November, 1941
TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
418
Thanksgiving on the Appian Way
v
A Story
for Children
By ANNE HAZELTON
B UT IT WON’T , be Thanksgiving without-a turkey,” Virginia mur mured. She sat at the small watching the people from the next- door cabin packing their car to leave. The court of this Los Angeles auto camp had become all too familiar to her in the last few days. ‘‘You’d better say it won’t be Thanks giving without Mother, silly,” Jack re torted flatly. Virginia opened her mouth to make an equally cross reply, but she remem bered in time. Daddy had said she must be patient with Jack because he had been very sick. Bravely she swallowed all the cross words she would have said and spoke almost gently: “Of course I didn’t mean it that way, Jack. And I was wrong. There is something we can be thankful for to morrow—turkey or no turkey—-and that is that Mother is so much better. The doctor says there is no danger, now, and she will be home for Christmas. Won’t that be grand!” “I want her now,” Jack began un reasonably, and then he stopped. Vir ginia’s brave smile would have made anybody feel better. “I’m sorry, Vir ginia,” he added quickly. “I didn’t have to be so cross. Nobody can help Mother’s having those broken bones and having to be away from us on Thanksgiving. Only it just makes everything rotten.” “I know, Jack. But if we are blue, that will make her feel worse, won’t it? I wonder----- ,” she mused slowly. “I wonder ^hat we can do for Thanks giving that would make some one else happy. Mother says that is the secret
when he could arrange his business, they had set out. She and Jack had been very much excited as the car was packed and the journey begun. There was so much to see as they traveled down the ridge route, through pretty towns, and finally reached Los Angeles. Their necks were almost sore at the end of their first day in the big city------ they had looked so hard. And then, early the next morning, just as they ,had ¡resumed their journey, it had happened. Daddy was driving along the inner lane of a wide highway—not suspecting any danger—when suddenly there was a bang, and a car coming from the other direction had careened across the center line, full into their car. Virginia couldnjt remember those next awful minutes very clearly. First, everything had been dark—then there were ever so many voices and she felt some one pulling at her. Gradually she discovered that she wasn’t really hurt, and, miraculously, neither were Jack and Daddy. But Mother lay there, white and still. Then the ambulance and police car came and the confusion gradually passed. Mother was whisked off to the hospital, and Dsddy, after getting the wrecked car towed to the garage, had found an auto camp where they could sea. . Virginia looked around her now at the pretty little cabin. Its cheerful blue and white had done its best to make the three of them feel at home. It wasn’t the cabin’s fault that such clouds hung over them. “I guess we’ll be going home in a day or two,” Jack spoke up. “Dad says the car is almost ready, and he has to get [Continued on Page 421]
of making ourselves happy. I know that is what she does . . . ” Jack was interested now. "Say, Sis,” he shouted suddenly, “I think you’ve got an idea there. Let’s do something for Mother because she is always doing so much for us. We can’t do much for any one else, like taking a Thanksgiving basket or something, ’cause we don’t know anybody here. Oh, shucks,” he went on, “remember what fun we had last year taking baskets to those people in the migrant camps who wouldn’t have had a Thanksgiving d i n n e r without that?” Virginia nodded her head eagerly. “Uh-huh. I’ll never forget that little girl.. Why, her eyes were, as big as saucers when she saw that dinner. I do believe she was actually hungry— not hungry the way we get between meais—but really, truly hungry. Wish we could do . something for them this year,” she finished sadly. “Guess'*some one will need to bring us a basket this year,” Jack muttered, rather bitterly for a ten-year-old. “Dad doesn’t say anything, but I know this has hit him hard. I wonder why God let it happen?” Virginia didn’t answer. There were many things she didn’t understand. It did seem hard tbat,just when they were going to -Arizona to Grandmother’s for Thanksgiving they had to have that wreck. The bad times had begun when Jack had been very;sick, and .the days had stretched endlessly long to Virginia with out her mischievous brother. Dad fi nally had decided the trip to Arizona would be just the thing' for Jack, and
window of their two-roomed cabin idly
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs