New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-11-30
ished to see how keenly the doctor enjoyed hin

| ished to see how keenly the doctor enjoyed hin
luxury, and exulted in it. He knew the ine
points of every horse in the stables better
than their owner pOred by the hour over his
rare editions, or sat wrapped in delight before
the one or two good paintings In the library.
The rich man had never known what juice
was in bis grapes until he saw Seth tasting 1T.
He expressed the wish, in some vague way.
at parting, that the grapes were Seth's also.
eyes, like this kind of life," he said; but
cit hasn't happened to come in my ways
and went Oft buoyantIy to his shabby shop and
bare house as to fresh fields and pastures as
rich as those he left. Anoth.G. of his class
mates is leading politician; held indeed
the fortunes of his party in his hands
for more than year. He knows his respon.
sibility that knowledge and the enormous
work he does have told terribly on his brain
and nervous system. But he always has tina
TO read Seth's letters on the politics of his
county. They concerned the election of
sheriff OF q town scavenger perhaps but were
so full of zeal and high.faith in " the triumph
"of the right" that they sounded like trum-
pet blown from great hight
Other doctors soon grow used and hackneyed
to their trade. Seth was not skiliful physi-
clan, his brain was of too poor quality for
that, but his work was always as new, as alive
TO him as on the first day he began
it; he went out every morning feeling that
the happiness Of many life depended upon
his days work, that death was but step
below his path and God close overhead. II
was this very certainty fat made everything
in the world strong ana full of meaning to =
this commonplace man. Nobody in the village
was as Jealous friend, as hot an advocate; il
he went a-nutting or fishing, he found no end
of fun when young men were bored; nobody
was so full of hobbies, of plans for improve
ment of the village, the State, the country.
Check, defeat, tramp on him as you might, he
rose eager exultalt; he had a new plan ready
In half an hour. In short, this man had been
denied talent, wealth, and success, and had
brought only one gift from the immortal
gods to tighten bis dull road. 1t
was the faculty of seeing the world in
its freshness and real meaning, of taking
life at its hight and flower. IL he was invited
to dinner it was high festival to him; his
host was the soul of hospitality, the guests
hearty friends and comrades; and often his
belief made them so. He was never married,
but be had reverence for all women, and
was "Uncle Seth" to every child in town. On
his death-bed he used to count over the chill
dren he had known who were gone. They'll
4" be the first of my friends to meet me-" he
would say smiling, as if talking of long holt
day, and those who saw his face after death,
with the glad smile upon it. were sure that
the children had met him, and that be was
among his friends.
The reason why we tell this story to-day is
to ask if we cannot find his way Of keeping
THANKSGIVING all the year round. Must life
be then stale and hackneyed, and only dreary
grubbing for bread and butter If our eyes
were couched, could not we too see a certain
force and beauty in our bare homes and bare
lives, great meanings in the trivial incidents
of every day, and the All-Father close to us
overhead