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+Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Turkey Proudfoot, by Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Tale of Turkey Proudfoot
+       Slumber-Town Tales
+
+Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+Illustrator: Harry L. Smith
+
+Release Date: June 16, 2007 [EBook #21844]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF TURKEY PROUDFOOT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joe Longo and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TALE OF
+
+TURKEY PROUDFOOT
+
+_SLUMBER-TOWN TALES_
+
+(Trademark Registered)
+
+BY
+
+ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+_SLEEPY-TIME TALES_
+
+(Trademark Registered)
+
+_TUCK-ME-IN TALES_
+
+(Trademark Registered)
+
+
+
+THE TALE OF THE MULEY COW
+THE TALE OF OLD DOG SPOT
+THE TALE OF GRUNTY PIG
+THE TALE OF HENRIETTA HEN
+THE TALE OF TURKEY PROUDFOOT
+THE TALE OF PONY TWINKLEHEELS
+THE TALE OF MISS KITTY CAT
+
+[Illustration: The Geese Hissed at Turkey Proudfoot.
+_Frontispiece_--(_Page_ 16)]
+
+ _SLUMBER-TOWN TALES_
+ (Trademark Registered)
+
+ THE TALE OF
+ TURKEY PROUDFOOT
+
+ BY
+
+ ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+
+ Author of
+ "SLEEPY-TIME TALES"
+ (Trademark Registered)
+ AND
+ "TUCK-ME-IN TALES"
+ (Trademark Registered)
+
+ ILLUSTRATED BY
+
+ HARRY L. SMITH
+
+ NEW YORK
+ GROSSET & DUNLAP
+ PUBLISHERS
+
+ Made in the United States of America
+
+ COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
+ GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                 PAGE
+
+     I A STRUTTER          1
+    II THE SILLY SIX       6
+   III THE MEDDLER        11
+    IV SCARING THE GEESE  16
+     V A SAFE PERCH       20
+    VI THE MIMIC          25
+   VII HALF WRONG         30
+  VIII HARD TO PLEASE     35
+    IX A STRANGE GOBBLE   39
+     X THE WORM TURNS     45
+    XI BLUSTER            50
+   XII MR. CROW'S NEWS    56
+  XIII THE NEW PET        61
+   XIV A PROUD PERSON     66
+    XV MRS. WREN'S ADVICE 71
+   XVI DRUMMING ON A LOG  75
+  XVII A GAME BIRD        80
+ XVIII RED LIGHTNING      85
+   XIX NIGHT IN THE WOODS 90
+    XX BEAKS AND BILLS    95
+   XXI FARMYARD MANNERS  100
+  XXII CRANBERRY SAUCE   105
+ XXIII VACATION TIME     110
+  XXIV BROTHER TOM       115
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                           PAGE
+
+ The Geese Hissed at Turkey Proudfoot
+                                 _Frontispiece_
+ Polly Imitates Turkey Proudfoot             40
+ The Peacock Ignores Turkey Proudfoot        64
+ Turkey Proudfoot Has a Chat With Mr. Grouse 80
+
+
+
+
+THE TALE OF TURKEY PROUDFOOT
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+A STRUTTER
+
+
+All the hen turkeys thought Turkey Proudfoot a wonderful creature. They
+said he had the most beautiful tail on the farm. When he spread it and
+strutted about Farmer Green's place the hen turkeys were sure to nudge
+one another and say, "Ahem! Isn't he elegant?"
+
+But the rest of the farmyard folk made quite different remarks about
+him. They declared Turkey Proudfoot to be a silly, vain gobbler, noisy
+and quarrelsome.
+
+Now, there was truth in what everybody thought and said about this
+lordly person, Turkey Proudfoot. He did have a huge tail, when he chose
+to spread it; and his feathers shone with a greenish, coppery, bronzy
+glitter that might easily have turned the head of anybody that boasted
+such beautiful colors. Certainly the hen turkeys turned their heads--and
+craned their necks--whenever Turkey Proudfoot came near them. And when
+he spoke to them, saying "_Gobble, gobble, gobble!_" in a loud tone,
+they were always pleased.
+
+The hen turkeys seemed to find that remark, "_Gobble, gobble, gobble!_"
+highly interesting. But everybody else complained about the noise that
+Turkey Proudfoot made, and said that if he must gobble they wished he
+would go off by himself, where people didn't have to listen to him.
+
+And nobody but the hen turkeys liked the way Turkey Proudfoot walked. At
+every step he took he raised a foot high in the air, acting for all the
+world as if the ground wasn't good enough for him to walk upon. And when
+he wasn't picking up a seed, or a bit of grain, or an insect off the
+ground, he held his head very high. Often Turkey Proudfoot seemed to
+look right past his farmyard neighbors, as if he were gazing at
+something in the next field and didn't see them. But they soon learned
+that that was only an odd way of his. Really, he saw about everything
+that went on. If anybody happened to grin at him Turkey Proudfoot was
+sure to take notice at once and try to pick a quarrel.
