144 THANKSGIVING DAY IN EARNEST, 



slowly to sink lower and lower, while it grew fainter and fainter, soon 

 disappearing entirely in the distance and leaving us once more 

 a fresh, free sort of feeling that, perfectly natural to the region, 

 seems to defy ennui. 



Thursday the 25th. Alas ! that I should be obliged to spend 

 such a day in such a place. I shall hardly dare to suggest to you 

 that it is Thanksgiving Day, but here I am in an English province, 

 beyond the American frontier, where Americans seldom go, to say 

 nothing of carrying their holidays with them ; in a land, the 

 people of which are too poor to celebrate to any great extent 

 should they ever feel inclined, while living too far away to pass the 

 time in compKmentary calls ; in famihes, whose chief diet through- 

 out the year consists of bread, without any butter, and tea, with- 

 out any sugar, — excepting what game may fortunately be cap- 

 tured ; where breakfast, dinner, and supper are the same ; in such 

 a locahty, though with the better class of residents, I pass my 

 Thanksgiving. That I may not think myself worse off even than I 

 really am, I cut a slice of cold roast pork, and imagine it the best of 

 turkey ; another slice answers for chicken ; while a third stands 

 equally well for mince pie. I then start for the woodpile where 

 I work off the effects of so hearty an exercise, as the eating of all 

 these delicacies, by sawing wood for the remainder of the after- 

 noon. Thus ends a Labrador, New England Thanksgiving. 



During the remaining days of the month nothing particular has 

 happened save that the goodman of the house where I am stop- 

 ping has been in bed sick. The first of the month, however, finds 

 him much improved. 



Wednesday, December i. Although it is very cold the bay shows 

 no signs of freezing yet. These winter evenings the children amuse 

 themselves with games. Many of our New England and other games 

 find favor, though dominoes seems to take precedence of all 

 others. Checkers are played quite frequently. Of course cards are 

 the prevailing game along the coast, and the old "stand-bys" seem 

 to be ''high low Jack" and ''forty-five," the latter being apparently 

 a characteristic Newfoundland game, as Newfoundlanders indulge 



