Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-11-17
A MEMORABLE THANKSGIVING.

Thanksgiving week was ALWAYS
busy week Mt the Gates homestead, but
IL seemed to Dear that it was buster this
year than ever. She couldn't quite UNI
derstand it, either, for as they were
coming home from church on SUNDAY
she heard her mother say TO Aunt Mar
garet, with little break in her voice,
that she had mo heart for Thanksgiv-
ing this year" Dear knew why, and
she thought they would have n sorrow
tul Thanksgiving, or, perhaps, no
Thanksgiving at all. 60.
But Tuesday mo- ming there could be
no doubt that they were to have Thanks
giving this year. for there was what
TiptOp called bonfire made in the
great brick oven in the kitchen, which.
since Dear 5 remembrance, was opened
and heated only during Thanksgiving
week. Tiptop mounted chair 50 that
he could see into the oven. and shouted
''Firem and danced in ecstasy till, for
getting that he had only chair-bottom
for hoor, he danced OIL, and bruised
his nose, and had to be comforted by
Dear just when she was so busy seeding
raisins.
Roundtop and Squaretop counted it n
great privilege to bring in the long
sticks of hickory wood TO heat the oven,
each holding an end, Juggling it along
with great gravity and an occasional
fall on their toes, and, if they were al
lowed to thrust n small stic& into the
oven, their satisfaction was complete
Dear paused, in her hurried trips through
the kitchen, to- look into the blazing
depths and think of Shadrach. Meshach
and Abednego.
Then they all stood around to see the
Goals drawn out and the oven swept; and
when their mother. holding her hand
far in TO test the temperature, solemnly
declared 10 was "just right" they
watched breathlessly while the loaf-cake
and spice-cake and cookies were care
fully put in, and breathed n deep sigh of
relief when the oven door closed upon
the good things committed to- its keeping.
W eduesday morning the oven was
heated again, and filed with mince-
pies, which came out so delightfully."-
brown and so deliciously fragrant that
the Gates children grew desperately
hungry, and thought Thanksgiving
never would come. And then such
pumpkin-pies, and apple-pies, and
tarts, and ut last. rs the evening drew
on, great patches of brown bread and rye
bread and wheat bread filed the oven
10 the door.
When the chicken-pie and turkey
were ready for the oven next day. the
tired mother dropped into the low
rocking chair. and taking Tiptop on
her lap, looked YEARLY into the fire.
LET me hold .Tiptop. mamma"
said Dear, thinking how tired her moth
hat. hn IL
only by holding Tiptop with closer
arm. The children gathered around as
the twilight came on, and sitting there.
waited for their father to come. Grad
TALLY silence fell upon them all, broken
only by the subdued roaring of the fire
IN the stove. and the loud ticking of the
clock on the mantel-shelf.
As Dear listened, how wildly came
back that sorrowful night when she
stood and heard the clock ticking loud
or and louder, as Tiny gently breathed
her life away; and il seemed to Dear
that she would never again hear the
clock ticking in the night without think
ing OF that scene. She glanced at her
mother, and did not wonder that she
had no heart for Thanksgiving this
year. Indeed, she thought they all had
more cause for complaint than thanks
giving. Ea
Half blinded by tears. she started up,
and going to the window, looked out.
II was frosty. starlight night. There
was no snow on the ground, but here
and there patches of ice were forming
over the pools of still water left by the
heavy fan rains.
why don't papa Gomez" said Tip
top, fretfully.
He will come SOON" said the mother,
soothingly, and, in obedience to an old
habit, began absent-mindedly humming
sreenville, the one tune she knew, and