Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/140

 are able to throw light upon its historical commencement. They know merely that it arose in the “earliest times of the pilgrim-fathers in America,” and that it has since established itself in the church as the expression of the higher popular feeling. I have, nevertheless, heard it said—and it does not seem to me improbable—that it arose at the commencement of the colony, when, at a time of great scarcity, and in the prospect of approaching famine, five ships laden with wheat arrived from England; that therefore it was for a long time the custom in Massachussets to lay, at this festival, five grains of corn upon the dinner-plate of each guest, which custom is retained to this day in certain of the parts of the State.

The weather was splendid, but cold, as after church we walked through the rural city, with its small houses and gardens, and saw the well-dressed inhabitants returning home from church. Everything testified of order and of easy circumstances without show and luxury. We dined in a large company, the dinner being at once abundant yet frugal, at the house of one of Marcus S.'s relations. We spent the evening with his sister and her family, who own and cultivate a large farm near Uxbridge, the mother of our doctor's little wife; and here all the relations were assembled. The mistress of the house, a quiet, agreeable, motherly woman, “lady-like” in her manners, as was her sister at the Phalanstery, and that from nobility and refinement of soul, pleased me extremely, as did all the simple cordial people of this neighbourhood; they were much more hearty, and much less given to asking questions than the people I had met with in the great city parties. We had a great supper with the two indispensable Thanksgiving-day dishes, roast turkey and pumpkin pudding. It is asserted that the turkeys in the states of New England always look dejected as the time of Thanksgiving approaches, because then there is a great slaughter among them. The clergyman who had