noon
This is going to be the pleasantest Thanksgiving we 've had yet . '' And thus two new inmates were added to Todd 's asylum . The old-time New England Thanksgiving has been described many times , but never better then by the author of `` Uncle Tom 's Cabin '' in her less successful but more artistic novel , `` Oldtown Folks , '' from which book the following narrative has been adapted . When the apples were all gathered and the cider was all made , and the yellow pumpkins were rolled in from many a hill in billows of gold , and the corn was husked , and the labours of the season were done , and the warm , late days of Indian summer came in , dreamy and calm and still , with just frost enough to crisp the ground of a morning , but with warm trances of benignant , sunny hours at noon , there came over the community a sort of genial repose of spirit -- a sense of something accomplished , and of a new golden mark made in advance on the calendar of life -- and the deacon began to say to the minister , of a Sunday , `` I suppose it 's about time for the Thanksgiving proclamation . '' -LSB- Footnote 7 : Adapted from `` Oldtown Folks , '' Houghton , Mifflin Co. -RSB- Conversation at this time began to turn on high and solemn culinary mysteries and receipts of wondrous power and virtue . New modes of elaborating squash pies and quince tarts were now ofttimes carefully discussed at the evening firesides by Aunt Lois and Aunt Keziah , and notes seriously compared with the experiences of certain other aunties of high repute in such matters . I noticed that on these occasions their voices often fell into mysterious whispers , and that receipts of especial power and sanctity were communicated in tones so low as entirely to escape the vulgar ear .