He explained to his companions that a great festival
was near. They heard this with joy. He explained that
no work would be done that day,--not in any cigar-shop or
sweating-room. This also pleased them. He then, at some
length, explained the necessity of the sacrifice of
turkeys on the occasion. He told briefly how Josselyn
and the fathers shot them as they passed through the sky.
But he explained that now we shoot them, as one makes
money, not directly but indirectly. We shoot our
turkeys, say, at shooting-galleries. All this proved
intelligible, and Frederick had no fear for turkeys.
As for Sarah and Ezra, he found that at Ezra's boys'
club and at Sarah's girls' club, and each of her Sabbath-
school classes and Sunday-school classes, and at each of
his, it had been explained that on the day before
Thanksgiving they must come with baskets to places named,
and carry home a Thanksgiving dinner.
These announcements were hailed with satisfaction by
all to whom Dane addressed them. Everything in the
country was as strange to them as it would have been to
an old friend of mine, an inhabitant of the planet Mars.
And they accepted the custom of this holiday among the
rest. Oddly enough, it proved that one or two of them
were first-rate shots, and, by attendance at
different shooting-galleries, they brought in more than
a turkey apiece, as Governor Bradford's men did in 1621.
Pages:
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325