A Real New England Girl by Anna I. Parsons 1. The Shower 2. Oxford County 3. The Stranger and the Girl 4. The Youth and the Girl 5. Pansy and Richard Go Trading 6. The Marvelous Storyteller 7. The Dinner 8. The The Minister Comes for Tea 9. Pansy's Father 10. Pansy and Her Mother 11. Poland Springs 12. The Birthday Cake 13. Ned Patterson Comes for a Visit 14. The Blue Berrying Party 15. The Beginning of Wisdom 16. The Tempted and the Penitent 17. The Concert 18. Stanley's Ride 19. The Bench by the Wayside 20. The Banker and the Widow 21. The Bag of Nuts 22. How They Kept Thanksgiving at Little Farm 23. Hardly a Merry Christimas 24. A Call Down and a Caller 25. The Pride of Mrs. Bradford 26. A Happy New Year 27. Amusement and Winter Sport 28. Kim 29. Richard, the Lion Hearted 30. A Tour of the White Mountains 31. Talking Over the Trip with Henry Bright 32. Thoughts That Lie Too Deep for Words 33. Economics 34. His Toast 35. The Busy Haunts of Man 36. Christmas in New York 37. The Last Night of Their Visit 38. The Language Understood by All 39. Sugaring Off 40. Correspondence 41. Commencement 42. Conclusion Afterward

CHAPTER XXII. How They Kept Thanksgiving at Little Farm. "And therefore I, William Bradford (By the grace of God today And the franchise of this good people), Governor of Plymouth, say, Thro' virtue of vested power, Ye shall gather with one accord, And hold in the month of November Thanksgiving unto the Lord." November is house banking time in Maine. From the woods the farmers bring small fir and hemlock trees and lay around the outside of their house, close to the underpinning, and stack them in front of the cellar windows, that the wintry winds may not enter. As a further safeguard against cold, they fit on double windows and place a storm entry in front of the outer door. The Bradford home had put on its heavy clothing so to speak, and snug and tight as a vessel newly caulked, it awaited the coming of winter. Indian summer, as soft and smiling as a lover, had merged into the colorless days when earth and sky, in their garb of russet and gray, seed to sit schiwe for nature dead and entombed and no longer in need of the life-sustaining rays of golden sunshine. The night before Thanksgiving a light fall of snow wrought wonderful transformation in the outer world. Lane and highway, field and hillside were carpeted in white; every tree wore the emblem of purity; every stone wall, a veneer of marble. Streams, caught and held fast by their master Cold, were the rendezvous of the skater. On Mr. Bright's land near the highway, the congealed surface waters were as smooth as glass, and extended some distance into an opening in the pine wood. Here on Thanksgiving forenoon Pansy and Richard found good sport, racing from the windy highway to the more sheltered glade and back again; cutting figures on the ice too intricate to be described; or poised on one foot, with arms extended outward and upward, darting about like swallows on the wing. It was with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes that they presented themselves in time for dinner in the preparation of which their mother had lavished so much care and housewifely art. The living room had been touched up in honor of the day. There were fresh, white muslin curtains at the widows and in front of one a box of pink chrysanthemums held their cheery faces up to the sunlight. Ruth had hung a large winter scene, framed in walnut, that usually made its appearance about this season, over the mantel, and had pinned a few autumn leaves, preserved by a well-known process, on the somber walls and white curtains, so that the place had quite a festive appearance. The family gathered about the table as the clock struck the hour of twelve. "I'm thankful I have three healthy, hearty and happy children to prepare Thanksgiving for," said Mrs. Bradford, after her fervent words of thanks to the giver of gifts for the year's blessings." "I'm thankful I have a position and can be of some assistance with the family expenses," said Ruth. "I'm thankful for mother, the best cook in the neighborhood," said Pansy. "I'm thankful I don't have to eat my dinner in an earthern trench like the soldiers in Europe we read so much about," said Richard. "I'm thankful it is my privilege to carve for Richard Bradford's children," said Mr. Alden, taking up the big knife and fork and beginning his duties. All their senses were made glad ere the family left eating that bountiful dinner, for it was beautiful to look at, delightful to smell, delicious to taste, excellent to touch, and pleasant to hear rattling on the dishes. The deep baying of hounds as they were finishing desert caused Pansy to shudder, and presently when a fox hard pressed ran through the yard, she followed it with anxious eyes and remarked with mouth firmly set, "I wish Henry Rand would keep his horrid dogs at home on Thanksgiving Day." Noticing the distress the sight of that hunted animal caused Pansy, Mrs. Bradford turned to her eldest daughter. "I think we are all apt to overlook the real significance of this holiday. We keep the letter but not the spirit of it. Suppose you tell us the origin of Thanksgiving, and of how our Pilgrim Fathers observed the first one in those uncertain days of the first year of Plymouth Colony." "Do!" said Richard, agog with interest, and Pansy brightened up at the prospect of a story. "It is impossible for me to tell the origin of Thanksgiving," said Ruth, "for it is a custom so old that the mind of man runneth not to the contrary. The Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Saxons in England all observed a festival after the gathering of the harvest. To the Hebrews it was the Feast of Tabernacles; to the Greeks, Thesmophoria, or Feast of Demeter; to the Romans it was Cerelia, or Feast of Ceres, and in England it was known as the Harvest Home. "In the United States, the very first Thanksgiving was observed in this good old State of Maine by the Cooperham Colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River in the year 1607. During the long, cold winter the colonists had experienced great hardship and had nearly perished from hunger. When the ship appeared in the springtime bringing supplies, their gratitude knew no bounds, and they tried in a