S C R I B N E R ' S M A G A Z I N E Important ... - Rparchives.org
S C R I B N E R ' S M A G A Z I N E Important ... - Rparchives.org
S C R I B N E R ' S M A G A Z I N E Important ... - Rparchives.org
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
November 26, 1913.<br />
A FAMILY PAPER.<br />
O U R T H A N K S G I V I N G S T O R Y .<br />
The Rich and the Poor Meet Together.<br />
By Grace Hamilton Ge<strong>org</strong>e-Last.<br />
ous '3 ?i(l exceptionally w fhe IS *liom Mem, ^'ice quite a hospitality."<br />
1 he whole family compromised and we was seems like have purpose day interrupted father nice satisfied. meant to nothing basket have was, with of entirely Thanksgiving<br />
in I people Ted think for his her common. on losing gener<br />
them, rath<br />
Ted with<br />
(Member of Los Angeles, Cal,, R. P. Congregation,)<br />
PART I.<br />
It was pleasant to be with Alice<br />
er elaborate explanations by the entrance<br />
of the young six-year-old himself.<br />
for Thanksgiving, Grandmother sat<br />
The swinging door brought<br />
in a little rocker before the open fire from the kitchen a rush ol spicy<br />
ol the big living room, happy in the promises and savory sputterings<br />
thought. A sunbeam had slipped in which gave assurance that the preparations<br />
through the bare for the feast were both fore-<br />
branches of the<br />
cherry tree outside the big bay window,<br />
l:anded and experienced.<br />
and had caught the silver glints "There are four pumpkin pies.<br />
of her white hair, as she gently rocked<br />
Mother! And we have doughnuts, and<br />
one of the twins.<br />
the biggest turkey. Grandma!" Ted<br />
sat down on the rug in happy con<br />
Betty, at ease with her book in a<br />
comer of the couch, had been leaning<br />
back among the cushions for flve<br />
minutes, in the simple enjoyment of<br />
the sunlight on her mother's hair.<br />
She, too, was musing on the happy<br />
Thanksgiving atmosphere about her;<br />
the big bowl of bronze chrysanthemums<br />
on the library table at tier<br />
elbow and the flickerof the burning<br />
logs on the brass andirons, were like<br />
the presence of old friends to her<br />
artistic soul. The usual quiet stir<br />
of afternoon in tlie little residence<br />
street, at the foot of the hill—ju=t<br />
the passing jar of a hurrying delivery<br />
wagon, and the gay voices of children<br />
roller-skating on the sidewalk—^came<br />
up to her with the exhilarated tone<br />
which the air seems to carry on the<br />
eve of a holiday. The nearness of<br />
Alice, the best big sister in the world.<br />
from whom she had been separated<br />
for many months, brought a soft<br />
warm light from the depths of Betty's<br />
brown eyes.<br />
Alice sat in the shadow of an old<br />
mahogany bookcase—the other of the<br />
twins' warm head against her blue<br />
gown—singing soft snatches of old<br />
lullabies; her blue eyes beaming an<br />
affectionate wordless welcome on her<br />
dear guests.<br />
It was a happy family custom<br />
which had brought her mother and<br />
sister across the states that their<br />
family might be united at Thanksgiving<br />
time,<br />
"It seems sad to think of the homes<br />
where tomorrow will bring no<br />
Thanksgiving."<br />
Grandma spoke softly—perhaps for<br />
the sake of her sleeping charge; perhaps<br />
because the chill thought seemed<br />
out of place in that happy moment;<br />
for it came like a draught<br />
from, an open door. It was impossible<br />
even to poke up the flre, and bring<br />
again the cosy sense of the world's<br />
tomfort in which they had just been<br />
wrapped,<br />
"1 know how you feel, mother,"<br />
Alice answered with quick intuition,<br />
while a cloud drifted over the sunshine<br />
in her eyes. "At home there<br />
was always the Hospital to be sup-<br />
Plied with goodies at Thanksgiving,<br />
and father's Bible Class to be.entertained.<br />
Here it seems different. Every<br />
one seems to be self-sufflcient, I<br />
sent baskets to the laundress, and to<br />
Ted's little cripple protege down the<br />
Me, but really that was the only outlet<br />
for my phanthropies I could discover,<br />
Teddy was quite anxious to<br />
invite Jijn and his grandmother for<br />
toner tomorrow, but I hardly know<br />
templation of the coming festival.<br />
"I suppose thankfulness isn't really<br />
so much a matter of light and<br />
dark meat," Betty began.<br />
"But I don't see how one could be<br />
really thankful if he were hungry,"<br />
Alice concluded; then added. "But,<br />
indeed. Mamma, I do not know how far<br />
the note, andI'll go after the kitten!"<br />
Ted was off, jerking his cap down<br />
over his curls.<br />
"I'll tell you what I think, mother,"<br />
said Betty, as she scribbled her milk<br />
order with a little gold pencil, "I<br />
could be thankful here, in this pretty<br />
room with you and Alice, with only a<br />
small -crust for my Thanksgiving dinner.<br />
But I don't see how Ted's little<br />
cripple friend, Jim, and his funny<br />
old granny down the lane, can be<br />
happy, even with the nice basket<br />
Alice sent this morning."<br />
"No doubt Jim and his grandmother<br />
are as fond of each other as Ted<br />
and I, and I am sure we could be<br />
very happy together,"<br />
Betty's mother had lived out of Or-<br />
OUR THANKSGIVING POEM<br />
In Touch With God.<br />
BY AGNES McILROY,<br />
(Member of St, Louis R, P. Congregation.)<br />
A day in the quiet country.<br />
Away from the busy town;<br />
In the deep wood where through the still, still air<br />
The ripe nuts are dropping down.<br />
Where the little brown squirrels are frisking<br />
