THANKSGIVING AT GRANDFATHER'S 47 



enough. And so was the farmhouse that is, if you 

 added the big barn and the crib-house and the 

 wagon-house and the dog-house and the hen-house 

 and the " spring-house ! " 



Oh, there was plenty of room inside for everybody 

 and for everything ! And there needed to be ; for 

 did not everybody come home to Grandfather's for 

 Thanksgiving? And did not everything that any- 

 body could need for the winter, grow on Grand- 

 father's farm ? 



And it all had to be brought in by Thanksgiving 

 Day everything brought in, everything housed 

 and stored and battened down tight. The prepara- 

 tions began along in late October, continuing with 

 more speed as the days shortened and darkened and 

 hurried us into November. And they continued with 

 still more speed as the gray lowering clouds thickened 

 in the sky, and the wind began to whistle through 

 the oak grove. Then, with the first real cold snap, 

 the first swift flurry of snow, how the husking and 

 the stacking and the chopping went on ! 



Thanksgiving must find us ready for winter in- 

 doors and out. 



The hay-mows were full to the beams where the 

 swallows built; the north and west sides of the barn- 

 yard were flanked with a deep wind-break of corn- 

 fodder that ran on down the old worm-fence each 

 side of the lane in yellow zigzag walls ; the big 

 wooden pump under the turn-o'-lane tree by the barn 



