Hiram's Gift — Nancy Kelly Allen

Hiram builds fires to heat the two-room schoolhouse and earns dimes for his trouble. With a heart full of hope, he saves his money in a sock and thumbs through a catalog looking at a shiny fiddle, a maple fiddle, the kind of fiddle he dreamed of playing. Tragedy strikes. Hiram uses the dimes to help his family and sets his hopes on a gift from the Christmas elves that send a present to every child in school. Hiram delights in the simple presents he receives and those gifts change the course of his life.