The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-11-27

"But you will come again to see usp''
urged the little maiden. "Won't you come
THANKSGIVING"
"Maybe, maybe" he said. ''That is a
good daY. that Thanksgiving. You to the
good Lord g1V5 THANKS Because ne so gUUu
to you is. And you have one great dinner
Maybe thank him, too, that he kill me
not And you thank that you take of
mother good care. And maybe 1 take din
ner that day with you"
1t was several weeks, however, before
Thanksgiving day came, and in the in
| terval, as the hard New England winter
| came on, things went badly with the Bas
CONS. Ella developed a slight cough, that
made her mother turn pale when she heard
it. She had learned to know how easily
consumption attacks young people in the
| rigorous climate Of upper New England,
| yet she dared not speak to Mr.. Bascom
about sending the girl south for the win
ter. The means were lacking. The crops
were poor. One of the two pigs they had
fattened died before killing time Mr.
Bascom himself, growing old before his
time seemed no longer able to look on the
bright side of anything, and the anxious
wife and mother could only pray little
more earnestly and little more frequent
ly than before. To work harder was i'm
possible. And John could only study later
and rise earlier to make up for his fathers
failing strength. Nothing was heard from
the professor, and, as the family realized
more and more every day how heavy the
odds were against them, they ceased to talk
and almost ceased to think much about
him. He had saved them from great sor-
row, he had been great care and bur-
den for time, and then he had passed
away to be only memory.
TWAS therefore entirely surprise when,
few days before Thanksgiving, John
brought home q letter from the village
postoffice addressed in a queer foreign
handwriting to Miss Ella Bascom.
sit must be from the professor she
said, and after they had all agreed to this
and had examined the envelope and the
postmark and had wondered sufficiently
about what he could have to say, as people
do who do not often receive letters, she
opened it.
MY DEAR LITTLE FRAULEIN-I have not for
gotten that you asked me to go to see you
again on Thanksgiving day. and will co. 1
will to see what is the great holiday Of the
American people in the American peoples
home.
Your brother John, he is good boy, and he
will be good man. He will give thanks,
maybe, that did get him place in New York
where he can study and be an engineer and
will earn money-not very much, but enough.
Tell your papa Ihave, maybe, some good news
for him, and tell your mamma since come to
dinner have the great liberty taken to send
my dinner. And 1 kiss your hand HUGO.
Such news was too wonderful, and yet
it was tantalizing. There was no end to
the specializing, and it was later that night
than it ever had been before when the Bas-
CONS went to bed.
The next day, however, brought still
greater surprise. Word came from the rail
way station, two miles away, that there
were several large cases there for Mr.. Bas-
com, expressage paid. The old gray horse
was astonished enough at the speed at
which he was ratified along, but his feel
ings were nothing to those of the family
when the cases were brought home and
opened.
If there was anything known to the gro
Gerry or delicatessen trade that wasn't rep
resented in those cases, it was because the
professor couldn't find it. And there was
the biggest turkey Bascom ever saw, with
a box of fresh vegetables, and everything
else needed to cook with it, And of every
thing else there was enough to last all win
ter.
Mrs. Bascom was stunned She could
say nothing, but the children made up for
her silence, and Mr.. Bascom, after he had
recovered little from his bewilderment
said, 'Well, Maria, if that's the professors
dinner, he must have leetle the best APP
petite of anybody ever knowed Of. -
Next day the professor came himself, fat
Al I. i
ever seen him cit is nothing" he said