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CHAPTER XXIV
November
THE TRADITIONAL THANKSGIVING
T
HANKSGIVING Day with its peculiar observance stands alone as an American holiday. It has grown up with the country and is closely interwoven with its history. Indeed, could scenes have been stored and now be reproduced to mortal vision as sounds in a phonograph may be held and preserved, the story of this nation could have no more faithful portrayal than a glimpse of the successive Thanksgiving Days would afford.
We, as "heirs of all the ages," may better celebrate our own day of thanks if, mindful of its traditions, we refresh our memories with its history.
1621
The first picture would be a harvest festival in old Plymouth in October, 1621—"all in the gay and golden weather " when the woods were ablaze and the air made the pulses tingle—glowing accounts of which the Pilgrims wrote home to friends in England.
Anxiously they had watched the seed planted, knowing that their lives during the following winter would depend upon the little harvest; but sunshine and showers had performed their gracious miracles, and in their gladness and gratitude they called upon each other to assem-
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