Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-11-25
Gales aud Skttthes.
MINNIES THANKSGIVING DINNER.
By EMILY THORNTON.

"The day is dark. and cold. and dreary,
| II rains and the wind is never weary"
| sighed the low, sad voice of an invalid
youth, as he turned away from the win
dow. and settled down upon the pillows
of his resttul lounge. Minnie, where
are you?"
Here. brother" answered a soft voice
from an adjoining room, followed at once
bv the speaker, beautiful girl of nine
teen. "Did YOU wish anvthing"
Eyes, everything! When is Thanks
giving Day?'
Next week Thursday. Why do you
ask?"
II was thinking what sad day it would
be for us. Strange what changes we have
known in one short year. Father taken
away; fortune taken at the same time /;
your apparently devoted admirer, Frank
Harold, deserving you as our circum-
stances changed. and we two are LETT to
fight the battle alone. But worst of all,
when could willingly work tor our sup
port | was stricken down with this long
illness. leaving you to earn our scanty
subsistence by giving music lessons. Oh,
it has been frightfully hard! Minnie. it
will be Thanksgiving Day, but we have
nothing to be thankful for. so we will not
pretend to keep it,"
Nothing to be thankful for, Harry"
replied his sister. reproachiully. Surely
you have not counted up your mercies
lately. Think again. brother. Have |
not been peculiarly fortunate in possess
ing musical talent. and also in procuring
pupils enough to keep a shelter over our
heads, even though it be in a tiatP Have
we not kept warm. and free from hunger.
while YOU have been safely carried
through this dangerous illness, and are
gaining strength every dayP All, do not
saw we have nothing to be thankful tor. y
The young man turned away with a
sigh. while his eyes filled with tears, as
he replied:
1--WE can have no Thanksgiving dinner
ANYWAY, Minnie. We shall miss that"
"Yes; but if we have only plain food,
we must not repine. Try to look on the
brighter side, Harry. Perhaps another
year will find ms in better circumstances. y"
Was that prophecyP
That night. after her brother WAS quiet
ly sleeping. Minnie brought out work
box. and seating herself in the brightest
part of the room, commenced work
that would occupy her until midnight.
1t was labor OF love, that made her
fingers move rapidly among the lovely
tinted papers. from which she was fash
ioning paper flowers to fill a basket given
to her in better days by the young man
alluded to in the above conversation.
Then it was filled with the choicest hot
house roses
Those purely beautiful floral gems had
long since faded. but the basket still re-
manned. so she worked away in secret to
refill it with lovely limitations that she
might sell. and thus realize an extra sum
with which to purchase Thanksgiving
dinner. to give pleasure to the only broth
err, whose 10, had been so hard the past
six months.
The amount brought in through her
music scholars, would hardly pay their
rent and furnish fuel and food of the
plainest, therefore, when those busy hours
she was obliged to devote to this daily toll
were ended, she had stolen from her time
for sleep extra moments, in order to meet
this emergency.
She felt that to cheer and please her
brother was a sacred duty never to be
neglected.
When the cuckoo in the clock called
the hour of twelve, it found the basket
completed. its flowers radiant with beauty.
Her skilful fingers had wrought them
to quite compare with nature, while