Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-12-24
Sammy CrabappIe's Thanksgiving.
Little Corporal

CRABAPPLE's boy had read that touch
ing Thanksgiving story about the chap
VINO ran away from home when a lad
and went to sea, and wasn't heard of for
years and years; and how on every
Thanksgiving Day his fond mother set a
plate for the wanderer, and kept a seat
fol- him at the table, and how the gray
haired sire, when he asked blessing.
prayed for his hayward soh-prayed
that he might return in safety to the
parental roof And then one Thanks
giving Day, when they had about given
him up for dead, although the plate and
the vacant chair told the story of a
mothers undying hope, just as the fam
lily had sat down to the THANKSGIVING
dinner, there came a rap at the door.
Come I'M" cried the sire, and in bounced
the lost boy in a sailor jacket and tar
paulin hat, just home from a long whal-
ing voyage. Such rejoicing as there was
in that house. How his father shook
him by both hands, how his mother wept
over him and embraced him; and how
all his brothers, and sisters, and aunts,
and cousins hung around his neck and
tugged at his sailor jacket 1t was worth
Drawing the dangers of the seas to meet
with such a welcome on his return. He sat
at the feast in the chair that mothers
deathless love, and hope and recollection
had always placed for him, and never
fhpro haIoyoinJ. ~,
that cherished anniversary was invented.
Crabapple's boy wept over that story
every time he read it, and he got to Won
dering whether such a fuss would be
made over him should he run away from
home and then turn up again some
Thanksgiving Day. He thought about it
so much that he finally determined TO
test the business, anyhow. He would
see how the folks would act when he
played the prodigals return So about
week before Thanksgiving he ran away
from home. He didn't go to sea, because
the sea was too far off and he couldn't
make much of a voyage in a week, any
how He got job in lanyard grinding
bark, which answered all the purpose, for
he could imagine his bark was on the
sea" as he rode the old horse around the
circle. He called the mill the world,
and imagined himself sailing around the
world every revolution.
When the week was up he started for
home He fancied himself so much
tanned by the occupation he had followed
that his parents would hardly know him.
He imagined he had picked up a good
many h5de-e0rS, anyhow.
With beating heart he approached the
parental mansion. He looked in at the
window p saw the folks just sitting
down to the Thanksgiving supper
A chill Of disappointment crept over
him as he saw there was no va
cant chair, and there wasn't an idle
plate anywhere on the table He
listened at the door as the bless
ing was asked, but although several
prophets were honored with fiattering
notice his name wasn't mentioned This
was little hard on the boy that had run
away from home and was liable to turn
up on that or any succeeding Thanks
giving Day. Recollections of him didn't
seem to cluster around that hearth8tone
to any great extent. REFRESHING a chill
ing foreboding that arose in his breast, |
he flung open the door, rushed into their
midst and exclaimed Father!-mother!
tits I!-Sammy Crabapple home
ain!-home!-homen and threw him
self on his fathers breast, sobbing con-
vulsively.
What did that father do? Did he hug
him, and slobber tears over him, and call |
MIN his "long lost bo-bo-hoy?" Not |
much he didn't He took him by the col |
lar, led him into the woodshed and |
worked over him more than an hour
with barrel stave, his brothers and sis
tiers dancing around on the back stoop
in an ecstacy OF joy, while his mother
"That's right, Ambrus; give
it to him! Learn him bettern to run
away from home aginn' Then he was
sent to bed without any Thanksgiving
supper at all, and threatened with being
deprived of both Christmas and New
Years Cincinnati SATURDAY Night.