+
+After all, perhaps it wasn't strange that Turkey Proudfoot should act as
+he did. Being the ruler of Farmer Green's whole flock of turkeys, he was
+somewhat spoiled. All the hen turkeys did about as he told them to do.
+Or if they didn't, Turkey Proudfoot thought that they obeyed his orders.
+And the younger gobblers as well had to mind him. If they didn't, Turkey
+Proudfoot fought them until they were ready to gobble for mercy.
+
+Having whipped the younger gobblers a good many times, Turkey Proudfoot
+firmly believed that he could whip anything or anybody. And there was
+nobody on the farm, almost, at whom he hadn't dashed at least once. He
+had even attacked Farmer Green. But Farmer Green quickly taught him
+better. A blow on the head from a stout stick bowled Turkey Proudfoot
+over and he never tried to fight Farmer Green again.
+
+That proved that Turkey Proudfoot wasn't as empty-headed as some of his
+neighbors thought him. It was possible to get a lesson into his head,
+even if one had to knock it into his skull with a club.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE SILLY SIX
+
+
+Farmer Green owned six geese. Though there was an even number of them,
+they were odd creatures. They had little to do with the other farmyard
+folk, but kept much to themselves. If one of them started up the road on
+some errand, the other five always followed her. If one of them suddenly
+took it into her head to enjoy a swim her five companions were sure to
+want one too, and waddled with her to the duck pond.
+
+Now, Turkey Proudfoot never went swimming. Like all the rest of the
+flock over which he ruled, he thought swimming was bad for one's
+health. He couldn't understand how anybody could enjoy cold water,
+except for drinking purposes. And somehow he always felt as if his
+feathers had been a bit ruffled whenever he saw the six geese set out
+for the duck pond. Although their taking a swim was no affair of his,
+still it made him angry.
+
+"Look at those geese!" he would gobble angrily to anybody that happened
+to be near him. "They're going to take another cold, wet bath. They're
+old enough to know better. I often wonder why Farmer Green wants such a
+stupid crew on his farm. The Silly Six, I call 'em!"
+
+When Turkey Proudfoot talked in that fashion there were some that didn't
+agree with him. The ducks never failed to quack their displeasure. And
+old Spot sometimes growled and told him he'd be the better for a good
+swim.
+
+But Turkey Proudfoot always declared, in answer to that, that he knew
+he'd catch his death of cold if he ever stepped into the duck pond. And
+there were some of the same mind as he.
+
+There was Miss Kitty Cat, who never liked to get her feet wet and on
+stormy days lay by the hour beneath the kitchen stove and dozed.
+
+And there was the rooster. He didn't believe in wet, cold baths. He
+liked dry dust baths. And when, one day, Turkey Proudfoot turned to him
+suddenly and gobbled, "There go the Silly Six to swim!" the rooster
+answered with a sniff, "Well, let 'em go! Don't stop 'em on my account.
+I certainly don't want to join them."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot was all ready for a quarrel. "I hope you don't think
+_I_ want to go swimming with the geese," he retorted. There was a
+dangerous glitter in his eyes.
+
+Seeing this, the rooster made haste to assure Turkey Proudfoot that he
+meant nothing of the sort.
+
+"Don't let's quarrel!" the rooster cried--for he was much smaller than
+Turkey Proudfoot. "There's nothing for us to quarrel about. We're of the
+same mind about the geese and their swimming."
+
+"I'm disappointed," Turkey Proudfoot told him. "For a moment I thought I
+had an excuse for fighting you. And I'm not sure that I oughtn't to be
+angry with you for agreeing with me when I didn't expect you to."
+
+The rooster gave a hoarse crow. He thought Turkey Proudfoot was joking.
+And being afraid of Turkey Proudfoot, the rooster felt obliged to laugh
+loudly at his jokes.
+
+"Don't laugh at me!" Turkey Proudfoot cried.
+
+"C-c-can't I laugh at the six silly geese?" the rooster stammered.
+
+"Yes!" said Turkey Proudfoot. "Yes--if you see anything funny about
+them. For my part, I couldn't laugh at them if I tried to. The mere
+thought of plunging into cold water almost gives me a chill."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE MEDDLER
+
+
+"Why don't you tell the geese that it's dangerous for them to swim in
+the duck pond?" the rooster asked Turkey Proudfoot. "Tell them how it
+almost gives you a chill just to see them set out for the pond. Ask them
+to keep out of the water."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot drew himself up to his full height, spread his tail,
+and looked down at the rooster with great disdain. "Ask!" he exclaimed.