measure to express it by observing a day of thanksgiving. Soon after, however, the colonists became discouraged and returned to England. "It is to the Plymouth Colonists in Massachusetts that we give credit for establishing the custom in this country. Their first year was one of great hardship, peril, and privation. Of the hundred and two Pilgrims who had come over in the Mayflower, only fifty-five remained alive. Governor Carver had died in April and William Bradford had been chosen governor in his stead. "On the crops planted that spring depended the lives of the colonists, for the Mayflower had returned to England, their supplies were exhausted, and it was only by cultivating the soil and making it bring forth cereals and vegetables that they could hope to subsist at all. "They were unfamiliar with the conditions of the climate, the quality of the soil, and the raising of Indian corn, and to the Indians they owed much for instructions in these matters, and in the procuring of game for food. "That first year they had twenty acres of corn and six of barley and peas, and these had yielded well, so with the abundance of fish and game to be had, they felt secure from want. At this time they also had warm houses and comfortable clothing. "After the gathering of the harvest, the Pilgrims thought that 'after a special manner they should rejoice together,' and so it was agreed that they observe a day, or rather days, of feasting and thanksgiving, and plans were made accordingly. Squanto was sent to Namasket to send from thence a runner inviting the great king Massasoit and some of his followers. Governor Bradford detailed four of the men to go fowling, and in one day they secured enough game to last the company, with a little help besides, for a week. "The Pilgrims were living under a communal system, and the women assigned to the duty of cooking were kept very busy preparing wild turkey, geese, ducks, water fowl, venison, cod fish, shell fish, barley loaves, cornbread and vegetables. For dainties, they had red and white grapes, three kinds of plums, and a variety of berries. "Massasoit came with about ninety of his followers, and these were fed for three days on the best the Pilgrims had to offer. The feast began on Thursday in November, 1621, and ended with a sumptuous dinner on Saturday. "Captain Standish with his army of nineteen men tried to entertain the Indians with military maneuvers, or exercise of arms, as they called it, but after witnessing these the first forenoon, the wary Indians proposed going hunting, and under the leadership of Quadequina, Massasoit's brother, went off into the woods, but returned the next morning bringing with them five deer which they presented to Governor Bradford, Captain Standish, and others. "They had races, games and contexts between the Pilgrims and the Indians as to who could shoot the farthest and best, the Pilgrim with his gun and the Indian with his bow and arrow. In the evening they sat around a big fire, while the Indians danced, sang and showed how playful wild Indians could be. "Each morning before eating, they gave thanks to God for his goodness, and again when the meal was ended, they acknowledged Him as the giver of all things. The Indians were so impressed with these devotions and with the mode of living of the Pilgrims, that when the three days' feasting were over and they were leaving Plymouth, they said, "The Great Spirit loves his white children better than the Red Man." "It would be too long a story to tell of the observance of the Thanksgivings after that first year one at Plymouth, but the custom continued year after year. In 1668 the first civil appointment of a harvest festival in Plymouth Colony was made. "The national celebration of Thanksgiving was first recommended by President Lincoln in 1863, and since that time it has been annually observed. It is the only religious festival celebrated in the United States by virtue of the authority of the civil government." "Beautiful, Ruth! Was Governor Bradford really our first American ancestor?" Pansy was her own bright self again. "Yes, and of all the other Bradfords in New England. His second son had fifteen children and his third son had seven children, and their descendants have been very numerous." "It is good to think we had such a noble ancestor even though so remote. You said, Ruth, there were only fifty-five of the colonists left that first Thanksgiving. I suppose only about a third of these were women. That would make, say, eighteen. I don't know of any eighteen women today who would want to feast ninety white men for three days, let alone savages." "The Pilgrim mothers had faced much harder things than that without flinching. They were the most remarkable women the world has ever known, for they might have lived in opulence and ease in England, but chose rather wandering, privation, and perils on sea and land, that they might worship God after the dictates of their own conscience." Much impressed with the statements of her elder sister, Pansy said, after a thoughtful pause, "Let's all sing America!" Sweetly the words of that old song, dear to the heart of every American, rang over that humble dinner table: "My country 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing; Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountain-side, Let Freedom ring." Pansy and Richard stood up. "We want to each give a toast," said Pansy. "We wrote them ourselves. Now, you first, Richard." "No, you first, Pansy." They stood looking at each other and hesitating until Ruth came to the rescue. "I will appoint myself toastmistress, and call upon Pansy, the real genius and originator of everything original in this unoriginal family," she said laughing. "Thank you, Miss Toastmistress. Mine is this: May all the boys and girls in these United States be merry and happy and thankful today, and may they make their mothers glad they are her children." "Mine is this," said Richard. "May roast turkey, pumpkin and sweet cider never fail to appear on Thanksgiving Day." The clock struck two, as if counting the hours they had spent over dinner. "Now, Richard and I are going to clean up after the feast," said Pansy, "and then we will crack some butternuts, so everybody else shoo-oo.!" Click Here for Chapter 23