feathery cream of mashed potatoes and such aromatic coffee as she made.
_There_ was something to tie to. Those were real, at any rate, and
beyond all seeming.

Just before twelve Calliope caught off her apron and pulled down her
sleeves.

"Now," she said, "I'm going to welcome the guests. I can--can't I?" she
begged me. "Everything's all ready but putting on. I won't need to come
out here again; when I ring the bell on the sideboard, dish it up an'
bring it in, all together--turkey ahead an' vegetables followin'. Mis'
Holcomb, you help 'em, won't you? An' then you can leave if you want.
Talk about an old-fashion' Thanksgivin'. My!"

"Who _has_ she got?" Libbie Liberty burst out, basting the turkey. "I
declare, I'm nervous as a witch, I'm so curious!"

And then the clock struck twelve, and a minute after we heard Calliope
tinkle a silvery summons on the call-bell.

I remember that it was Mis' Holcomb herself--to whom nothing
mattered--who rather lost her head as we served our feast, and who was
about putting in dishes both her oysters and her macaroni instead of
carrying in the fair, brown, smoking bake pans. But at last we were
ready--Mis' Holcomb at our head with the turkey, the others following
with both hands filled, and I with the coffee-pot. As they gave the
signal to start, something--it may have been the mystery before us, or
the good things about us, or the mere look of the Thanksgiving snow on
the window-sills--seemed to catch at the hearts of them all, and they
laughed a little, almost joyously, those five for whom joy had seemed
done, and I found myself laughing too.

So we six filed into the dining room to serve whomever Calliope had
found "to do for." I wonder that I had not guessed before. There stood
Calliope at the foot of the table, with its lighted candles and its
Cloth-o'-Gold rose, and the other six chairs were quite vacant.

"Sit down!" Calliope cried to us, with tears and laughter in her voice.
"Sit down, all six of you. Don't you see? Didn't you know? Ain't we
soul-sick an' soul-hungry, all of us? An' I tell you, this is goin' to
do our souls good--an' our stomachs too!"

Nobody dropped anything, even in the flood of our amazement. We managed
to get our savoury burden on the table, and some way we found ourselves
in the chairs--I at the head of my table where Calliope led me. And we
all talked at once, exclaiming and questioning, with sudden thanksgiving
in our hearts that in the world s