Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1892-11-24
MARGARET ASHBY'S THANKS EWING
STORY.

Especial for THE BELLOWS FALLS TIMEs.J
~ FAD it, father? Yes, can read i
y if it will be any pleasure to yo,
IL to etr it; for my part wish
kA could never see or listen to on
In again! It's just mocbery, pur,
and simple, naught else! And a
it it We're not enough to take orders from
the chief ruler of the state, the presiden
must appoint national Thanksgiving
A double weighted yoke for necks al
ready chafed hey ond endurance"
"Why Gritty! what TRADE, and al
because father wanted to hear
the Thanksgiving proclamation read
Your nerves are unstrung, child, with Sc
much hard work; you need rest, dear
and after Thanksgiving you must go tt
Ridgley and make good long visit
Your Aunt Margaret will think it like
the olden time to see you there again
and the gentle-voiced woman reached
for her cane and grasping it quietly
walked across to where her daughter
was sitting in the light of the western
window. ''Give me the paper, my dear
and get me my glasses and II read it tC
your father.'
The father, bent and white-haired and
somewhat feeble in appearance, vet with
features and bodily frame indicating
strength physically and mentally when
in his p ime, gazed curiously at this
irate daughter who was to him as the
''apple OF his eye." He was seldom at q
loss for words either of censure or rebuke
if needed, or of pleasure and approba-
ton when deserved; but what should
have brought forth such manifest irri-
tation was more than he could under
stand.
"No, mother I'm not such coward
nor so ill-te mpered that l can't comply
with a reasonable request and yet if |
were to abolish either it would be
Thanksgiving and not Fast day, assure
you"
sHave we nothing to be thankful for,
Gritty?'' This was her fathers question.
"Have we not? The name | am called
by first and foremost" replied the young
woman, if woman of forty-seven or
eight could be called young; and yet she
looked so despite the deep lines Of care
on her fair high forehead and not a
thread of silver could be seen in her
luxuriant brown hair drawn smoothly
back, yet showing its inclination to curl
in glossy waves that shone in the rays of
the fast lowering sun as it glimmered
and glinted through the little west win
dow of Farmer Ashby's kitchen. Mar
garet Ashby took up the weekly paper
she had allowed to fall upon her lap as
she was speaking and was about to COM
mence reading the detested proclama-
ton when her father said:
s'As to the name, you named yourself,
Margaret, when you were too small by
half to be talking but that tongue of
yours found it's use early, lass, and when
the others called you Margaret or Mar
guerite, your mother said to distinguish
you from your namesake you began to
call yourself "Gritty' and all the others
did the same and somehow your baby
name clIpg to you, that's all; twas
good woman you were named for" and
the old gentleman rocked himself gently
in the old-fashioned, splint-bottomed
chair and smoothed out his double nit
tens on his knee mi.tens which Gritty
had knit with ssdouble wrists" and dia-
mond checks at that, and had got the
blue just the right color, such as her
mother used to have years ago and with
which he was vastly pleased. The old
hands felt the cold more than they used
to, he told her. and thousand little
things that he formerly did bare handed,
he could not do without mittens on.
The reading of the proclamation here
put an end to any further talk. Gritty
was a fine reader and the cOmmonest in
cidents were interesting as read by her.
The old people listened with wIapt at
tention until she had finished. s'Ihat is
mastery, just as it ought to be, and the
old man began pulling on his mittens,
preparatory to doing the chores but when
he rose he drew the back of one mittened
hand across his eyes and gazed YEARLY
out through the eastern window that
gave view of the dull grey, frozen
road and spruce covered hills that lay in
the distance.
"Yes," replied his wife, 'sthat is well i;
we've neser failed to read that proclama-
ton, have we father, since we kept house,
no matter what happened; and there's
enough happened, dear Knows" and
Mother Ashby removed her specs, osten-
sibly to wipe the glasses but really to
remove the mistin.s from over-brim-
ming eyelids.
.That's just it, and the younger wo-
man folded up the paper, saying as she
did so. "there's a Thanksgiving story
on this page; if there's one thing above
another that is getting wearisome its the
stories of special days and particular
occasions. What's the use IF it all:
where's the good of it eth. r? 1t may be
true and il may not; but why need it be
parad, d in our faces at every turn THESE
stories suited to different times as they
come along? The whole thing is absurd
and she quickly stepped forward and
laid the offending paper upon little
stand in one corner AS though the touch
of the thing were torture to her over
wrought nerves.
"My times are in thy hand, whatever they may
be, -
Pleasing or painful. dark or bright, as best may
seem to thee,"
reneated her father as ne slowly CLOSED
the kitchen door and crossed the yard.
"rhar is what you ought to think
GRITTY" said her mother MS her daugh
ter began to Pr epare the table for thu
evening meal.
"That's what l do think and othe