I liked Thanksgiving.We always had a house full of company,and they didn't stay until we were tired of them,as they did at Christmas,and there was as much to eat;the only difference was that there were no presents.It wasn't nearly so much work to fix for one day as it was for a week;so it wasn't so hard on mother and Candace,and father didn't have to spend much money.
We were wearing all our clothes from last fall that we could,and our coats from last winter to help out,but we didn't care.We had a lot of fun,and we wanted Sally and Shelley to have fine dresses,because they were in big cities where they needed them,and in due season,no doubt,we would have much more than they,because,as May figured it,there would be only a few of us by that time,so we could have more to spend.That looked sensible,and I thought it would be that way,too.We were talking it over coming from school one evening,and when we had settled it,we began to play "Dip and Fade."That was a game we made up from being at church,and fall and spring were the only times we could play it,because then the rains filled all the ditches beside the road where the dirt was plowed up to make the bed higher,and we had to have the water to dip in and fade over.
We played it like that,because it was as near as we could come to working out a song Isaac Thomas sang every time he got happy.
He had a lot of children at home,and more who had died,from being half-fed and frozen,mother thought;and he was always talking about meeting the "pore innocents"in Heaven,and singing that one song.Every time he made exactly the same speech in meeting.It began like reciting poetry,only it didn't rhyme,but it sort of cut off in lines,and Isaac waved back and forth on his feet,and half sung it,and the rags waved too,but you just couldn't feel any thrills of earnestness about what he said,because he needed washing,and to go to work and get him some clothes and food to fill out his frame.He only looked funny,and made you want to laugh.It took Emanuel Ripley to raise your hair.I don't know why men like my father,and the minister,and John Dover stood it;they talked over asking Isaac to keep quiet numbers of times,but the minister said there were people like that in every church,they always came among the Lord's anointed,and it was better to pluck out your right eye than to offend one of them,and he was doubtful about doing it.So we children all knew that the grown people scarcely could stand Isaac's speech,and prayer,and song,and that they were afraid to tell him plain out that he did more harm than good.Every meeting about the third man up was Isaac,and we had to watch him wave,and rant,and go sing-songy:
"Oh brethering and sistering--ah,It delights my heart--ah to gather with you,In this holy house of worship--ah.
In his sacred word--ah,The Lord--ah tells us,That we are all his childring--ah.
