it was last year, as i recall it, at about this season, one of the children asked me a strange question:

“what was the thankfullest day you ever saw?”

now i have seen somewhere around 20,000 days come and go, and every one of them has brought a dozen things to be thankful for. i sometimes think as the hands crawl around the clock at hope farm that the day they are recording right now is about the best of all. i have passed thanksgiving day in the mud, in the snow, in a swamp, on a mountain, in a crowded city, on a lonely farm—under about all the conditions you can mention. i have given hearty thanks over baked beans, salt pork, bread and cheese, turkey and all the rest, but before the fire tonight somehow they all burn away except that experience in ike sawyer’s hotel.

they were stuck in the mud—with a broken axle—in a swamp in northern michigan. no one had dreamed of an auto in those days. you forded the swamp and stream in the primitive old way. it was a rich, middle-aged lumberman and his young wife. how this tough, hard pine knot of a man ever selected this soft-handed and selfish girl i cannot see. she had come with him into the woods on one of his business trips, and the silence by day and the whispering of the pines at night had filled her with terror. the rough, sturdy man suddenly saw that, unlike his first wife, this girl was not a helper and a partner, but a toy—a hothouse flower who could not live his life or help fight his battles. he had a great business deal on hand which required all his energies, but this girl could not understand or help him. she had begged and cried to go back to “civilization,” and they were on their way. and in this lonely place the axle of the carriage had snapped and left them in the mud.

it had been one of those gray, melancholy days which seem to fit best into the idea of a new england thanksgiving. now twilight was coming on and there were dark shadows in the swamp. the woman had climbed out of the mud and stood on a log by the roadside. she had been crying in her disappointment, for she had expected to reach the railroad that night, and spend thanksgiving in the distant city—far from this lonely wilderness. her husband was bargaining with an old farmer who finally agreed to haul the broken carriage back to the blacksmith shop for repairs.

“i’ve got entertainment for beast,” he said, “but not for man—so i can’t put you up. quarter of a mile down the road ike sawyer runs a sorter hotel.”

he hauled the carriage out of the mud and started back along the road. there was nothing for us to do but hunt for the hotel. you may have seen some strong, capable man come to a crisis in his life where it suddenly flashes upon him that the woman of his choice is after all made of common clay, with little of that spirit or courage which we somehow think should belong to the thoroughbred. it was a very doleful, unhappy little woman and a sad and silent big man who walked through the mud and up the little sand hill in search of the hotel. they had nothing to be thankful for, and, yet did they but know it, they were to find the most precious thing in life in this lonely wilderness.

around a turn in the road we came in sight of a long, rambling building, weatherbeaten and out of repair. over the door was a faded sign, “farmers’ rest.” on the little porch just under this sign sat a white-haired woman in a wheel-chair. in front of the house a little man with a bald head and a pair of great spectacles perched at the end of his nose was chasing a big plymouth rock rooster about the yard. the old people had not noticed us, and we stopped in the road to watch them. the old man finally cornered the rooster by the garden fence and carried him flapping and squawking to the old lady. she examined him carefully, and evidently approved the choice, for the old man, still holding the rooster, pushed the wheel-chair into the house and then, picking up his ax, started for the chopping block just as we turned in from the road. we startled him so that he dropped the rooster. the gray bird did not stop to welcome us, but darted off into the shadows. he mounted the roost in the henhouse from which the old man easily pulled him a little later.

you may have seen old pictures of country hotel-keepers bowing and scraping as their guests arrive. ike sawyer could not play the part. he just peered at us over his spectacles and rubbed his hands together.

“walk right in,” he said. “me and annie can put you up.” then he led the way into the rambling old house. it was dark now, and the old man lighted a lamp so that we could look about us. the old woman did not rise from her chair, but she smiled up a welcome.

“ain’t walked for 10 years,” explained her husband. “i play feet and she plays hands, and between us we make out fine.”

the old man bustled about and started a fire in the big fireplace. the young woman had entered the poor old building with an angry snarl of discontent on her face. it was all so mean and hateful to be obliged to stay in this lonely, dreadful place. as the fire blazed up and filled the room with warm light, i noticed that the snarl faded out and she sat watching the old lady with wondering eyes. she went to her room for a moment, but soon came back to sit by the fire and watch the sweet-faced old lady “play hands.” on the other side of the fireplace, silent and strong, her husband sat watching his wife with eyes half closed under his thick, bushy eyebrows.

i have seen the cook in a quick lunch counter stand in his little box and toss food together, and i have seen a chef earning nearly as much as the president daintily working in his great kitchen, but nothing will ever seem to equal the way that meal was prepared when annie played hands and ike played feet. ike pushed a little table up in front of his wife, and at her call brought flour and milk and all that she needed for making biscuits. he stood beside her chair as the thin fingers did their work. now and then he laid his hand upon her shoulder, and once he touched her beautiful head. as though forgetting her guests annie would smile back at him—a beautiful smile which brought a strange look to the face of the young woman who sat watching them. at first it seemed like an amused sneer. then there came a puzzled, curious look—the first faint glimmering of the thought that this old man and woman out of their trouble, out of their loneliness, had found and preserved that most precious of all earth’s blessings—love!

