The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-11-28
Harvest Festival.


One Of the children of Lakewood,
and nobody ever quite remembered
who it was, had q bright idea.
There's nothing to trim the church
with. for Thanksgiving" said he.
''Let's bring in fruit and make il lock
like a harvest festival" But his IA
ther and mother, TO whom he confid-
ed the plan, said that would be a fool
ish waste OF good garden sass, and
perhaps might only look foolish, aft
er all. So he agitated the matter
no more then, among his elders, but
consulted his mates, enterprising
young Americans, who entered en-
Enthusiastically into his plots and
plans.
The next spring, every boy and
girl of the town begged for a little
patch of ground, on which to raise
something for the fall festival.
Some of the fathers laughed and
shook their heads, but the majority
said "Yes," so that the day before
Thanksgiving found the church
swarming with young people, and
echOing with some such expressions
as these:
GIVE brought pumpkins, Jim.
Don't you think they'll make a good
Yellow"
"Oh, hurrah! see that squash.
Don't turn the green side out. Tim
Peters, where'd you get all them
pears, and how'd you keep 'em so
late?'
'"Oh, father gave 'em to me, and I
kept 'em in the dark"
"Why, you've brought potatoes!
never should have thought of that.
But we do want 'em, don't we? Put
a pile down here, to build up the ap-
Piles on"
All sorts OF apples there were, from
hard, red Baldwins to purple gill;
flowers! Many greedy white tooth
had much ado to keep itself from bit
ing, that day, but temptation WIS
withstood, and the work went on.
When it was done, the children with
drew to the further end ofthe church,
and clasped their hands, with rap
turous "ohs'' and Cabs" and the
next day the townspeople found it
hard to refrain from an admiring
chorus when they saw the result for
the first time.
Evergreen boughs clothed the pull
pit in green; in front of it rose a
glowing mass of gorgeous coloring,
all of homely vegetables and COM
mon fruits, the top covered with the
purple grapes sent in by old Madam
Melcher, who, with some of the farm
ers, begged the privilege ofcontribut-
ing. There were flowers on the desk
itself-a bouquet of yellow chrysan-
themums, and the old church seemed
actually to be illumined by the lights
it gathered from it's pyramid of
color.
The service was more hearty than
it had ever been, except in the young
days OF the "oldest resident, and the
children, knowing they had contrib
uted their little toward it's perfection
joined in it with a will.
cit looks harnsome," said IN
Gle Job Tucker, as he paused, with
the rest, before leaving the church,
''but tits a waste"
'"The children propose remedying
that, with the permission OF you all,
said the minister, coming down
among them. 'Their plan is to give
the fruit to some families in the village
who have no gardens. Those who
are in favor of doing so will say ay."
The motion was unanimously car
ried, and the next day boys with
wheelbarrows might have been seen
trundling big squashes around town;
one with hand-cart tugged along
a load of red apples, and old
Mrs. True, the paraly tic, received the
grapes.
ut turned out lovely!" agreed the
children. 'I'm sure we never had
such a good Thanksgiving before"
To Oblige the Barber.