OLD HOMESTEAD 



Thanksgiving dinner and talked over present and old times, we 

 children were in the south room and parlor trying to amuse our- 

 selves, an effort never very successful, because our minds were in 

 the kitchen with the long dinner table. 



After the Thanksgiving dinner was over, the kitchen was 

 cleared for ''blind-man's buff" for the little ones, while the elder 

 people went into the parlor and organized themselves into a 

 choir for singing. The singing which they did was of the kind 

 to command attention and be remembered. Father was an extra 

 good, well-trained tenor singer; so was John. Bernice Doane, 

 Willard Huson, Jerry Gardner and Henry Allen were all good 

 bass, while the girls took the soprano, then called treble, and alto. 

 William Johnson, who was an all-round singer and instrumental 

 musician, helped, before he went away West, to make these 

 annual concerts a great success by the aid of an old melodeon, 

 which he held in his lap and worked up and down like a black- 

 smith's bellows, while Jerry played the flute. Each and every 

 one of them was a first-class, independent singer, used to singing 

 in public as well as private. It was solid enjoyment to them 

 and a rich treat to listen. They fairly raised the roof of the 

 house as they went through the old-fashioned tunes, the words 

 of which I can remember much better than the names: "Joy to 

 the world, the Lord has come! " "■ All hail the power of Jesus' 

 name, let angels prostrate fall;" "Your harps, ye trembling 

 saints, down from the willows take;" "The morning light is 

 breaking, the darkness disappears ; " 



" While shepherds watched their flocks by night, all seated on the ground, 

 In wild dismay the guards around fell to the ground, fell to the ground, 

 and sunk away ;" 



with the soft and plaintive, " Mary to the Saviour's tomb;" 

 "Stay, thou insulted spirit, stay;" "Why do we mourn depart- 



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