Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-01-04


easy of employment and so sure in re-
suit as these Thanksgiving associations
and usages observed carefully. Once in
year at least the fetters of business
care drop off, and the worn man becomes
a sort of hero on family triumph, and
is refreshed by becoming child again.
You will not get your best good from 60
ing home to the rest, unless you go out
in the barn and try the ladder, and over
the orchard and climb the trees, and
down on the pond for thoroughly re-
spectacle slide. If you take your dignity
with you, you had better give your tick
ct to some POOR man who will use it le-
ultimately. You will not enjoy the old
house at all, unless you can get upstairs
into the kitchen-chamber, and seem to
hear the rain come drumming on the
shingles.
We speak very deliberately when we
say this now: we do not know how we
could ever be made to care for any one,
or even to trust him who suffers himself
to be estranged without awful cause
from those old boys who slept with him
in the room next the sky, and heard in
the winter frost the weird cracking of
the beams overhead, as they told the
stories before going to sleep. We do
not see how he could hope that pure
starlight, like shower of benedlction
could ever fall upon him again on the
other side of the roof. God gives men
these sensibilities; and woe to him that
defes his nOblest nature in checking
them! Let us get together if we can,
and keep together, God willing, for
many and many fond year yet
Do you observe how queer these con-
ferences are going to be as time pro-
ceedS? Something fresh is revealed
every year when the old boys and the old
! girls come home What an eager inter.
est when we try to teach our children
how to know each other, and love the
aged faces we meet there! How the
ewes glisten and the hearts leap as we
tell the little family secrets while the
children are outdoors beyond hearing
Husband means house bond, wife means
woof; it is we'll to weave these atfec.
tions together by this mutual love.
How odd it seems to see William
children The modern book is full OF
conceits about "Helen's Babies;" they
are Just nothing to these quaint speci-
mems which sister Martha brings up here
to greet us on Thanksgiving. How Won
derful are our condolences! stephen,
your oldest boy is splendid fellow;
what are you going to do now that he is
through college? Minister? Well, that
is good! 1t is worth working for, as you
have: aud we will all be proud of him."
''Kate, how does Charley get on with the
velocipede? Mother says that Gertrude
has ioined the church. And something
else. too? You surprise me! Why, how
old is she? O how they do keep growing
up. When did that happen? And dc
you approve of the young man|
And then the dinner; and the eldest
carves: and Stephens educated boy,
that is going to be a minister, asks the
blessing in his grandfather's place. And
then the snow.fort, and then the hot
chestnuts at the evening fire; and then
the stories, and the never-forgOtten even
ing song which Kate's Gertrude makes
ring again when she touches the air, and
which Stephen breaks down in as he re-
members fathers bass twenty years ago
So then comes the Thanksgiving prayer
that mother chooses shall be made by
the first-born, who now is the high priest
of the family. And then comes the sand
man with weights for little eyes; and sc
+ to bed where no cars rumble acros!
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