WHO GIVES US OUR THANKSGIVING DINNER?
On Thanksgiving Day little Dorothy said,
With many a nod of her wise, curly head,
"The cook is as busy as busy can be,
And very good, too, for 'tis easy to see
She gives us our Thanksgiving Dinner."
"Oh, no! little Dorothy," answered the cook,
"Just think of the trouble your dear mother took
In planning the dinner and getting for me
The things that I cook; so, 'tis Mother, you see,
Who gives us our Thanksgiving Dinner."
"Of course it is Mother; I ought to have known,"
Said Dorothy then, in a satisfied tone.
But Mother said, smiling, "You are not right yet;
'Tis Father who gives me the money to get
The things for our Thanksgiving Dinner."
But Father said: "I earn the money, 'tis true;
But money alone not a great deal can do.
The butcher, the grocer, whose things we must buy,
Should not be forgotten, for they more than I
Will give us our Thanksgiving Dinner."
"Oh! isn't it funny?" said Dorothy, then;
"And now, I suppose, if I asked these two men,
The grocer, the butcher, about it, they'd say
It surely is somebody else and not they
Who gives us our Thanksgiving Dinner."
And soon little Dorothy heard with delight
That her guess about grocer and butcher was right.
The grocer said he only kept in his store
What miller and farmer had brought in before
To help for the Thanksgiving Dinner.
The jolly old butcher laughed long and laughed loud,
"My Thanksgiving turkeys do make me feel proud,
And one's for your dinner; but then you must know
The turkeys are raised by the farmer, and so
He gives you your Thanksgiving Dinner."
"Oh, yes! 'tis the farmer; at last I've found out,"
Said Dorothy, then, with a glad little shout.
"The miller must go to the farmer for wheat,
The butcher from him gets the turkeys we eat;
Yes!—he gives our Thanksgiving Dinner."
"But yet all the others had something to do;
The miller and butcher and grocer helped, too.
And then there was Father and Mother and cook.
I never before knew how many it took
To give us our Thanksgiving Dinner."
So said little Dorothy, full of surprise,
And feeling that now she had grown very wise.
But what do you think? Had she found it all out?
Or was there still more she might learn about
Who gives us our Thanksgiving Dinner?