White Turkey’s Wing (Sophie Swett)
The Thanksgiving Goose (Fannie Wilder Brown)
A Novel Postman (Alice W. Wheildon)
Ezra’s Thanksgivin’ Out West (Eugene Field)
Chip’s Thanksgiving (Annie Hamilton Donnell)
The Master of Harvest (Mrs. Alfred Gatty)
A Thanksgiving Dinner (Edna Payson Brett)
Two Old Boys (Pauline Shackleford Colyar)
A Thanksgiving Dinner That Flew Away (Hezekiah Butterworth)
Mon-Daw-Min, Or The Origin of Indian Corn (H. R. Schoolcraft)
A Mystery in the Kitchen (Olive Thorne Miller)
Who Ate The Dolly’s Dinner (Isabel Gordon Curtis)
An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving (Rose Terry Cooke)
1800 and Froze to Death (C. A. Stephens)
Grand'ther Baldwin's Thanksgiving, with Other Ballads and Poems (Horatio Alger)
An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving
(Louisa May Alcott)
CHAPTER I. GENEALOGY AND PARENTAGE
CHAPTER IV. THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD
CHAPTER VI. THE YEAR OF GOOD LUCK
CHAPTER VII. HOSPITAL SKETCHES
CHAPTER VIII. EUROPE AND LITTLE WOMEN
CHAPTER I.
GENEALOGY AND PARENTAGE
TO LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
BY HER FATHER.
When I remember with what buoyant heart,
Midst war's alarms and woes of civil strife,
In youthful eagerness thou didst depart,
At peril of thy safety, peace, and life,
To nurse the wounded soldier, swathe the dead, –
How piercèd soon by fever's poisoned dart,
And brought unconscious home, with wildered head,
Thou ever since 'mid langour and dull pain,
To conquer fortune, cherish kindred dear,
Hast with grave studies vexed a sprightly brain,
In myriad households kindled love and cheer,
Ne'er from thyself by Fame's loud trump beguiled,
Sounding in this and the farther hemisphere, –
I press thee to my heart as Duty's faithful child.
LOUISA ALCOTT was the second child of Amos Bronson and Abba May Alcott. This name was spelled Alcocke in English history. About 1616 a coat-of-arms was granted to Thomas Alcocke of Silbertoft, in the county of Leicester. The device represents three cocks, emblematic of watchfulness; and the motto is Semper Vigilans.
The first of the name appearing in English history is John Alcocke of Beverley, Yorkshire, of whom Fuller gives an account in his Worthies of England.
Thomas and George Alcocke were the first of the name among the settlers in New England. The name is frequently found in the records of Dorchester and Roxbury, and has passed through successive changes to its present form.
The name of Bronson came from Mr. Alcott's maternal grandfather, the sturdy Capt. Amos Bronson of Plymouth, Conn. "His ancestors on both sides had been substantial people of respectable position in England, and were connected with the founders and governors of the chief New England colonies. At the time of Mr. Alcott's birth they had become simple farmers, reaping a scanty living from their small farms in Connecticut."
Amos Bronson Alcott, the father of Louisa, was born Nov. 29, 1799, at the foot of Spindle Hill, in the region called New Connecticut. He has himself given in simple verse the story of his quaint rustic life in his boyhood, and Louisa has reproduced it in her story of "Eli's Education" (in the Spinning-Wheel Stories), which gives a very true account of his youthful life and adventures. He