+"I never ask anything of anybody. I'll have you know, sir, that I give
+orders. And when I give 'em I expect folks to obey 'em."
+
+"Good!" cried the rooster gayly. He was really shaking in his shoes and
+didn't intend to let Turkey Proudfoot know it. "Order the geese to stay
+away from the water. Command them to stop swimming. If you don't, you'll
+have a terrible chill some day when you see them set out for the duck
+pond. And you don't want to be ill just before the holidays."
+
+"That's true," said Turkey Proudfoot. "I don't want to get a chill and
+be ill." And then he turned suddenly upon the startled rooster. "Look
+here!" cried Turkey Proudfoot. "It seems to me that _you_ are giving
+_me_ orders."
+
+"Not at all!" the rooster assured him. "No, indeed! You're mistaken."
+
+"Don't tell me I'm mistaken!" Turkey Proudfoot bawled in an angry,
+gobbly voice. "I'm never mistaken."
+
+"Oh, certainly not!" said the rooster, who was bold as brass with most
+of his neighbors, but very mild with Turkey Proudfoot.
+
+"Ha!" Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed. "You're getting yourself into a hole,
+sir! If I wasn't mistaken, then you _were_ giving me orders. And in
+either case I should have to fight you."
+
+This was too much for the rooster. He couldn't grasp what Turkey
+Proudfoot was saying. He only knew that things looked bad for him
+because Turkey Proudfoot was getting angrier every moment.
+
+"I say!" the rooster cried. "Please don't waste your time on me just
+now, Mr. Turkey Proudfoot! Here come the six silly geese back from the
+duck pond. And I'd suggest that you speak to them at once and warn them
+not to enter the water again."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot glanced across the farmyard. It was as the rooster had
+said. The six geese were waddling around a corner of the barn in single
+file. Somehow the sight of them made him so furious that he forgot he
+had been picking a quarrel with the rooster.
+
+"I'll attend to them," he gobbled. "I'll fix them. They'll be so scared
+that they won't dare leave this yard again."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot hurried towards the geese. He didn't take time to
+strut, but ran across the yard with long strides.
+
+"Don't be silly geese!" Turkey Proudfoot called. "Keep away from the
+duck-pond! The weather's getting colder every day; and it makes me
+shiver to see you start off for a swim."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot had supposed the six geese would be very meek and most
+eager to obey his commands. But to his great surprise they stopped,
+wheeled about so that they stood in a row, facing him, and hissed
+loudly.
+
+It was not at all the sort of answer Turkey Proudfoot had expected.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+SCARING THE GEESE
+
+
+The six geese stood in a row and hissed at Turkey Proudfoot. He was so
+astonished that any one of them could have knocked him over with a
+feather, almost. When he gobbled an order at them, telling them not to
+go swimming again, the geese hissed at him. That was just the same as
+telling him to keep still and mind his own affairs.
+
+And Turkey Proudfoot was not used to answers like that.
+
+The rooster had followed him across the farmyard in order to look on and
+listen while Turkey Proudfoot spoke to the geese. And his surprise was
+as great as Turkey Proudfoot's.
+
+"Surely!" he muttered to Turkey Proudfoot, "you aren't going to let
+these geese go unpunished. They've insulted you."
+
+"Ha! I _thought_ they had," Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed. "And I'm glad to
+know that you agree with me. There's no doubt that they deserve a severe
+beating."
+
+"Ah!" the rooster cried. "Now we'll see some fun."
+
+"Yes!" said Turkey Proudfoot. "I expect we'll have a merry time." Still
+he made no move to attack the geese, who stood motionless, facing him
+like soldiers.
+
+"Well!" the rooster said impatiently. "Aren't you going to punish these
+geese?"
+
+"Certainly not!" Turkey Proudfoot cried. "Why did you tag after me
+across the yard if it wasn't to fight them? I've often heard that you
+were usually spoiling for a fight. So here's your chance!"
+
+It was true, in a way, that the rooster was always ready to fight. Not
+one of the cockerels on the farm dared to speak to him. But he always
+took care to fight only such as he knew he could whip. Certainly he had
+no desire to fight six geese all by himself. He drew back a little and
+shook his head.
+
+"This is not my quarrel," he declared.
+
+"But you suggested it," Turkey Proudfoot reminded him. "And now I
+suggest that you take it up. I did my part. You must do yours."
+
+A wild look came into the rooster's eyes. He wanted to run away. But he
+was a proud bird. He thought a great deal of the _looks_ of things. And
+he didn't know just what to do.
+
+Then something happened that suddenly made him act--and act quickly. The
+six geese all took one step forward.
+
+The rooster turned tail and dashed around the barn, out of sight. And
+Turkey Proudfoot found himself facing the six geese, who soon took one
+more step towards him and hissed louder than ever.
