Putnam patriot., 1913-11-28
FOR THE THINGS
THAT ARE OURS
the last Thursday of the elev.


respected and respective governors
that we should offer up thanks to God.
They seem TO take it for granted that
during the twelve intervening months
we've each been sufficiently blessed to
make a day of Thanksgiving quite
comfortable outlet for the accumulated
gratitude of the year. But I'm begin
ming to WONDER every woman contin-
ued reaectively, IF We really have got
anything at all? Prices are higher
than that last aviator Went-what was
his name? The one that broke the rec
ord just before he died2-and still
reaching for altitude. We can't run
the house much longer If this keeps
on. Used to have a good salary III the
family, but it's clean out of date, the
style of 1900 fits too tight for 1917.
Had figured on lot of real. old.fash-
Toned, touching gratitude for that raise
that didn't arrive-but there! Who
feels thankful for chickens that never
broke the shell? Don't feel any en-
thusiasm about the lift on shoe leath-
er, either, due to the prosperity OF the
automobile industry. We haven't done
much automobile riding lately. and the
kiddies go through their shoes just the
same way we used to back in the
eighties. when round steak was or
10 cents a pound. what? You get 1t
for 90? My mans robber-25 cents
he charges me- No, we're going to
have chicken this year, one chicken.
instead of a turkey. We don't like tur-
key, anyway. Thinking of bills re-
minds me of the three different spe-
ciaIties we have had this year for the
children. Used to be you called In
the doctor, with capital D-kill or
cure, that was the end of 1t. But, of
course, we can't take chances with the
babies.
I'VE haven't worked up much steam
yet for the great day, have we? Things
look kind of blue in our family. Yes,
and blue they have looked for some
time since the days of Old Rameses'-
and then some. Perhaps our Pilgrim
forefathers did a rather daring thing
when they said, Let us set apart a
day and offer thanks to God for the
great blessings which he has voueh-
safed us Perhaps they did the most
daring and the most wonderful of all
things when, near the end of each sue
cessiye year of hardship and troubous
survival, they took in their hands one
golden. toiI-worn, noble day and of
fered il to their God as a precious
thing
But then they weren't like us, those
Pilgrim men and women. They had
Just come into a brand-new country,
and they had to work hard and stick
together and help each other, and nat
urally when they had fine harvest
and prospect of good food all winter
there was a sort of oneness and mu-
tuality to their gratitude that we cant
get in our big, modern civilization.
They thought they were grateful TO
God, but really they we're loving and
thanking each other as much as any
thing. OF course we can't feel that
way, because-well becausel
Il think for just minute I'll be not
my little self. but my big self-I'm go-
ing to be the People. the Protean over
self of whom we hear so much and
many thousand years. Blindness is
surely a curse. Yet, 10. of late years
the veil of darkness has been streaked
with light ! am beginning to see
and the wonder of it, True, ! find
myself a thing of shreds and tatters,
but sight alone is needed to remedy
all that. Every day | am learning new
things. There is much that / can
hardly grasp as yeti have been igno-
rant so long, and the lessons are vast
ly puzzling. But with what eagerness
/ grasp for new knowledge, and how
gladly attempt each little new expert
mentl ] am equalizing myself. In
my blindness | have cast too much
toll on some organs and too little on
others | am far from the ideal OF
an athlete: but like the original pro-
topIasm, all forms lie dormant within
me. Yes I, who was a blind beggar
by the roadside, have been touched
by healing Hand. and before | lie
down TO sleep ! shall sit upon the
Throne OF the Worldi
Here | subside. rather breathless.
into my own Httie, narrow hdiu-
shelled self. But exercise of that sort
does one good. After ALL declared
EveryWoman rather eheerfully. "un-
der the grubbiness and petty struggle.
each for each. We Men and Women,
the People, are at last beginning 10
struggle each for other in the bigger.
wider sense. And surely God viii be
ia ,rbnr an the Icr. frhf~gday Of
the Eleventh Month OF one great COM