University of Virginia Library

THOUGHT FOR THANKSGIVING DAY.

This day, long celebrated in New England, again
returns, amid whose festivities the heart expands itself
and awakes anew to cheerful life. Though the whole
year has bound it with selfish fetters, and it has pursued
unremittingly its aim of worldly gain or worldly advancement,
on this day all the avenues to its genialities
are thrown open, and troops of kindly feelings, long
strangers, come thronging back to their early home, as
their possessors return, on this glad season, and revisit
the source from whence they sprung.

It is a time of glee and a time of thankfulness, — the
twin feelings of the season. The joy of meeting after
long separation; the gathering of friendly faces about
the generous board; the hilarious song and the graceful
dance; the sports of childhood, and the heart-mingling
of youth old enough and willing to love, — all are worship,
and offerings of thankfulness, where sweet innocence
lends its charm.

It was known, months ago, that Tom was to come
home from the city to Thanksgiving. He had been gone
a whole year, and when his great red face had disappeared
it seemed for a while as if the sun had ceased to
shine. His first letter was an event in the lives of “the
old folks at home,” and Tom's sisters; and Tom's sisters
had to carry the letter all round the neighborhood, that
people might see how well he could write, and what

proper words he used, and how he crossed his t's and
minded his i's. But Tom has written many letters since,
and the novelty has worn off; but the affection around
the old homestead is as bright as ever. And Tom is
actually coming home to Thanksgiving, and the girls
will pinch his red cheeks and tease him with their kindnesses
as they used to do. His last letter tells his
father that he must have the mare at the depot by six
o'clock. The girls insist that they will drive down to
meet him; they 're not afraid of a horse, not they,
and go they will. The house is swept, and the wood is
piled up in the best-room fire-place, and the floor is
newly sanded, and the chair with the new tidy that
'Bella has knit is in its place for Master Tom when
he comes; for Tom has got to be a character, and it
is a question if more preparation could be made for a
king's reception. The old folks talk of his coming, and
a softer expression than usual mingles in their voices,
and the clock is watched for the hour of his appearing.
Here they are at last! And the red-faced boy gets out.
Father! Mother! God bless you both! — and he is a
child again, — the child of the old homestead, — and
he loves every stick in the old house better than ever
before.

It is not time to talk yet about the big city, — that is
reserved for the evening, when they are seated round the
cheerful fire. Now he must answer the questions about
his health, and if his last stockings fitted, and what he
thought when he heard his aunt Deborah had got married,
and if his cousin John had given him the little
Bible his old schoolmistress sent him, — they knew he

had, because Tom had said so in a letter home, — and if
he heard that his cousin Sally had got a baby!
Heavens! how the questions pour in upon him, and
will, until he gets his turn to ask, and theirs comes to
answer.

This is a picture-sample of a thousand such. Freights
of happiness are borne on every railroad car; the steam
whistle of the locomotive conveys a thrill of pleasure to
many a listening heart; the hum of business palls the
ear that listens for happiness, and the shutters are put
up for one day, — the heart's jubilee.

Though sin and excess may mark and mar its hilarity,
an aggregate of joy remains to it commensurate with
the virtue that remains to us. The noise of the turkey
is heard in the land; ovations are made to the genius of
plenty; groaning tables pave the way to groaning
stomachs, and thankfulness works its way out between
the scant apertures left in compact stomach stowage.

Heaven give the rich heart to help the poor, and to
make them thankful on this day, in spite of the three
hundred and sixty-four other days of hardship and privation!