We arrived here, not the least tired with our long journey, though it
occupied twelve hours, and were so fresh afterwards, that we started
after tea, this being the great annual Thanksgiving-day, to the nearest
place of worship we could find, which turned out to be a Baptist
"Church," as it is called here, where we heard a most admirable sermon,
and felt we had reason to offer up our thanks with as much earnestness
as any one of the congregation, for having been spared to make this
journey to the Far West, and to have returned to civilised life, without
encountering a single difficulty or drawback of any kind. I may as well
state, that this Thanksgiving-day was established by the Puritans, and
is still kept up throughout the whole of the United States, its object
being to return thanks for the blessings of the year, and more
especially for the harvest. There are services in all the churches, and
we much regretted not finding out till late yesterday, that this was the
day set apart for it, for had we known this, we should not have
travelled to-day; but once on our journey, with the fear of snow
accumulating in the mountains, we were afraid of stopping on the road,
and we were very glad to be able to attend the service this evening.
There is something very beautiful, I think, in thus setting apart one
day in the year for such a purpose, and it is interesting too, as being
a relic left by the Puritans.
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