| Show Yester yesteryears years feast days 0 ty LAURETTA JOY lo isi ra s outer dir US ES father it went ore off all right but it like alm our thanksgiving thanks 9 iving when the children were homo home 1 1 nud and mother and grandmother dell bell winked back a sentimental tear there were only two of them at the supper table with its ita dabs of cold chicken and pork cranberry sauce celery nuts cold squash quash and all the orthodox remnants of the great american fealie the four children and twelve grand brand children had been feasted and feted la in the old home ond and had gone on their way rejoicing after the girls had helped mother ido do up the work the louse house where tom and bob and ruth and alice llad had been born where they had been fed had and kissed and spanked where they had scrapped and made up and manifested the first sparks of the he genius within them was has very still yes tea mother mot lier it like the old said the rann man with most of the perk perkiness iniss of youth louth gone band and they were silent client together I 1 the mother was remembering those long ago years year evalien wn a homo full of childish joy in thanksgiving or any I 1 holiday gave it ii h freshness and vigor agor that had dulled in later years cars she ie the warm warin housed house wrapped wrapped in winter cintel snowa bubbling over with the zestful enthusiasm ent libsta in of first of nil all there YV was a their keen keen joy in the distant vao vague preparations tor for the hollday holiday she slie could see toms tobis grin when she sent him to the store for raisins and citron 10 and and the smiles of all of them etien the big rich cake was put in the old brown crock there was the day when ruth and bob came home with their pieces to speak in school tho the day before ing and joyfully revealed thit that teacher had told them what they bad known a 0 W n nil fill along that schol chol would close on oa wednesday night and they ahey have to come back until monday and then afien their watch pl fearful waiting walting ng for the th e first snowflakes and I 1 atom torn getting out his Is coaster and paint ling ing the runners and ana alice and iwa going to the woods tor for biffer bittersweet sweet and partridge berries and sprays of 0 ever even agreen and decorating the mantel end and window B and archways arch ways and then lh f iday day before when father killed bad and dres idres I 1 ed aed the chickens chic chickens kIns or turkey tr i duck and what a hurry and husa chere then was of cleaning balling baking naj ing and boiling boll lne and how golden lib big kitchen wits was with thet Wel winter sun sul lancing glancing through the maples ouide and how warm it wits was with the tha bli oven sending out ou waves naves of and the odor edgr of baking ale cako cake nid cookies and then the great day na ned meed to io call her brood that day for snow had come in the and the boys had iad rien risen with the fiery red redwin win iter sun to try out the sled before breakfast pud and fiad bad come in all cold and rosy to gulp down pari pancakes cakes and and tind eggs and bacon and then na matter how great the feast nor how much remained to be dorio done the bliem were dressed irk in sunday su aday best and the family trailed down the white street to church meeting neighbors on the way smiling ng chatting asking whether it was n A turkey vo r a thicken hachen bill of fare this time growing soberer ns as they trailed into y the little HIM bliku church and doarn to aba pew ein that held the six sir of them tach cadi as and then ho if alrik hymns rid aad paeans froah I 1 f the choir the sermon of plenty from the pastor and the yellow winter sun through the hie stained windows 1 s the benediction the moment af chat and rood good will from neighbor to neighbor a little herd guided down the ho steps stepi where they eliy burst from church su briet let into the puppy demanded by a void cold snappy day cloine again and the last scramble scra nible for tho the feast the girls setting the table with the best lipen linen stiver ilver and china with a bowl of tiny yellow chrysanthemums from the backyard bush the trips down cellar for a can call of relish tiny firm pickles some chill sauce strawberries and the squash and carrots and turnips and potatoes and onions each with its part to play in the feast the turkey or duck stuffed with kith spicy dressing dressin gAas was crackling away in the oven eathor was out in the garden exhuming some celery put to bleach for the occasion a month or so ago the he boys were cracking nuts nuta and polishing applescow app leshow sweet it was to do her work in her own place for or those who needed and enjoyed this work how serene and sure and peaceful it till all seemed looking back over those years all the doubts and torments of later years seemed impossible how had it come about what had life done to her to them her friends her neighbors thought that life had used her kindly death had never knocked at the door of her fold sickness had been almost unknown in the eyes of the world her children had turned out well veil tom was councilman in a big city and a prominent business attorney ile he had married a nice girl and no one could ask for prettier better mannered grandchildren than this family had given her alice had married a physician and was prominent so socially cialli and in club work mother find Fat herBell rarely picked up a sunday paper without seeing a picture of mrs john graham or o ono one no or other of the little grahams who included among those prominent in the juvenile set bet bob was a successful merchant and ana active in furthering employee welfare work nuth hao had never married but was more than successful