1%3 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
843 
K she’d l)ceii so a good while I wouldn’t 
have no courage to tackle her.’ 
“Two or three days later I went to 
Nancy’s. She was pretty well surprised 
to see me, and I don’t think she was 
awful pleased, either. But when I took 
right hold and helped her about the 
work she got a little more reconciled. I 
didn’t try to do any cheering up the first 
day or two, but just got my bearings and 
the lay of the land. 
“I made up my mind what was the 
matter with Nancy. She was too pros¬ 
perous. You know sometimes folks 
worry more ’cause they ain’t got nothing 
to worry about, than’s if they had some 
pretty hard trouble. Nancy, she had one 
of the best husbands that ever was. Her 
three boys had turned out fine, and her 
girl was married to a nice man and was 
settled real comfortable. Nancy’s house 
was old, but it was fixed up nice inside, 
and she had pretty furniture and every¬ 
thing to do with. She was saving and 
prudent, but she didn’t have to worry 
, about money a bit. 
“Well, one day she got to kind of fret¬ 
ting about some little thing or other, and 
I thought to myself, ‘Here’s my chance.’ 
So I begun to talk real sympathetic. 
Tt’s too bad,’ I says. ‘I feel real sorry 
for you, you have such a hard time. Of 
course,’ I says, ‘there’s only you and 
Jason to do the w'ork for, but with no 
conveniences to do with, and having an 
ol4 worn-out stove to cook by, and hav¬ 
ing to draw all your water and bring it 
so far, why, it makes your work awful 
hard.’ 
“Of course that wa’n’t so. She had 
one of these new steel ranges that she 
was dreadful proud of; and Jason had 
a windmill, so there was running water 
in the sink, and she had a bathroom, and 
there was a laundry downstairs. 
“She looked kinder surprised, but I 
kept right on talking so she didn’t have 
a chance to say nothing. 
“ ‘And that ain’t the worst of it. Hard 
work wouldn’t matter if Jason was good 
to you, but he’s got such an ugly dis¬ 
position, and that with his drinking and 
all, makes it pretty hard.’ Jason realty 
had the best disposition in the world—he 
was awful good to Nancy—and he never 
drank a drop in his life. 
“ ‘And there’s your children,’ I says. 
‘You must worry dreadful about Annie, 
she’s got such a miserable husband and 
has such a hard time. And it is too bad, 
when you took so much pains with your 
children’s bringing up to have everyone 
of.your boys turn out so bad.’ 
“There wa’n’t no need of my saying 
any more. Some women would have 
flared uj) and wanted to know what I 
meant, but Nancy wa’n’t one of that 
kind. She was bright, and she could tell 
what anyone was driving at without 
having it all explained out to her. Her 
face was as red as one of these old-fash- 
icned red paeonies, and she got up quick 
and hurried into her bedroom and shut 
the door real soft. Some folks might 
have been worried at what I’d done, but 
1 wa’n’t a mite, ’cause I knew a little 
crying would do her lots of good. So I 
kept on with the work, and by’n’ by she 
come back. 
“ ‘I know I’m awful foolish and wicked 
to be so blue when I’ve got everything 
in the world to be happy about,’ she 
says. ‘I didn’t realize how much 1 had 
to be thankful for, till you said what you 
did. I know I ought to be happy, but 
somehow I feel tired and I dread the 
work of Thanksgiving. I always do feel 
more discouraged this time of the year. 
Of couree I love to have my children and 
all the others here, but I do get so tired 
getting ready for them.’ 
“ ‘Well,’ I says, ’it’s going to be differ¬ 
ent this year, ’cause I’m here to help 
you.’ 
“ ‘I know,’ she says, ’but there’s 
enough for Ifour or five to do.’ 
“ ‘There’s no need to be,’ I says, ‘and 
I wish for once you’d do as I want you 
to about Thanksgiving.’ 
“ ‘How’s that?’ she says. 
“ ‘Well, to go back,’ I says, ‘I think 
when the Pilgrims had the first Thanks¬ 
giving Day that they had it because they 
were thankful, and so they had a feast 
from the things they had raised on the 
land. I always had a notion that the 
thankfulness come first. Well, my idea 
is that we ought not to get up such a 
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big dinner but-what we’d have time to 
be thankful. It seems as if most of tire 
women in the land near about kill them¬ 
selves getting up a big dinner, and they 
are so tired and beat out that the only 
thing they are thankful for is that the 
day is at an end and won’t come again 
for a year. And the folks that eat the 
dinners go home and have dyspepsia and 
indigestion and bad colds because they 
made pigs of themselves and tried to eat 
everything that was put on the table. 