+
+He had never felt so ill at ease in all his life. But he remembered that
+he was the ruler of the turkey flock and the handsomest bird on the
+farm. It would never do to have it said that he ran away from six silly
+geese.
+
+"I'll scare 'em," he thought. Thereupon he burst into a deafening gobble
+and took one step towards the geese.
+
+He had fully expected to see them fall back. What they actually did was
+most annoying. Every one of them took another step towards him.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+A SAFE PERCH
+
+
+As Turkey Proudfoot faced the six geese in the farmyard he began to feel
+that he had made a great mistake in speaking to them. Their hisses were
+far from agreeable. They were even threatening.
+
+"This will never do," Turkey Proudfoot muttered to himself. "No doubt I
+could whip all six of them; but they'd be likely to pull some of my tail
+feathers out. And I don't want my tail spoiled." For a moment or two he
+didn't know what to do. But suddenly an idea popped into his head.
+
+"Follow me!" he ordered the geese. And wheeling about, he marched off
+across the farmyard.
+
+The geese waddled after him.
+
+Perched on top of a wagon wheel in front of the barn, the rooster saw
+the odd procession. And he gave voice loudly to his delight.
+
+"The geese are chasing Turkey Proudfoot!" he crowed. He called to
+everybody to hurry and see the fun. And all the hens came a-running.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Turkey Proudfoot. "I ordered the geese to follow me.
+They're simply obeying orders." And he strutted, a little faster than
+usual, toward the tree near the farmhouse where he roosted every night.
+
+"Halt!" he cried to the geese when they reached the tree. As he spoke,
+Turkey Proudfoot flapped himself up and settled on a low branch. At last
+he felt safe. He knew that the geese wouldn't follow him up there. With
+their webbed feet they never roosted in trees.
+
+Meanwhile the hen turkeys had come a-running too, from the meadow. They
+wanted to see what was going on. And they promptly fell into a loud
+dispute with the rooster and the hens.
+
+"He did!" the hens cackled, meaning that Turkey Proudfoot had run away
+from the geese.
+
+"He didn't!" the hen turkeys squalled, meaning that Turkey Proudfoot
+hadn't been chased, but had _led_ the geese across the farmyard.
+
+The six geese took no part in the quarrel. They had driven Turkey
+Proudfoot into the tree. And knowing that he wouldn't come down so long
+as they waited there, they marched off in single file toward the duck
+pond.
+
+"Where are you going?" the rooster asked them.
+
+The leader of the geese turned her head at him and hissed. And her five
+companions turned their heads at him too, and hissed likewise.
+
+"I ordered them to go and have a swim," Turkey Proudfoot cried from his
+tree, as soon as the geese were out of hearing. "I don't want them about
+the farmyard. I haven't time to bother with them. Besides, they're so
+stupid that I never could teach them anything. I walked ahead of them,
+across the farmyard, to show them the stylish strut. But they couldn't
+learn it. They'll waddle to the end of their days."
+
+"There!" cried the hen turkeys to the hens. "You hear what he says. The
+geese weren't chasing him. He was trying to teach them to strut."
+
+"Huh!" exclaimed Henrietta Hen, who always spoke her mind right out.
+"Turkey Proudfoot had better be careful. Some day those geese will teach
+him how to waddle."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE MIMIC
+
+
+Young Master Meadow Mouse had often peeped at Turkey Proudfoot from
+behind a clump of grass, or a hill of corn. But he had never dared show
+himself to Turkey Proudfoot. Somehow the old gobbler looked terribly
+fierce. And he was so big that Master Meadow Mouse didn't like the idea
+of even saying "Good day!" to him. He had heard Turkey Proudfoot spoken
+of as a "gobbler." Who knew but that a gobbler would gobble up young
+Master Meadow Mouse if he had a chance?
+
+Unseen by everybody, Master Meadow Mouse had watched the geese drive
+Turkey Proudfoot across the farmyard and seen him flapping up to roost
+in a tree out of their reach. And though Turkey Proudfoot strutted and
+tried to act very lordly as he headed the procession across the yard,
+Master Meadow Mouse had noticed how Turkey Proudfoot kept a wary eye on
+the geese behind him, and stepped not quite so high as he usually did,
+but further.
+
+"Ho!" Master Meadow Mouse had piped to himself in his thin voice.
+"Turkey Proudfoot is not the brave fellow I always thought him. He's
+afraid of geese!"
+
+From that moment Master Meadow Mouse forgot his fear of Turkey
+Proudfoot. Nobody stands in awe of a coward. So the very next time that
+Master Meadow Mouse saw Turkey Proudfoot strutting in the yard he crept
+up behind Turkey Proudfoot and tried to walk exactly like him.
+
+There were a good many farmyard fowls scratching about the yard at the
+time, and wishing to appear at his best, Turkey Proudfoot spread his
+tail, puffed out his chest, and strolled all around as if he--and and
+not Farmer Green--owned the place.
