Thanksgivin' Night

 Thanksgivin' Night (Grandpa Remembers)
by Wilbur D. Nesbit

O, it's always happy weather
When it comes Thanksgivin' night
An' we're all at home together
With the fireplace givin' light,
An' we set there in the glimmer-
All of us, down to the dog-
While the sap begins to simmer
From the hickory backlog.

For we're all at home together;
Henry's come clear from the coast!
An' the rest-we can't tell whether
There is one we love the most,
For there ain't! An' me an' Mother
Call them in from west an' east
Just to be with one another,
An' there's non we love the least!

Lizzie, Mary an' her baby
(Just like she waz at it's age!)
Makes us somehow feel that maybe
Time has been turned back a page,
For they're boys an' girls made over
An' the fambly's like it wuz.
Even old rheumatic Rover
Wags his tail till it 'll buzz!

At the dinner all is riot
Just as soon as I've said grace,
But at night we all grow quiet
Clustered round the old fireplace.
Done with talkin' of their doin's
In the cities where they live,
Of their hopin's an' pursuin's,
Now's the time there's thanks to give.

Me an' Mother-me an' Mother!
Lord, the children never knew
When one went, an' then another,
What a valley we went through!
But Thanksgivin' night together,
Just a-thinkin' each of each,
It's the good old back-home weather
Where the heart's too full for speech.

Not a word from any of us
While we watch the embers die,
But the good Lord up above us
Hears the prayer in each sigh
That tells of the thanks we're givin'
That the world is runnin' right,
An' that life is worth the livin'
When it comes Thanksgivin' night.