From treetop to sun-kissed sod;<br />
'Mid beauty supreme here all things seem<br />
To be keeping in touch with God.<br />
The leaves all gold and russet<br />
Are falling and drifted they lie;<br />
While the tender glow on the far slopes show<br />
Fair Autumn is passing by.<br />
The wealth and fame of the cities<br />
Where the worldly-great have trod.<br />
Are trivial today, for our hearts obey<br />
The touch of a wonderful God.<br />
In the fields the corn gleams golden<br />
Where the husk has loosened its hold;<br />
And the pumpkins there, bring<br />
Of the Thanksgiving Day of old.<br />
Oh days that were rich in beauty.<br />
When the ways of childhood we trod.<br />
memories rare<br />
And with hearts aglow His goodness to show<br />
We kept in touch with God.<br />
you would have to travel from here to<br />
find any one absolutely hungry,"<br />
"I know some one in our street<br />
tbat is absolutely hungry," volunteered<br />
Ted from the rug, where he was<br />
mending his skate, "It's that kitten<br />
Mamma won't let me keep, I saw it<br />
this morning, and I know its hungry.<br />
Oh I would love to give that kitten a<br />
Thanksgiving- dinner, mother dear."<br />
There was such ardent pleading in<br />
chard Place environment more than<br />
iBetty had,<br />
"Let's tuck the babies in their little<br />
beds, mother," said Alice, rising,<br />
"Charlie will be coming in for his<br />
tea, very soon,"<br />
"But, mother," she whispered with<br />
Eelty's wall. In the early dawn, the<br />
milkman's quick footsteps and clatter<br />
of bottles broke the chilly grey silence<br />
lor a moment,<br />
"1 hope he'll not miss Ted's bottle<br />
for the kitten!" Betty sleepily smiled<br />
as she turned over lor another<br />
nap. There was still a good hour of<br />
sleep before the breakfast bell would<br />
ring. Prom the depth of her w^arm<br />
blankets she was suddenly roused by<br />
a sense of alarmed confusion. It waa<br />
dull daylight, and raining; the room<br />
had a murky blue look and a strange<br />
suffocating odor. It took a few swift<br />
seconds for her to collect her senses<br />
and realize that someone was knocking—beating—on<br />
her door, and that<br />
the whole house seemed in a turmoil.<br />
It was from no presence of mind, but<br />
rather from the force of long habit,<br />
that Betty thrust her feet into her<br />
woollen bed slippers and threw a<br />
heavy bathrobe about her shoulders;<br />
for any observant person would have<br />
seen that the weather demanded rubber<br />
boots and a raincoat, A rubbercoated<br />
fireman hurried her through<br />
the hall, bluer and smokier than her<br />
rocm had been, out the side door<br />
past throbbing engines and coilg of<br />
great hose, to the barn at the hack<br />
of the garden. Here, curled up<br />
among the hay bales, she found Alice<br />
and her mother with the children,<br />
"They are going to save the house,<br />
Charlie says," Alice explained from<br />
her perch where she sat hugging t^"<br />
twins under her big coat, their bright<br />
brown eyes staring out like frightened<br />
bunnies in the bushes, "But there<br />
is a big hole in the roof where the<br />
fire had smoldered a long time."<br />
Grandmother was trying to keep<br />
Ted under cover, but the excitement<br />
was too much for him, and he hovered<br />
between the drips of the eaves—<br />
the extreme limit of his liberty—and<br />
the safer arc of his mother's horizon<br />
in the hay.<br />
"A big ladder has just banged off<br />
the cherry tree into the bay window<br />
and smashed it, and the water Is<br />
pouring off the roof into the library!<br />
I know it is! Do come and see it,<br />
mother!" he urged,<br />
"I wish I had some clothes," lamented<br />
Betty, tucking herself into a<br />
woolly ball, "I'd like to be out there<br />
with Teddy,"<br />
"Poor child, look among those<br />
things in that sheet. Charlie brought<br />
us an armful of things from my closet,<br />
I've found something for each of<br />
ue!"<br />
a little laugh, as she tiptoed from<br />
the darkened room, "I was so sure<br />
I would never have a cat in m-y<br />
house!"<br />
"I'ro afraid there are no boots, but<br />
Teddy's face as he looked up to "You and Ted might manage, here's your old tweed suit. May I<br />
Alice that she said readily,<br />
mother," Betty persisted, when wear it? That feels good!" Betty<br />
"It would be too bad to neglect Charlie and the tea things had arrived,<br />
"But Jim and his granny—I can't the big jacket pockets,<br />
stepped briskly about, her hands in<br />
the only hungry little body on the<br />
street wouldn't it, Teddy?"<br />
imagine it—that's all,"<br />
"Your slippers match your cap!"<br />
"I'll' tell you, Ted, let's put a note<br />
PART II,<br />
Ted observed, looking her over with<br />
out for the milkman to leave an extra<br />
bottle of milk tomorrow mornber<br />
all over the house, after the big cap down over her ears,<br />
There had been long hours of slum<br />
interest, as she pulled a red skating<br />
ing for the kitten," proposed Betty. are light on the corner had dropped •'There was a stocking bag, for<br />
"That's the best yet! You write his funny dancing shadows from that I am thankful," Betty looked<br />
at her woollen slippers ruefully, "but<br />
these rainy cently cast episode Their of Alice sponsibility the a a tract day!" slippers was house high city subdivided, glamor of the limits. which feeling spirits for was were of morning; the adventure the It had and of a never immediate stood very Betty old included been nevertheless<br />
made on homestead<br />
heavy and over only future. for small with<br />
re<br />
Ted<br />
a