+
+Although Turkey Proudfoot seemed to see none of his neighbors,
+nevertheless he was watching them carefully out of the corner of his
+eye, to see whether they were noticing him.
+
+They were. There was no doubt of that.
+
+Not only were they looking at him; they were laughing at him as well.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot's face couldn't grow red with rage. It was red already.
+It was always red. Being very angry, he gobbled at the giggling hens, at
+the rooster, even at old dog Spot, "Why are you laughing at me?"
+
+"We aren't!" they cried. "You've no reason to be angry with us."
+
+"'Tis well," said Turkey Proudfoot with a toplofty toss of his bald
+head. "Since you're not laughing at me, you needn't laugh at all. I
+don't like your sniggering."
+
+"We can't help laughing," a few of the more daring ones told him. "It's
+so funny!"
+
+"What is?"
+
+"He is!"
+
+"Who is?"
+
+"Master Meadow Mouse!"
+
+"Master Meadow Mouse!" repeated Turkey Proudfoot in a bewildered
+fashion.
+
+He looked in front of him. He looked to the left. He looked to the
+right. He couldn't see Master Meadow Mouse anywhere.
+
+"Look behind you!" cried Henrietta Hen.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot turned his head.
+
+"I don't see any Master Meadow Mouse," he grumbled.
+
+"How can you, when your tail's spread like that?" Henrietta Hen asked
+him. "Close up your tail and then you'll see what we're laughing at."
+
+But Turkey Proudfoot declined to do anything of the sort.
+
+"It's just a trick," he squalled. "You're all jealous of me and my
+beautiful tail. You don't want me to carry my tail this way."
+
+Behind Turkey Proudfoot's tail Master Meadow Mouse did a very naughty
+thing. He stuck out his tongue. And all the onlookers shrieked with
+merriment.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+HALF WRONG
+
+
+It was no wonder that Turkey Proudfoot was angry. Everybody in the
+farmyard was laughing and looking his way--or so it seemed to him.
+
+Since he couldn't see any joke, he decided to leave his silly neighbors
+and go off into the fields where he could be alone. So he walked slowly
+away, holding his head high and stepping in his most elegant manner.
+
+To his great disgust peals of laughter followed him. And though he had
+intended to march off without saying a word, this last outburst so
+filled him with rage that he couldn't resist spinning about to glare
+and gobble at his tormentors.
+
+He turned so quickly that he surprised Master Meadow Mouse with one of
+his tiny feet lifted high in the air. He surprised him so much that
+Master Meadow Mouse stood stock still and didn't even bring his foot
+down, but held it off the ground as if it had frozen stiff and couldn't
+be moved.
+
+At first there was a most joyful look on Master Meadow Mouse's face. But
+it faded instantly into one of doubt and dismay. To tell the truth,
+Master Meadow Mouse hadn't expected Turkey Proudfoot to turn around and
+catch him right in his mimicking act.
+
+"Ah, ha!" cried Turkey Proudfoot. "So it's you that they're laughing at,
+eh?"
+
+Master Meadow Mouse was so upset that he murmured faintly, "Yes, it's
+me."
+
+"Well, I don't blame them," said Turkey Proudfoot. "You certainly look
+very queer. Why are you holding your foot off the ground like that?"
+
+"I was in the midst of taking a step when you turned around and startled
+me," Master Meadow Mouse explained. "And I don't know whether to set my
+foot down ahead of me, or to put it behind me."
+
+"Don't be alarmed!" Turkey Proudfoot said. "I never fight folks of your
+size. You're too little for me to pay much attention to. I must say,
+however, that you have a very odd way of walking."
+
+By this time Master Meadow Mouse had recovered from his surprise and
+wasn't afraid in the least. Now he laughed heartily.
+
+"I was walking the way you walk," he cried.
+
+"Oh, no!" Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed. "No, indeed! You certainly
+weren't." He didn't ask Master Meadow Mouse's pardon for contradicting.
+
+"I'd like to know why I wasn't," Master Meadow Mouse replied somewhat
+hotly. "I was strutting right behind you, all the way across the yard.
+That's why everybody was giggling."
+
+"It's no wonder they were poking fun at you," Turkey Proudfoot told him.
+"You amused the neighbors because you thought you were strutting, while
+you really weren't."
+
+Master Meadow Mouse put his foot down on the ground. He was puzzled.
+
+"I don't know why I wasn't strutting," he retorted. "I was raising my
+feet just as high as I could lift them."
+
+"Ah, yes?" said Turkey Proudfoot. "But you forgot one thing."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"You didn't spread your tail," Turkey Proudfoot explained. "And that's
+half of strutting."
