Point Light burning. Watching her back might not be a bad idea, either. With two dead bodies and no solid suspects, Betsy and Francis frantically work to solve the case and bring Betsy's loved ones home before they become the final victims in an elaborate scheme to keep past secrets hidden.
On a warm summer night, a young girl and her daddy catch fireflies, put them in a jar to admire for a brief time, and then release them back into the moonlight. Includes facts about fireflies.
