“The best thanksgiving is thanks-living.”
THANKSGIVING DAY.
Last Thursday of November.
Song—Nearer, My God, to Thee! song Reading—Proclamation of President or Governor. Recitation—The Day We Love. Exercise for Five Pupils—We Thank Thee. Song—Beulah Land. song Recitation—Pen Picture of the First Thanks-giving. Recitation—The First Thanksgiving Day. Exercise for Six Children—The Nut Party. |
Recitation—The Pumpkin. Song—In The Sweet By-and-By. song Reading—Thanksgiving. Address—By Some Resident of the District. Closing Exercise by the Little Ones—Thanksgiving. Song—Thanksgiving Hymn. |
Note—It adds much to the interest of the day if the school room can be decorated with fruits and grains.
THE NUT PARTY.
[Enter six children with decorated plate of nuts.]
Chestnut—
Old Mistress Chestnut once lived in a burr,
Padded and lined with the softest of fur;
Jack Frost split it wide with his keen silver knife,
And tumbled her out at the risk of her life.
Walnut—
Here is Sir Walnut, he's English, you know,
A friend of my Lady and Lord So-and-So.
Whenever you ask old Sir Walnut to dinner.
Be sure and make much of the gouty old sinner.
Peanut—
Little Miss Peanut, from North Carolina,
She's not 'ristocratic,' but no one is finer.
Sometimes she's roasted and burnt to a cinder.
In Georgia they call her Miss Goober or Pinder.
Hazelnut—
Little Miss Hazelnut, in her best bonnet.
Is lovely enough to put in a sonnet;
And young Mr. Filbert has journeyed from Kent
To ask her to marry him soon after Lent.
Hickory—
This is old Hickory. Look at him well!
A general was named for him, so I've heard tell.
Take care how you hit him, he sometimes hits back,
This stolid old chap is a hard nut to crack.
Butternut—
Old Mr. Butternut, just from Brazil,
Is rugged and rough as the side of a hill.
But like many a countenance quite as ill-favored.
He covers a kernel deliciously flavored.
All—
Now, dearest schoolmates, I'm sure we have told
All the queer rhymes that nut-shell can hold.
—From Shedd's Special Day Exercises.