Yawcob Strauss and Other Poems/Thanksgiving
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Yawcob_Strauss_1910-137.png/220px-Yawcob_Strauss_1910-137.png)
THANKSGIVING.
- Within a garret, cold and forlorn,
- A group is gathered Thanksgiving morn:
- Father and mother, with children three—
- One but a babe on the mother's knee.
- Haggard and pale is the father's face,
- Where lingering sickness has left its trace;
- While the careworn look on the mother's brow
- Tells of the sorrow upon her now.
- Hungry and faint from the lack of food,
- With scanty clothing, no coal nor wood;
- A broken table, a bare pine floor—
- What have they to be thankful for?
- Thoughts like these to the parents come,
- While sitting here in their cheerless home.
- The children, nestled upon the bed,
- A fragment of carpet over them spread,
- Are blind to their parents' mute despair;
- And the little girl, with a pitying air,
- Says, "What do poor children do, I wonder,
- With no warm carpet to cuddle under;
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Yawcob_Strauss_1910-100.png/220px-Yawcob_Strauss_1910-100.png)
- "No papa and mamma to give 'em bread,
- And tuck 'em up when they go to bed?"
- Tear-drops start from the father's eyes;
- Prayers from the mother's lips arise.
- Footsteps fall on the creaking floor;
- A knock is heard on the chamber door.
- A bluff " Good-morning" their query brings,
- And, "Sambo, you rascal, fetch up the things!"
- While the squire's darkey, with cheerful grin,
- Food and clothing brings quickly in.
- "Lord bless you, ma'am! why, who'd a knowed
- That folks lived up in this 'ere abode?
- "'Tain't fit for a barn, 'n', ez I'm a sinner,
- I'll take you all to my house to dinner.
- "I'll find you work when you're strong and well,
- 'N' a better place than this 'ere to dwell—"
- And the squire paused, while a tear arose,
- And dropped unseen on his ruby nose,
- As the baby boy, with a happy look,
- A rosy apple from Sambo took.
- And the children gathered, with hungry eyes,
- 'Round the platter of doughnuts and pumpkin pies;
- While the grateful mother could only say,
- "Truly, this is Thanksgiving Day!"
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Yawcob_Strauss_1910-137.png/220px-Yawcob_Strauss_1910-137.png)