+
+"I--I didn't know it," Master Meadow Mouse stammered. And then he darted
+away, to hide in the grass beyond the fence.
+
+He felt much ashamed to have made such a mistake.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+HARD TO PLEASE
+
+
+It was very hard to please Turkey Proudfoot. To be sure, he always
+pleased himself. But nothing anyone else did seemed to suit him. And
+there was one thing that always made him peevish. That was the gobbling
+of the younger turkey cocks.
+
+To anybody that wasn't a turkey, their voices sounded just as sweet as
+Turkey Proudfoot's. But he claimed that there was something wrong with
+all gobbles except his own. Either they were too loud or too soft, too
+high or too low, too long or too short. And whenever a young cock
+gobbled in his hearing Turkey Proudfoot was sure to rush up to him and
+order him to keep still, for pity's sake!
+
+They usually obeyed him. Not only was Turkey Proudfoot the biggest
+gobbler on the farm, but he had a fierce and lordly look about him. It
+was a bold young turkey cock that dared defy him. Once in a while one of
+them foolishly ventured to tell Turkey Proudfoot to mind his own
+affairs. And then there was sure to be a fight--a quick, short, noisy
+fray which ended always in the same fashion, with Turkey Proudfoot
+chasing the young cock out of the farmyard.
+
+Luckily for the youngsters, they could run faster than he could, for
+they were not nearly as heavy.
+
+Although Turkey Proudfoot didn't like to hear others gobble,
+nevertheless he enjoyed the excuse for a fight that their gobbling gave
+him. And when he had nothing more important to do he often stood still
+and listened in the hope of hearing some upstart gobbler testing his
+voice in a neighboring field. Newly grown cocks had to go a long way off
+to be safe from Turkey Proudfoot's attacks.
+
+One day in the middle of the summer the lord of the turkey flock was
+feeding behind the barn when a loud gobble brought his head up with a
+jerk.
+
+"Ha!" Turkey Proudfoot cried. "That's somebody in the yard, around the
+barn. He thinks I'm further away than this, or he'd never dare bawl like
+that."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot dashed around the barn at a swift trot. He was
+surprised to see not a turkey cock in the farmyard. The rooster was
+there, however. And Turkey Proudfoot eyed him sternly.
+
+"You weren't trying to gobble a moment ago, were you?" he inquired.
+
+"No, indeed!" said the rooster.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot looked puzzled.
+
+"Somebody gobbled," he declared. "I'm sure the noise came from this
+yard. I was behind the barn when I heard it. And I hurried around the
+corner at once."
+
+"Maybe the person that gobbled ran around the other end of the barn, to
+dodge you," the rooster suggested.
+
+"I'll go and see," said Turkey Proudfoot. And he went back where he came
+from.
+
+He found nobody there. But that annoying gobble sounded again and
+brought him back into the yard even faster than before. "Who did that?"
+he squalled.
+
+And somebody mocked him. Somebody repeated his question after him. It
+was the same voice that had gobbled.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot's rage was terrible to see.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+A STRANGE GOBBLE
+
+
+"Gobble, _gobble, gobble, gobble!_"
+
+Turkey Proudfoot stood in the farmyard and craned his neck in every
+direction. That sound certainly was close at hand. Yet there wasn't a
+turkey cock anywhere in sight, either on the ground or in the trees.
+
+Just for a moment Turkey Proudfoot was worried.
+
+"That wasn't _my_ gobble, was it?" he asked the rooster. "If I gobbled,
+I didn't know it."
+
+"No! You didn't gobble," said the rooster, "though I must say that
+gobbling sounded a good deal like yours."
+
+"_Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble!_"
+
+"There it goes again!" cried Turkey Proudfoot. He was almost frantic.
+"How can I fight that fellow if I can't see him?" he cried. He looked up
+at the roof of the barn; but there was no one there except the gilded
+rooster that told which way the wind blew. He looked up at the roof of
+the farmhouse.
+
+"You don't suppose that fellow's hiding in the chimney, do you?" he
+asked.
+
+"No doubt he is," said the rooster. "If I were you I'd fly up there and
+catch him."
+
+"The roof's high for one of my weight to fly to," Turkey Proudfoot
+remarked.
+
+"Still, I could flap up to the top of the woodshed and get to the roof
+of the house from there.... I'll take a look and see how high the house
+seems when I'm near it."
+
+[Illustration: Polly Imitates Turkey Proudfoot's Gobble. (_Page_ 42)]
+
+To the rooster's delight, Turkey Proudfoot started towards the house.
+The rooster promptly called to all the hens to "come quick," because
+Turkey Proudfoot was going to fly to the roof of the farmhouse. "I hope
+he won't get into trouble," said the rooster with a chuckle. "It would
+be a pity if he fell down the chimney."