as a home decorator sue she traveled till all she wanted to dressed beautifully maintained a charming apartment was invited to the homes of those whom the world calls gre atno there was not one of her children who had not done well pr or was anything but a credit to the parents and yet why did a mother hunger so even it if her children were all that she had ever hoped for them why must heartaches and loneliness be the price to pay for this very success essl I 1 why did such a sense senie of baffled puzzlement fill her at tho the thanksgiving table why eliy did their coming not satisfy why did this longing for the other days persist in seizing her she know knew the answer knew that their very success their very homes their very children meant that her work was mas done it was waa but a visit t of a day and as such bad no faint est connection 19 with tho the yesteryear feast days daya which meant one I 1 home one interest I 1 one working and playing niche for all she and their father and their home made up their lifes then to day they are making those grooves for othero and finding their own therein there thera are thou sands sanda af pf of fathers and mothers the country over who alq find only poignant and even bitterness la in a repetition of the least feast days dhigh were ao 30 joyful lu ill days gone gene by the winter w inter sun sull still streams through gli the backyard maples maple into the ble big kitchen the same old od range ranee bakes the alie turkey and squash aquas h and mince and pumpkin pies for the same came old brood the same isina and silver and best tablecloth rosy may be upon upon the he dining room table but thanksgiving Is not what tt it wits was even it if the same faces with no break in the ranks are grouped about the table it Is all different now they are guests in the place where they were common workers they ore are strangers inthe home that gave them birth til till does life hold no other job for chose hose who gave them forth to the orld this I 1 Is the question that fills filla f GRATITUDE DE by FRANK HERBERT SWEET thanksgiving DAY sh should OIA X be the keynote of the year no one Is really thankful who Is not really happy spoken by the lips to la very faint and hollow unless the heart re echoes it thanksgiving Is a home day the young person who accepts the invitation of friends for some form of merrymaking which takes one from the family circle makes it a mistake there are enough days in the year for the ordinary good times save thanksgiving tor for the home folks The girl or boy who looks on n thankfulness as a hard duty Is not likely to make much of a success of it the beauty of gratitude Is that it should be spontaneous bubbling up in the heart like a spring not pumped pu m ped up to the surface with an effort that hat leaves one out of breath 9 1133 we tern now paper union 1 i a the onely lonely hearts of many a mother and father bell Is there any balm balin for these parents who feel that lifes twilight must be spent with folded hands thinking of the active life that Is over or Is it the old story of 0 paying the price for everything which one at talma in lite life I 1 think pot not I 1 think its a matter of perverted viewpoint in the first place parents who conclude that their lifes work Is over just because their children are grown and away from home are only writing their own doom lite life Is not static it Is ever flowing the water goes on over the mill wheel and lie he who seeks to hold it back will be able to scoop up only a pull or so and keep it until it grows scummy many parents are like this the waters of their own lives flow on deeply find and smoothly and when a stretch of clear sparkling limpid I 1 mn d water which means it a phase of living especially dear to them comes along the parents scoop it up and seek to hold it forgetting tha that the millis going or on just the some same parenthood Is an essentially tear deat tabb inse of living to roost mosi people nature has it a vital vit at reason for this but she does her job too well one Is Inell inclined ned to think that if she had creat created ed it a in man a n or woman so that child rearing would be the one job they craved during the days of their youth but would so make them that they would crave another job when the children were grows gro ava and an d going about their own awn job of parenthood the old dame would have done dona a better job jo then too its it human trait to remember the fair and shining side bids of things that tha tare are gone and hence to repine for them to go back to the bell family ruth R uth the single damsel glimpsed her parents mood to the full and discussed it with her sister sifter like this think to hear mother rave that she was supremely happy when we ve were all homes home and sometimes it makes roe me furious when I 1 distinctly recall how she fussed bussed and worried and stewed around about one thing and another an wherein where in ln the world the money for our winter underclothes was coming from how much schoolbooks schoolbook a cost what in the world she bould do with bobs bad temper and torn toms 11 lying and my vanity and your craziness after the boys and many a time she made her moan about how overworked and thankless her life was and would time never come when she h had rd ft a chance to rest and get it a little peace and that I 1 if mother and father bell live lire to be eighty they wll will look back upon their peaceful serene quiet life together now as the beat of days ani and at onell onehundred one hundred undred they would regard the tha days of eighty as altogether desirable it if thanksgiving does docs nothing else for us may it quicken our vision of the glories of the present I 1 |
