St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-12-03
1--WE Won't Go Home This Year. p
BY MRS. ANNIE A. PRESTON.


giving in their own way, in their owl
households, instead of meeting, as thei
custom had been, at the old homestead
81 guess we had better send each O.
the children a fat turkey and a pair O
Chickens" said Mother Bellamy, the
Saturday before Thanksgiving. awe
might as well kill off all the turkeys
If the children are not coming home
together any more what is the use OF
our keeping our fat turkeys?" And
the good woman turned her back upon
her husband and wiped away a teal
that was stealing down her wrinkled
cheek.
So the fifteen splendid fowls were
killed and dressed with much fuss and
feathers, and on Monday morning
Mother Bellamy tied them up in five
snug, shapely parcels, and on slip of
paper in each parcel was written: "Be
careful for nothing; but in everything
by prayer and supplicatiOn, with
Thanksgiving let your requests be made
known unto God"
81 don't know as this passage is so
very appropriate" said Mother Bel
lamy, as her husband came along and
looked over her shoulder as she was
writing, "but | opened the Bible just
now, and my eye fell on that, BE care
full for nothing the first thing, and it
seemed to strike me as things will
sometimes, you know. Perhaps / am
taking the children's not coming home
this year too much to heart, and she
cried little more and wiped her eyes
on her pretty, fresh, print calico apron,
and tucked the last text into the last
parcel, and helped Father Bellamy car
ry them out to the piazza door and
place them with FIVE boxes of butter,
and five baskets of eggs packed in
dried sage and summer savOry to keep
them from breaking, upon the red
wheelbarrow, which Father Bellamy
speedily trundled away to the railway
station near by. This station was a
junction of five different roads, and it
happened that each of the five Bellamys
| lived on different one of these roads.
at don't seem right" Mother Bel
lamy said over and over many times
during the following week as the re-
belliOus tears would overflow her soft
brown eyes. "As general thing en-
joy being alone with you, father; but
on Thanksgiving! All mel" and she
hurried about her work as absorbed as
if she expected to entertain the whole
township at dinner on the eventful
Thursday.
On Thanksgiving morning she said:
''Father, want you to pray that if it is
the Lords will we may see our children
and grandchildren all together again in
the body sometime, for somehow it
seems bad sign our being alone to-
day. l don't suppose single person
will darken our doors but we will
drive to meeting, if you have a mind
to-"
So the lonely, kind hearted old
couple locked up the farmhouse, leav-
ing the turkey and chicken-pie in the
brick oven. and logged away with big
basket of pies in the chaise in front of
them and as they left them here and
there where they were sure to be appre-
ciated, the most inviting finding place
at the parsonage, Mother Bellamy cried,
and told what a lonely day it was for
her, and said over and over that of all
lonely days lonely Thanksgiving was
the worst.
The two Bellamy girls and the three
Bellamy sons wives received their
gifts from home. and read their texts, |
and felt little heart-twinge as they
thought of the lonely old couple. And |
as they prepared their fowls and made |
pies, cakes and goodies, as much Ike |
Mother Bellamy's famous ones as pos
sible, the thought of father and mother
alone in the quiet homestead so grew
upon them, that after breakfast, on |
Thanksgiving morning, they each pro-
posed to husband and children packing
up their dinners and going very quietly |
to eat them with Father and Mother |
Bellamy.
The result of these five propositions |
was, that when the five trains on the |
five different roads, all due at the Juno |
ton at ten o'clock A. NJ, came rushing |
in with great confusion of bells and |
whistles and hurrying passengers, out |
of each of these trains issued troop of
Bellamys, laden with hampers, baskets, |
cans and pals. They all met on the |
broad platform in the autumn sun, and |
for a quarter of a minute, at least,
looked at each other in specifies
and then instead of
hands and saying, elbow do
you do ?" every Bellamy turned to ev-
cry other Bellamy, and asked "Did
yOu 1Oul tulhCy DIu YOU
bring your turkey ?" as they marched
away, long, merry procession, toward
the homestead. The house was closed
to be sure, but they knew where to look
for the key hanging under fathers sum-
meT hat on the back porch. The door
was speedily unlocked, they all filed in,
and then such a time as there was I'M
packing goodies and setting the extern
siontable in the long dining-rOom. 1t
fairly eclipsed Sunday school picnic or
a church fair.
When Father and Mother Bellamy
were driving into the yard, an honr
later, she was crying little and saying
softly: 81 am glad l went twas a good
sermon, and it was a strange coinci-
dence, the text being the same as the
one sent to the children with their
fowls. l feel paid for going, but it
don't seem as if l could ever 90 into
the house. l feel as if l had been to
the graveyard and buried the whole of
em. 1t must be I've got what they call
the blues," and the gentle, affectionate
woman sobbed outright.
''Oh, shO, shO, wife !" said Father
Bellamy. But he blew his nose sus
piciously loud as he fumbled for the
key, and finding it, went back down the
steps and led his wife to the door, say
ing all the time: "Sho! sho sho /! 1
would not feel so about it, mother; we
shall have letter from every one of
them, tonight, have no doubt; they
haven't forgotten us,". and swinging
open the door, what did they see, but
the table loaded as even their Thanks
giving table was never loaded before.
IN the center was the old gobbler, and
grouped about him we're his five wives.