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Calvary Alley

by Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice (1870–1942)

  • Free to read
  • 6 hours to read
  • 33 chapters
  • Reading level: 6th grade

"Calvary Alley" by Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice is a novel written in the early 20th century. The story centers on Nance Molloy, a tenacious young girl from a struggling background in a run-down neighborhood, as she navigates her childhood amidst poverty, social challenges, and personal battles against both her peers and the law. The beginning of "Calvary Alley" introduces us to a vibrant and chaotic scene where Nance engages in a fierce tussle with her neighborhood rivals over ownership of a spade, a skirmish that escalates into an all-out battle between the alley's children and the choir boys from the nearby cathedral. Nance's fierce spirit and defiant nature quickly establish her character as a "tomboy" who fights valiantly for her rights, alongside her loyal friends from Calvary Alley. However, the consequences of their actions lead them into the juvenile court, setting the stage for themes of justice, childhood innocence, and the struggle to rise above one's circumstances.

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  • Kentucky

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Chapter I

THE FIGHT

You never would guess in visiting Cathedral Court, with its people's hall and its public baths, its clean, paved street and general air of smug propriety, that it harbors a notorious past. But those who knew it by its maiden name, before it was married to respectability, recall Calvary Alley as a region of swarming tenements, stale beer dives, and frequent police raids. The sole remaining trace of those unregenerate days is the print of a child's foot in the concrete walk just where it leaves the court and turns into the cathedral yard.

All the tired feet that once plodded home from factory and foundry, all the unsteady feet that staggered in from saloon and dance-hall, all the fleeing feet that sought a hiding place, have long since passed away and left no record of their passing. Only that one small footprint, with its perfect outline, still pauses on its way out of the alley into the great world beyond.

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Contents

Show all 33 chapters
  1. Chapter I
  2. Chapter II
  3. Chapter III
  4. Chapter IV
  5. Chapter V
  6. Chapter VI
  7. Chapter VII
  8. Chapter VIII
  9. Chapter IX
  10. Chapter X
  11. Chapter XI
  12. Chapter XII
  13. Chapter XIII
  14. Chapter XIV
  15. Chapter XV
  16. Chapter XVI
  17. Chapter XVII
  18. Chapter XVIII
  19. Chapter XIX
  20. Chapter XX
  21. Chapter XXI: Dan
  22. Chapter XXII
  23. Chapter XXIII
  24. Chapter XXIV
  25. Chapter XXV: Mac
  26. Chapter XXVI
  27. Chapter XXVII
  28. Chapter XXVIII
  29. Chapter XXIX
  30. Chapter XXX
  31. Chapter XXXI
  32. Chapter XXXII
  33. Chapter XXXIII

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About this edition

This free edition of Calvary Alley by Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #9794, released 2006-01-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Novels, American Literature.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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