In the New Hampshire hills in the 1820s, the Bassett family is getting ready for a truly old-fashioned Thanksgiving. Mrs. Bassett has put the pies on the buttery shelves to cool, and the pig and turkey are waiting to be roasted. But just as Mrs. Bassett is rounding off the last loaf of brown bread to pop into the oven, a stranger arrives. He tells the family that Mrs. Bassett's ailing mother, who lives twenty miles away, has taken a turn for the worse. Alarmed, Mr. and Mrs. Bassett decide it's more important to visit "Gran'ma" than to complete preparations for the Thanksgiving meal. Leaving the oldest children in charge, the parents depart.

This is a nostalgic, entertaining story about how the children cook the Thanksgiving meal, using catnip and wormwood in the stuffing and boiling the plum pudding until it's "as hard and heavy as one of the stone balls on Squire Dunkin's great gate." Still, the vegetables and pies turn out well, and Mr. and Mrs. Bassett and other relatives return in time to share the splendid feast, with all of its imperfections.

As the celebrated author remarks, the Bassetts "were poor in money, but rich in land and love...Mutual patience, affection, and courage made the old farmhouse a very happy home."

From the dust jacket