By DEANNA JAECKLE

The summer crops were very fruitful, and one day late in the fall of 1621, the Governor of Plymouth, William Bradford, sent four men into the forest to shoot wild birds.

"We will hold a harvest feast of Thanksgiving!" he said, and invited the Indians who had been friendly to the strangers to celebrate with the white men. The Indians came with gifts of venison, and the harvest feast lasted three days.

That was the first Thanksgiving Day celebrated in America. Little by little as the new colonies settled the land, the custom of a yearly Thanksgiving Day spread throughout the land. In 1864 President Lincoln issued the first presidential proclamation appointing Thanksgiving Day as a holiday on the fourth or last Thursday of November.

Succeeding presidents continued the custom, and since then Thanksgiving Day has been regularly observed throughout the United States of America.

In New England Thanksgiving is a great family festival comparable only to Christmas. It is also a very important holiday for the collegiate world, for it marks the climax of the football season, the most exciting and important games of the year being played on this day.

For many, though, this is a day of celebration, relaxation, and a hardy meal. So on November 23 as Lydia Maria Child wrote, for many of us it will be­ "Over the river and through the wood, To grandfather's house we go;"

But then again, maybe not...!