ith a vicious pair of
tongs,
And Mother sayin', "DAVID! DAVID!" in a' undertone,
As though she thought that I was thinkin' bad-words
unbeknown.

"I've dressed the turkey, David, fer to-morrow," Mother
said,
A-tryin' to wedge some pleasant subject in my stubborn
head,--
"And the mince-meat I'm a-mixin' is perfection mighty
nigh;
And the pound-cake is delicious-rich--" "Who'll eat
'em?" I--says--I.

"The cramberries is drippin'-sweet," says Mother, runnin'
on,
P'tendin' not to hear me;--"and somehow I thought of
John
All the time they was a-jellin'--fer you know they allus
was
His favorITE--he likes 'em so!" Says I "Well, s'pose
he does?"

"Oh, nothin' much!" says Mother, with a quiet sort o'
smile--
"This gentleman behind my cheer may tell you after
while!"
And as I turnt and looked around, some one riz up and
leant
And putt his arms round Mother's neck, and laughed in
low content.

"It's ME," he says--"your fool-boy John, come back to
shake your hand;
Set down with you, and talk with you, and make you un-
derstand
How dearer yit than all the world is this old home that
we
Will spend Thanksgivin' in fer life--jest Mother, you
and me!"

Nobody on the old farm here but Mother, me and John,
Except, of course, the extry he'p when harvest-time
comes on;
And then, I want to say to you, we NEED sich he'p about,
As you'd admit, ef you could see the way the crops turn
out!

A CANARY AT THE FARM

Folks has be'n to town, and Sahry
Fetched 'er home a pet canary,--
And of all the blame', contrary,
Aggervatin' things alive!
I love music--that's I love it
When it's free--and plenty of it;--
But I kindo' git above it,
At a dollar-eighty-five!

Reason's plain as I'm a--sayin',--
Jes' the idy, now, o' layin'
Out yer money, and a-payin'
Fer a wilder-cage and bird,
When the medder-larks is wingin'
Round you, and the woods is ringin'
With the beautifullest singin'
That a mortal ever heard!

Sahry's sot, tho'.--So I tell her
He's a purty little feller,
With his wings o' c