I wanted to invite all the brethern and sistern in the meetin’-house, but Philury thought she couldn’t wait on ’em all, and we compromised on the plan of havin’ ’em all here 453 to a evenin’ social the week after, when we’d pass round things and not have so many dishes to wash.
I laid out to be dretful thankful Thanksgivin’ day. I felt that my heart would keep the holiday with drums beatin’ and flags wavin’, to speak in metafor. For how much, how much I had to be thankful for! My beloved pardner and I had reached our own home in safety. The Lord had watched over us in perils by water, perils by land, perils by fatigue, perils by Josiah’s strange, strange plans.
Tommy wuz as well as ever a child wuz; the doctor said his lungs wuz sound as a bell. All our dear ones at home had been kep’ in safety and our home seemed more like a blissful oasis in a desert world than it ever did before.
I always like to be up to the mark in everything, and I felt that I had so much to be thankful for Thanksgivin’ day that I laid out to git up early so’s to begin to be thankful as soon as daylight anyway, and keep it up all day till long after candle light. But as it turned out I begun to keep the glorious holiday of Thanksgivin’ three days ahead and had to, for I couldn’t help it.
I believe in makin’ preparations ahead; I believe in takin’ time by the forelock and leadin’ it along peaceable and stiddy by my side, instead of time’s drivin’ me, rough shod and pantin’ for breath over a household path, rocky and rough with belated duties. And it wuz three days before Thanksgivin’ I sot in my clean, cheerful-lookin’ kitchen seedin’ some raisins for the fruit cake, Josiah bein’ out to the barn killin’ two fat pullets for the chicken pie. Ury wuz down in the swamp gittin’ some evergreens and holly berries to decorate with, and Philury dressin’ the turkey and ducks in the back kitchen, when I heard a rap at the settin’ room door and I wiped my hands on the roller towel and smoothed back my hair and went to the door.
And who do you spoze stood there? His eyes shinin’ brighter than the sky did, though that wuz clear blue, lit by a warm sunshine. It wuz Ernest White, and guess who wuz 454 by his side; I’ll tell you, for you never could think who it wuz––it wuz Waitstill Webb. I had thought her face wuz as sweet as it could be in sorrow, but I had never seen it in gladness before. She looked like a sweet white rose just blowed out under the warm sun of a perfect June day.
“Ernest White!” sez I, “how glad I am to see you! And Waitstill Webb! can I believe my eyes?” sez I, “is it you?” And I took both their hands in mine at one time.
“Waitstill Webb!” sez I agin, “is it you?”
“No,” sez Ernest White, “it is Waitstill White.”
You could have knocked me down with a hair-pin. I kissed ’em both smilin’ and weepin’, laughin’ and cryin’, we all on us wuz like three fools, or three wise ones, I d’no which. And that’s how I begun to keep Thanksgivin’ more’n three days ahead.