(Enter Father Time. He bows to the Goddesses with great dignity.)
Time.
Ceres! Pomona! Peace and Plenty, too.
Greetings and compliments I bring to you.
Fair goddesses of bounty, I declare,
Each year your harvest seems more rich and rare.
And I appreciate,—with thanks sincere,
This splendid product of a bounteous year.
Pomona,—Ceres,—at your feet I lay
My tribute on this glad Thanksgiving Day.
(Time lays a long green palm at the feet of each goddess, then goes to the seat prepared for him on a platform at the back center of stage. Peace and Plenty take up the palms and put them in appropriate places.)
(Enter Mother Earth. She is plump and smiling, and carries a garden basket with small tools and little pots of slips or cuttings. A few flowers are stuck carelessly in her hair or dress, and her effect is gay, busy and good-natured.)
Earth.
Good-day, Pomona,—good-day, Ceres, dear.
What noble showing of Thanksgiving cheer!
(Looks critically, and fingers the exhibit.)
Fine turnips and potatoes—I‘ll allow!
And apples, right up to the mark, I vow!
These are some pumpkins! And this wheat and corn
I‘ve never seen surpassed since I was born!
Goddesses, dear, you‘ve surely done me proud,
With joy I sing your praises, long and loud.
What say you, Father Time, don‘t you agree
A fairer, finer harvest scarce could be?
(Mother Earth goes to her place, beside Time, and then all sing.)
Chorus (air, ”Seeing Nelly Home.”)
