us, and before every
Thanksgiving dinner we had to think up some p'tic'lar big thankful that
had happened to us that year. Even after he and Mamma had gone to
Heaven, Gail made us do the same thing, and you'd be s'prised to see the
things we dug up to be thankful about even if we were _orphants_, and
poorer than mice. One year I managed to kill a turkey that b'longed to
another man; so we had some meat for dinner when we hadn't really
expected any. 'Twasn't often we got _turkey_, either,--not even when
Papa was alive. But we always have it at Grandpa's on Thanksgiving and
Christmas. I'm very fond of turkey, ain't you?"

"Yes, I am quite partial to Mr. Gobbler, too," smiled Miss Wayne
reminiscently, "but we nurses don't always get a taste of it on
Thanksgiving Day, either."

"Can't the hospital afford turkeys _once_ a year?" asked Peace in
shocked surprise.

"But a nurse doesn't live at the hospital always, you know. After she
graduates, most of her cases are in private homes, and it all depends
upon where she is on the holidays as to what she gets to eat or how she
amuses herself. Now, Christmas Day this year I spent with my married
brother on his farm near St. Cloud, but it is the first time I have been
with any of my own people for a holiday during the last four years. On
Thanksgiving I was taking care of a little girl who had diphtheria, and
we were shut off upstairs all by ourselves, seeing no one but the
doctor from one day's end to the next. Poor Zella was too sick to know
what day it was, and I was too anxious about her to care, so neither of
us got any turkey.

"One year I was miles out in the country, nursing a worn-out mother, who
had seven children, all younger than you. She was a farmer's wife, and
they were huddled in the dirtiest bit of a hovel that I ever saw. The
hogs and chickens used to come into the kitchen whenever the door was
opened, and no one ever thought of driving them out. They didn't know
what it meant to be clean, and were shocked almost to death when I tried
to give the latest baby a bath. There wasn't a broom in the house and no
one knew what I wanted when I asked for a mop. We had literally to
_shovel_ the dirt off those floors.

"The children had never been taught to pray, they knew absolutely
nothing about the Bible, had never even heard the name of Jesus except
in swearing. Christmas Day was unheard of, and Thanksgiving a riddle;
and when I asked the father if we might not have