when a fellow has eaten more than 60,000 meals, as i have in my time, it must be a very good performance in that line to stand out like a bump or a peg in memory. through all my days i can never forget that supper in the fire-lighted room where ike played feet and annie played hands and brains. ike started a roaring fire in the kitchen stove. then he brought in a basket of potatoes and annie selected the best ones for baking. he came with a fragrant brown ham, and cut slices, under her eye, she measuring with her thin finger to make sure they were not too thick. she cut the bread herself, selected the eggs for frying, mixed the gravy and seemed to know by the sputter in the pan when the ham was done. ike pushed her chair over to the table so she could spread the cloth and arrange the service. then at a word he pushed her chair to the window where half a dozen plants were blooming. she cut two little nosegays and put them beside the plates of her guests. ike brought in the ham and eggs, the great, mealy baked potatoes, the brown biscuits and the apple pie. in her city home a servant would have approached the lady and gently announced:

“dinner is served!”

ike sawyer, when annie nodded approval, simply invited:

“sit by and eat!”

it was all so simple and human that it seemed a perfectly natural thing to do when the discontented and peevish young woman picked up the little nosegay at her husband’s plate and pinned it on his coat. she even patted his shoulder just as ike had done with annie. we were all ready to begin, when ike, standing by annie’s chair, took off his great spectacles and held up his hand.

“i don’t know who you be or whether you’re church folks or not, but me an’ annie always makes every day a season for thanksgivin’.”

then in the deep silence with only the popping of the fire and the dim noises of the night, as accompaniment, the old man bowed his head and made his prayer. he prayed that the “stranger within our gates” might find peace and strength and go on his way thankful for all the blessings of life. under those great bushy eyebrows the eyes of the strong, rich man glowed with a strange light. the young wife glanced at him, and the sneer faded away from her face. then ike became the landlord once more and he bustled about, tempting us to eat a little more of this or another piece of that, and at every word of praise falling back upon his stock explanation:

“it’s her—annie plays hands and i play feet. everybody knows hands have more skill than feet.”

after supper the big man and his wife stood at the window looking out into the wet, dismal night. after a little hesitation he put his arm gently around her. she did not throw it away as she did when he tried to comfort her in the swamp, but rather pulled it closer. after ike had cleared up his dishes and caught and dressed the gray rooster we all sat before the fire and talked. with a few shrewd questions the lumberman drew out ike’s story. years before he and annie had owned a good farm in new york. there they heard of the wonderful new town that was to be built in northern michigan. a city was to arise there, the railroad was coming, and fortune was to float on golden wings over the favored place. it is strange how people like ike and annie cannot see how much they need home and old friends and old scenes to make life satisfying. they are not made of the stuff used in building pioneers, but they cannot realize it and they listen to plausible dreams and go chasing after the impossible. so ike and annie sold the farm and came to start the great city. it never started. the railroad headed 20 miles west. out among the scrub oaks you could find some of the rotting stakes marked “broadway,” “clay st.,” or “lake avenue.” the swamp and forest refused to be civilized. ike built his hotel in anticipation of the human wave which would wash prosperity his way. it never came, and only a rough, rambling house remained as the weatherbeaten gravestone of sawdust city. of all the pioneers there were only ike and annie—last of them all—celebrating their happy thanksgiving!

“why don’t you sell out and move to some town?” said the practical lumberman.

“well, sir—it would be too far from home! me and annie know this place—every corner of it. every crick of a timber at night brings a memory. we are just part of the place. and the little girl is buried off there by the brook. we couldn’t go away from that, could we?”

“but isn’t it so awful lonesome?”

it was the young woman who asked, and it was annie who softly answered her.

“no, for we have great company. i have ike and he has me. all these long years have tried us out. we know each other, and we are satisfied. each thanksgiving finds us happier than before, because we know that our last years are to be our best years.”

the rich man looked over to ike and annie with something of hopeless envy printed on his face. his wife nodded her head gently and then sat gazing into the fire until ike gave us clearly to understand that 10 o’clock was the hour for retiring at the “farmers’ rest.”

we stayed for our thanksgiving dinner, and the gray rooster, stuffed with chestnuts and bread-crumbs, might well have stood up in the platter to crow at the praises heaped upon him. the forenoon was gloomy and dull, but just as we came to the table the sun broke through the clouds. a long splinter of sunshine broke through the window—falling upon annie’s snow-white hair. ike hurried to move her chair out of the sun, but the rich man asked ike to leave her there, for i think something in that sunny picture took him back to childhood—where most men go on thanksgiving day.

and shortly after dinner the farmer came up the road with the carriage. the axle had been mended and the horses rested. we all shook hands with ike and annie. i was to go my way and the other guests were to pass out of our little world.

annie held the young girl’s hand for a moment.

“my dear, i hope you will soon be back in the city among your friends, where you will not be so lonely. it must be hard for you here.”

the girl hesitated a moment and then put her hand on her husband’s shoulder.

“john, would it mean very much to you if we went right back to the camp so you could finish your business?”

“yes, it would—but i am afraid——”

“then we will not go home yet, but we will go back until you are through. i have had a beautiful thanksgiving. i would rather stay in the woods.”

and so they turned in their tracks and went back through the swamp. the night before she said she should always hate the place where the accident had made ike sawyer’s hotel a necessity. now as she passed it she smiled and gave her husband a pinch—a trick she must have learned from annie. and so they went on through the sunny afternoon of the “thankfullest day of their lives.” they were thinking of the working force at the “farmers’ rest”—the feet and the hands!

and the thought in their minds framed itself over and over into words:

“out of their poverty, out of their trouble and loneliness, this man and woman have found each other, and thus have found the most beautiful and precious thing in life—love!”