Now I like to see folks eat and enjoy it, 
but there’s reason in all things.’ 
“ ‘There’s something in what you say,’ 
says Nancy, ‘but what can we do? You’ve 
got to have a lot of things.’ 
“ ‘I know it,’ I says, ‘but let’s get it 
reduced to its lowest terms. Here—I’ll 
get a paper and pencil and we’ll see just 
what to have.’ 
“So we went to work and made a list. 
It took quite a while, but when we got 
through we had a pretty simple Thanks¬ 
giving dinner planned out. At any rate, 
Nancy thought it was awful plain. But 
there was lots of good things—turkey 
and gravy, cranben-y sauce and lots of 
vegetables, ones they had raised on the 
farm, and Indian pudding with cream, 
and tw'o kinds of pie. 
“At first Nancy didn't just know 
whether it was elaborate enough, but 
scon’s she got used to the idea I could 
see she was awful relieved. Then we 
planned out just which things each of 
us should see to. I liked to do the 
things she didn’t, so we worked together 
fine. 
“Well, every day after that Nancy got 
more cheerful and jolly. I tried to make 
her realize how much she had to be 
thinkful for, but I did it without her 
knowing that was what I was up to. I’d 
talk about her children and praise ’em 
up all I could. Then I’d speak about 
how convenient things was about the 
house, and I’d take notice of all the 
pretty things she had and how pleasant 
her rooms were and how nice her plants 
did. Then I made her go out doors every 
day. Sometimes we’d go to a neighbor’s 
and sometimes we’d waljc around the 
farm. I used to get her to run races. 
Yes, I did, old as I be! And it did her- 
a sight of good. She’d get out of 
breath and her cheeks would be red and 
her eyes bright, so she’d look real young. 
“Of course we had a lot of work to do, 
but it’s fun to work when your work 
ain’t driving of you, and we didn’t let 
our work drive us. 
“Thanksgiving morning we was up 
bright and early. We got the work along 
fine, and right after breakfast we set the 
big table in the dining room. It did 
look lovely. We’d been out in the woods 
the day before and got a lot of cedar and 
hemlock and holly and evergreen and 
princess pine. We fixed up the room, 
and we put some of the green on the 
white tablecloth, and everything did 
look dreadful nice. We had everything 
done that we could do, and by the time 
the folks come we had our dresses 
changed and there was a chance to visit 
some before we had to look after the 
dinner. 
“I could see Nancy was enjoying every 
minute. She wa’n’t tired and so felt 
like herself, and the children all, spoke 
aliout liovv well she was looking. 
“I was feeling pretty cheerful, too. I’d 
got kinder homesick for John, and I tell 
you he looked pretty good to me when 
he come. We was going home together 
that night, and I don’t care how. good a 
visit I have anywhere. I’m always gl^id 
to go home. 
“The dinner was real good. Every¬ 
body praised it and said it w'as the best 
Thanksgiving dinner they ever ate. I 
don’t know why ’twas—there wa’n’t near 
so many things as Nancy usually had— 
but there was enough and everything 
was nice; we had good luck with all we 
m.ade. But I guess the whole secret of 
it was that Nancy was so happy and 
cheerful and looked so young and pretty. 
“Before we was through dinner Nancy 
Even children drink Grain-O 
because they like it and the doc¬ 
tors say it is good for them. Why 
not ? It contains all of the nourish¬ 
ment of the pure grain and none 
of the poisons of coffee. 
TRY IT TO-DAY. 
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spoke about its being Thanksgiving Day. 
‘I declare!’ she says, ‘I believe this is 
the first real Thanksgiving I ever had. 
Usually I’m tired and worried and blue, 
but this time I’ve really been thankful. 
Yes, for ’most a week now I’ve been 
thankful every minute. I began to make 
a list of my blessings, and it almost 
scared me there was so many of ’em. 
We’d all better think of the things w’e 
have to be thankful for, to-day.’ 
“Well, somehow they all looked a lit¬ 
tle sober after that and I could see they 
was taking her advice, but pretty soon 
Nancy told a funny story and there was 
joking and laughing enough to make up 
for the sober spell. 
“All the women folks helped on the 
dishes, and we got them done up in 
short order. Then we sat around and 
had a good quiet talk together, while 
the men folks took a walk over the farm. 
“John and I went home before the rest 
did. and when we started Nancy come 
up to me and give me a hug. ‘You’ve 
done me lots of good, Asenath,’ she says, 
‘and I never’ll get discouraged and blue 
again—at least I don’t think I will. But 
if I should I’ll know what to do to get 
cured; I’H send for you.’ 
“As John and I went home together 
I felt as if I’d done a pretty good 10 
days’ work, and he thought so, too.” 
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