The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-11-22

and of necessity free of parental con-
troll. The deacon waited till we had
come up with him, and the four of
us hurried along to the house. jim
and Jethro kept discreetly quiet, and
l was mute, of course, but all the way
the deacon kept up running hre or
angry comment on their conduct, that
lost nothing in forcefulness because
of his stammerng. l had an ensan-
guined nose by reason of a hot liner
that had hit that organ fair and
square. 1 hadn't minded it little bit,
but it enraged the good deacon be-
yond measure.
'Yuh-yuh-y- ought to be shuh-shuh-
shamed Of yourselves. Jim and Jethro,
he fumed, to lul-lul-lul-let the preach
er's boy get hurt
AT the house we washed the blood
off my nose in the wOodshed before
going into the big kitchen, where the
dinner was spread. The deacon heed
ed Jim's and Jethro's pleadings and
drew no ones attention to the mishap,
and, despite our lateness, the feast
passed off with great eclat.
The feasters numbered quite
score. There were the deacon's three
married daughters, their husbands and
their broods, divers cousins of divers
degrees; likewise some aunts and I'M
clcs; also the deacon's father, a pa
triach of eighty odd. white haired and
bent, and Mrs. Boyle's mother, over
80 and half palsied, but hopeful of
reaching the century mark. Both these
anclents were very deaf, and the con-
versation was carried on in what Jim
and Jethro called the key of high c.
Everybody present was used to it,
however, excepting the minister's fam
lily.
The deacon himself entertained me
nightly with his stammer. Before
his conversion, a few years earlier, he
had been able to throw this verbal i'm
pediment off temporarily by swearing
a few bars as Jim and Jethro had it,
but since then had never been able to
talk straight save when praying, say
ing grace or giving in his testimony
at a conference meeting. Though new
er admitting it, he was very sensitive
because of his inirmity, and this, Jim
and Jethro said, must have been why
my father had insisted on bringing me
to the dinner.
THE dinner itself was a marvel of
plenty and variety. Huge turkeys and
great spare ribs, vast dishes of baked
beans snowy mounds of mashed pota
toes, golden ones of turnips and i'm
mense pitchers of cider would have
been prominent on the menu cards had
'punkin' and mince pie that came aft
er were enough to tempt the most
confirmed dyspeptic.
owing to the general din caused by
the loud talking to make granny and
'grandad' hear, Jim and Jethro, who
sat one on each side of me, were able
to carry on a line of comment in an
undertone that kept me in a per-
petual giggle. The whole day was
proving one of unalloyed delight, be-
ing quite different from any Thanks
giving l had previously suffered.
TT was early candle light when
the feast was over, and under the COM
bined influence of my WEAKNESS from
the ball game, the turkey, the spare
ribs, the mashed potatoes and turnips
with gravy, the luscious pie and divers
draughts of the cider, I fell asleep
just as the deacon was bringing the
feast to a formal close by informing a
prayer, while standing in his place at
the head of the table
THE next year 1 passed my Thanks
giving at the village, but by and
large as the villagers used to say,
have never had more solid Thanksgiv-
ing fun than on the day the minister S
family ate dinner at Deacon Boyle's."