so well
supplied. It was the practice of some of this class to knock at the doors
of those thought to be better off, on the evening before, begging
"something for Thanksgiving;" and, by way of a joke, the children of
comfortable neighbors and friends would often array themselves in
cast-off bizarre habiliments, and come in bands of three or four to the
houses of those whom they knew, preferring the same request. Ordinarily,
the disguise was readily detected. Sometimes the little mimics would come
in, and keep up the show and the fun for a while; but for the most part
their courage failed them at the threshold, and they scurried away,
shouting for glee, almost before they got any answer to their mock
petitions. It was a queer fancy, thus to simulate poverty; but kings have
sometimes done so. Did not James of Scotland find amusement in roaming
through a portion of his domain, as a "gaberlunzie-man?" Yes--and even
composed a famous ballad to celebrate his exploits in this humble way. In
the evening, we had a lively company, regaled with nuts, apples, and
cider; and my grandmother, who indulged in the old-fashioned practice,
that is for females, of smoking a pipe, sat in the chimney-corner, where
a genial wood-fire was brightly blazing, for coal was then a thing
unknown in family consumption, duly furnished with the implement, and
sometimes called out to us,--"A-done, children, a-done," when in anywise
annoyed by us, and occasionally would sing us an old song, of which I
remember only "Robert Kid" and "A galliant ship, launched off the stocks,
from Old England she came," etc.; and, often when a storm was raging
without, repeating to us the rhymes,--

"How little do" (pronounced doe) "we think, or know,
What _the_ poor sailors undergo."

But we had a livelier time at Uncle Richard's; for there were more of us
and merrier. Of course, those of the household who could be spared from
domestic duties had attended service in the morning, and some of us from
the town had also appeared at church; for though our branch of the
family were now Presbyterians, we remembered that our common ancestor and
the company who came over with him, a couple of centuries and more before
that time, were of the Church of England, only protesting against the
abuses which had crept into it; and Uncle Richard carefully preserved,
with the genealogy of the family on this side the water, the Orders in
Council, prescribing for the passe