The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-11-26
THE THANKSGIVING TURKEY.
BY MRS. r. G. ROWE.

ba htlos IL. u. hOME.
He was noble fellow, very prince
among turkeys, but Susy looked upon
him with an eye that expressed neither
approval nor satisfaction and MS the set
ting sun peeped in at the kitchen win
dow, revealing for a moment the grand
proportions of his portly frame, as he
repOsed in state upon the spotless pine
table, she only muttered to herself as
she brought her roiling-pin down with
emphasis upon the round, white faces OF
the crackers upon the molding board
." He's nothing but an advertisement
of my skill in cookery, and that stupid
owl of Ben Toothacre will be more de-
termined than ever to secure my services
as a lifelong cook in his establishment.
Ugh :" with a grimace at the uncon-
scious crackers, 81 hate the very sight
of his fat, pimply face, with its greedy
nothing but victuals, and how he can eat
more than any other man of his size in
town-and TO think that so sensible man
as father should be willing to endure,
even cultivate him, just for the sake of
the ToOthacre acres-(that's what poor
John would call pun, l suppose)," and
she laughed little i'll spite of the tears
that filed her eyes as she rolled, chop
ped, and seasoned the savory mass that
was to take the place of the rifed
contents of the deceased fowls
body; while as the twilight shadows
crept slowly in, making dusky cor
ners in the wide old kitchen, the gloom
settled down more heavily upon her
heart, and tears of sad foreboding
stained her cheeks as she recalled the
words of her father the evening before {:
&c | want you to do your best on this
Thanksgiving dinner, Susy, for I've
asked BENJAMIN Toothacre and his moth
Der 10 eat il with u.s." Then as he caught
the look of vexed surprise upon his
daughter face, he added, more sternly
than was his wont in speaking to his
motherless girl, "Young Toothacre is
a friend of mine, and / expect that you
will treat him accordingly"
Poor John Manly, honest, large
hearted with more brains than would
haze sufficed for halt dozen genera
tti@Rls of Toothacres, but alas landless
~or about 10 be, and Susy remembered
with a pang, bit of news that she had
heard that morning at the village store
where she was waiting for the clerk to
do up her paper of raisins
Its hard case, +" remarked one old
iIoafer TO another in response to some
communication that she had failed to no
hce, 60 for John Oakman's a good,
smart, steady young man as you'll find
anywhere; but the fact is the old man
left the place in bad shape, with a mort
gage on it that takes all he can rake
an scrape to pay the interest of, an if
Watkins should foreclose, as he threat
ems to do, why, he'll be left high and
dry, of COURSE"
And here was Susy, an heiress III her
own right, to the snug little fortune that
had been her mother's-a fortune that
would pay off that terrible mortgage and
give the man she loved chance to begin
life, free and unfettered by the harrass-
ing burden that had worried his less en-
terprising and courageous parent into
his grave.
She was a practical little body in spite
OF some II mantle girlish notions, and
even the rosy glamour Of her first love
dream could not blind her to the fact
that, but for her fathers unreasonable
opposition John Uakman might be the
Imencumbered possessor of house and
farm as we'll as wife TO help him care
for and enjoy it.
And it's all on account of that hate
ful Ben Tootbacre !" she sobbed under
her breath. Before he took a notion
to bang around here, father was always
pleased to see John, and I've heard him
say hundred times that he was one of
the Gkelest young men in town, but now
he hardly treats him with common civil
ity. l wish, F" with little "iab of her
mixing spoon into the savory mixture
before her, "that his Thanksgiving dim
ner would choke him, or, as she slowly
rubbed some dried sage leaves between
her plump palms, 4" that he d disapprove
ot my cookery so much that he'd never
want to taste any more of it.
She smiled, rather confidently it must
0e confessed, as she thought how un-
likely 1t was that such desirable con-
Summation should be brought about by
her cookery, but the next moment she
sighed heavily as she remembered poor