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Show mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm sryjt 7K vjc vjc tft yi jr r -F rr W n ft 3 ft MY .MOST N0TABI.U 3 THANKSGIVING F DTrftstll R.STOCKIOI K $ k ilt lt ill !4 ti !4 rtl Jit tif. i. it'. 3&L3I It waa Thanksgiving tlmo. neerly thirty years ago. To the ordinary Inhabitant In-habitant of (hat portion of thli country coun-try where I then dwelt the aeaaon was rery much like other aeaaon of aotornnal fruition, there waa nothing In the earth, the aklea, or the water that gave to tbla period any peculiarity peculiar-ity which would distinguish It from th similar period of any oilier year, peat or to cone. Hut there waa something that made this Thanksgiving aeaaon very pecu-, pecu-, liar In my eyes For aorae time the whole world had aeemrd to me to be permeated by the knowledge that eomethlng u about to happen which had never happened before, and which could not, by any poailbltlty, happen again, I had alwaya loved the Thanksgiving Thanksgiv-ing aeaaon To be sure, much of the brightness and color In which the land-aeap land-aeap reveled In October wai lost, but the rich browna of the oaks, the heavy greens 0f the pines and the eedara, Hchted up here and there by toot late banging sumac leavea or reddening Ivy, with hill and date gently softened by the mists of Indian summer, made a picture In which I delighted as much as I did In the beauties of any other season not In this year the late autumn foil-ago foil-ago was much finer than I had ever known It before Van Dyke never dreamed of such browns as I now kiw and the curtains of distant mist seeniej ever about to rise upon tUlons of even greater beauty than thoie which then entranced me I bad always liked the first keen wind which had come to us as the avant courlera of winter, making It delightful to walk and be out of doors and also agreiable and satisfactory to - go Into the house. Hut this year thoro wss a sparkling spice In the air which It would have been Impossible for tticr people to understand even If 1 - A CHEAT YEAfl FoTf IIAHDIT8 they bad perceived It I knew It was there, I understood Ita origin, and I did not care a snap of my fingers whether or not anybody else knew anything about It, In those days, after the regular periods of meteoric showers, there ued to be a good many falling atara which appeared to he left over from the fraud display, and I had always btvo acco tamed to watch for these wtti a great deal of Interest, for the reason that 1 generally forgot to go out of doors on the regular star-fall-log nlghta, and, therefore, waa naturally natur-ally anxious to make the best of what waa left of the sbowrr Thla year the few stars that rewarded re-warded my vigilance by falling In the latter part of November were exceptionally excep-tionally fine meteors Tbey glistened more urlrhtl) they scintillated, they moved slowly, aa If they wanted to let me know that they knew of something as well aa I did The birds of that autumn were of particularly bright plumage. I remember re-member that they sang very well, and although I am not positive that tbose MY FIIIST HOOK who were In the habit of migrating to the south In the late autumn delayed their Journey this year, those of them who did remain made themselves very conspicuous and agreeable It waa a great nir for rabbits. In earlier days I had given much attention' atten-tion' to trapping them little creatures, but seldom took much Interest In the sport until the snow had rnerrd the earth, and thereby induced game creatures of various kinds to cast their eyca upon the Uellratx morsels exposed ex-posed In Iraps by meu and boya llut now, although I did not tare to trap the rabbits, I was charmed to gate upon them as they skipped about on the edge of the woods, wagging their little tails and sitting up looking from side to side, with their little noses nervously trembling, while their long ears waved In the breetes The rab-bits rab-bits fur seemed very long and fine that year, and I am sure thst Its color must have been extraordinarily well adapted for the adornment of human youth and beauty I do nnt know that there were great crops of corn that )ear, or that the pumpkins had gilded to a greater extent ex-tent than usual the brown, denuded Holds but I felt the farmers ought to be very happy people To me the country waa pervaded with an atmosphere of richness and unaurpssscd fulfillment I knew that the apple crop had been very good; at leaal I knew that the trees bad borne some remarkably good fruit, because I bad tried a good deal of It, and It had never poasessed to a greater extent the Juiciness anil sub acid flavor of which 1 was so fond It was also a great year for chestnuts, chest-nuts, and a very poor one for squirrels. I do not wish It to be supposed that I was not. and am not, fond of squirrels, I like them better now than I used to In my earlier daya, although they are as active competitors In the business of chestnut gathering as whon I waa younger. Out In this Thanksgiving season of which I speak tbe squirrels must have been fewer or lailrr, for I made no complaints about lbs scarcity of chestnuts If t remember rightly, those I ste were remsrkahly line, either one great chestnut In a single hull, or a fairly large one with two little ones which did not Interfere with tbe expansion of the fltlest. There was a peculiarity about lbs weather of that November very otlsn the aklea were really cloudy and gray, and the rain sometlmea came down with ateady peralifnre while the cold and penetrating wlnda made people think of heavy overcoats before their appointed time llut these dsys of bsd weather had very little effect upon me or upon my spirits It did not occur oc-cur to me thai the nislsnrholy day bad come and aa for their nun, tbe ssddest of the year, that was Impossible. Impossi-ble. At that time some sort of a sun waa alwaya shining If It rre not the ordinary aun about which our earth revolves, It was a particular orb which existed for my especlsl satis-fsctlon. satis-fsctlon. It sometimes even shone at night, alter I had gone to bed that Is, If I happened to be awake Jut It was not only nsturs that was mora Ibau usually agreeable, the people peo-ple of thla world so fsr ss I knew them were very pleasant remarkably ao. I do not remember quarrellog with a living soul during the whole ol that November. It seems as though my Intercourse with my fellow beings waa unusually genial In rtgard to snclsl progress snd tbs slesdy betterment better-ment of the human race, I waa an ardent optimist Even people I knew as not being very pleasant of manner or Intelligent of speech seemed then good rompsny rolltlcs did nnt trouble me st all I suppose a good many people voted for the wrong men but I paid no attention atten-tion to their misguided actions. It was scarcely possible there could be any candldatea for office bo did not possess some virtues and a strong disposition In the direction of general altruism made me wish veil to all good people who had been selected to administer tbe affairs of township, county or state There waa truly something exceptional excep-tional In this Thanksgiving ssaaon Otbsr people may not have noticed It, but It Impressed Itself most forcibly upon m How could It be otherwise! It waa a time that my first book wu published |