An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving (1881) by Louisa May Alcott 5★♥

This was a real treat to read. Despite all the chaos that is going on at my house right now (we'll be expecting about 10 people over for Thanksgiving dinner - not including us 3 that live at the house). This is a historic fiction setting. It was written in 1881. And the story begins with "Sixty years ago, up among the New Hampshire hills, lived Farmer Bassett, with a houseful of sturdy sons and daughters growing up about him." So the setting is the day before Thanksgiving in 1821.

Mr. Bassett's "sturdy sons and daughters" is a total of 8 children (about the same number as my mom's family). Eph and Tilly are the oldest of the bunch. As the family is preparing for tomorrow's big dinner, they get news that Mrs. Bassett's mother is very ill. So mother, father and the baby all travel to the ill women. So then the 7 siblings leave it upon themselves to get Thanksgiving dinner ready, well actually just Tilly and Prue (second eldest daughter) while the others did daily chores and played. Despite a little surprise from a bear (really Gad Hopkins), the dinner was decently cooked save the stuffing and pudding failures.

And in between all this, we get a little story about the children's great great great grandparents - Lady Matildy (whom Tilly was named after) and Lord Bassett. It was a nice little bit about their bravery and loyalty.

In all this was a cute short story. I connected with it so well because I read this so very close to Thanksgiving and had preparations to take care of myself. I'm curious now to read more of the Bassett family.