+
+In spite of his words, the rooster didn't look at all uneasy. Indeed,
+the only thing that worried him was the fear that Turkey Proudfoot
+_wouldn't_ get himself into a scrape. But he thought it more polite not
+to say exactly what he hoped.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot stalked up to the farmhouse and stopped near the
+piazza. He was gazing upwards and measuring the height of the roof with
+his eye when all at once a loud "_Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble!_"
+almost tipped him over backward.
+
+The outcry came from the farmhouse. There was no doubt of that. But it
+didn't come from the roof, nor the chimney.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot stared at the windows and the doors and saw no one
+except Miss Kitty Cat, dozing on a window sill. Then something moved
+beneath the piazza ceiling. It was a cage, which swayed as a green
+figure clung to the wires on one side of it.
+
+"I'm a handsome bird," a voice informed Turkey Proudfoot. "_Gobble,
+gobble, gobble, gobble!_"
+
+For once in his life Turkey Proudfoot hadn't a word to say. For the
+moment he was struck dumb.
+
+At last he found his voice. "Who are you?" he bellowed.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! ha!"
+
+"Don't laugh at me!" cried Turkey Proudfoot.
+
+"Polly wants a cracker," said the green bird.
+
+A few quick steps brought Turkey Proudfoot upon the piazza, nearer the
+cage where the annoying green person swung and made queer, throaty
+noises--sounds which only angered Turkey Proud foot the more.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot took a little run and rose into the air, to crash
+against the cage and then fall flapping upon the piazza floor.
+
+The green person shrieked. And the hired man, with an axe in his hand,
+peered out of the woodshed door.
+
+"Here, you old gobbler! You leave our Polly alone!" he called. And he
+ran out and gave Turkey Proudfoot a sharp rap with the axe helve.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot ran off and hid behind the barn and sulked.
+
+"There's a bird around here," he muttered, "that mocks Miss Kitty Cat;
+and they call him a Cat Bird. Now, here's a bird that mocks me; so I
+should think they'd call him a Turkey Bird. But they don't. I heard the
+hired man call him Pretty Polly.
+
+"Pretty Polly indeed!" Turkey Proudfoot sniffed. "That creature is
+nothing but a bunch of green feathers and a loud voice."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE WORM TURNS
+
+
+Henrietta Hen had no love for Turkey Proudfoot. Beginning with the days
+of her chickenhood he had always ordered her about, telling her not to
+do this and not to do that. Even after she was grown up and had a family
+of her own, Turkey Proudfoot treated her as if she had just begun to
+scratch for herself.
+
+If Henrietta Hen found a spot where somebody had spilled a few kernels
+of corn Turkey Proudfoot was more than likely to rush up to her and cry,
+"Go away! I've had my eye on that corn for some time. I saw it first."
+
+On such occasions there was nothing Henrietta Hen could do except to
+stand aside and look on while Turkey Proudfoot ate the corn. He was so
+much bigger than she that he could bowl her over easily.
+
+On her own account Henrietta didn't really think it worth while to try
+to make any trouble for Turkey Proudfoot. But when she led her first
+brood of chicks into the yard to teach them to find food for themselves,
+Turkey Proudfoot's lordly ways made her very angry.
+
+"Move your family over on the gravel drive!" Turkey Proudfoot ordered
+her.
+
+Henrietta Hen said flatly that she wouldn't.
+
+"There are no bugs--no worms--in the gravel," she told him. "My chicks
+have a right to go anywhere on this farm."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot looked at her in amazement. Never before had Henrietta
+Hen spoken to him in such a way.
+
+"Hoity-toity!" he exclaimed. "Aren't you forgetting your manners,
+Henrietta?"
+
+"No, I'm not!" she snapped. "I've stood too much from you all my life. I
+warn you now that the worm has turned."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot glanced quickly down at the ground.
+
+"Where's the worm?" he asked. "Point him out to me before he gets away."
+
+"There!" cried Henrietta Hen. "That's just like you. If anybody spies a
+worm, you think you ought to have it."
+
+"Come! come!" Turkey Proudfoot coaxed her. "Don't let's quarrel over a
+mere trifle such as a worm. Just you show me where you saw him turn and
+I'll show you how to snatch a worm up in the neatest and quickest
+fashion."
+
+Henrietta Hen tossed her handsome head.
+
+"The worm I was talking about is right before you," she sniffed. "If you
+can't see it, I shan't help you."
+
+Of course she had been talking of herself when she remarked that the
+worm had turned. She had meant that she had always allowed Turkey
+Proudfoot to treat her like a worm under his feet. But at last she had
+made up her mind that he shouldn't order her about any longer.
+
+Meanwhile Turkey Proudfoot was fast losing his temper.
+
+"You've caused me to lose a fine, fat worm; and you shall suffer for
+it!" he scolded. "The only thing for you to do is to offer me a fine,
+fat chick in its place."
+
+At that Henrietta Hen set up a great clamor.
+
+"I'll do nothing of the sort!" she shrieked. And then she screamed for
+the rooster. "Come quick, Mr. Rooster! Help! Help!"
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+BLUSTER
+
+
+Soon after Henrietta Hen shrieked for the rooster he came hurrying
+around a corner of the barn. When he saw Turkey Proudfoot towering above
+Henrietta and her new brood of chicks in the middle of the farmyard he
+stopped short. To tell the truth, the rooster was afraid of Turkey
+Proudfoot and usually took pains to keep out of his way.
+
+"Go back!" Turkey Proudfoot called to him. "You're not needed here.
+There's been a little difficulty; but I can settle it myself."
+
+"Oh, very well!" the rooster replied. "I'm glad there's no great
+trouble. When I heard Henrietta calling me I thought she was in danger."
+He turned, then, to slink away behind the barn.
+
+"Don't desert me!" Henrietta Hen besought him. "Help! Help!"
+
+Turkey Proudfoot waved a wing at the rooster.
+
+"Don't pay any attention to her!" he said. "She's excited. I'll have her
+calmed down in no time."
+
+"Of course I'm excited!" Henrietta Hen cried. "Don't let him deceive
+you, Mr. Rooster! He's been threatening me!"
+
+Turkey Proudfoot bade her, in an undertone, to be quiet.
+
+"Go along about your business," he told the rooster. "She's mistaken. I
+haven't said I'd harm her."
+
+"No! But he's talking about eating one of my chicks! And that's worse,"
+Henrietta screamed. "If you're as brave as I always supposed, Mr.
+Rooster, you'll defend my family."
+
+Although the rooster was terribly frightened, and wanted to run away, he
+simply couldn't desert Henrietta Hen.
+
+"She's a nuisance," he muttered as he marched across the farmyard. "I
+don't see why she wanted to bring her chicks out here where Turkey
+Proudfoot would see them. She's landed me in a scrape. There won't be
+much left of me when that old gobbler gets through with me."
+
+Nevertheless the rooster put on a bold front. Drawing himself up to look
+his tallest, he glared at Turkey Proudfoot and said shrilly, "What do
+you mean by annoying this lady?"
+
+Turkey Proudfoot gulped. He wondered what had come over his neighbors.
+The rooster had always acted afraid of him. Though small, the rooster
+was strongly built. And he had a sharp bill and sharp spurs, too. Turkey
+Proudfoot noted these details carefully.
+
+"I won't have to fight him," he thought. "I'll behave so fiercely that
+the rooster will be glad to run off. And then I'll run after him so
+folks will think I am chasing him."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot then began to bluster. He gobbled loudly, without
+saying anything at all. He even made a few quick passes at the rooster
+with his bill.
+
+To his dismay, the rooster merely dodged. He didn't turn tail and run,
+as Turkey Proudfoot had hoped he would.
+
+"I'll have to try something else," Turkey Proudfoot said to himself. So
+he flapped his wings and jumped up and down and around the rooster.
+
+The rooster was very ill at ease. But he didn't let Turkey Proudfoot
+know that. He kept turning about, so that he faced Turkey Proudfoot all
+the time. And he said to Henrietta Hen: "Gather your chicks and get them
+out of the way. There's going to be trouble here."
+
+Henrietta Hen obeyed him without a word. And she had no sooner shooed
+her youngsters into the chicken house than Turkey Proudfoot gave a loud
+laugh--a somewhat forced, yet loud laugh.
+
+"You're just the sort of bird I like," he told the rooster. "I've been
+testing you to see if you were brave. I'm delighted to find that you
+are. And I suggest that you and I stand by each other and run things in
+this yard to suit ourselves. When folks don't do as I tell them to, you
+and I will attend to them."
+
+"Agreed!" cried the rooster. He was greatly flattered. "We'll make the
+neighbors step lively." And off he went, to find Henrietta Hen and tell
+her how he and Turkey Proudfoot were going to help each other.
+
+"You're even sillier than I supposed," she informed the rooster, to his
+great astonishment. He had expected nothing but praise from her.
+
+He left her hurriedly. And he felt quite glum.
+
+"She's just like the whole Hen family," he grumbled. "You never can tell
+what they're going to do or what they're going to say. They may squawk
+and cross the road; they may cross the road and not squawk; they may
+squawk and not cross the road; they may not cross the road and not
+squawk. I don't believe they know themselves what they are going to do
+next."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+MR. CROW'S NEWS
+
+
+There was no denying that the rooster at Farmer Green's place had
+handsome tail feathers. But they were as nothing, compared with Turkey
+Proudfoot's. Not only were the rooster's fewer in number; but he
+couldn't spread them, fan-fashion.
+
+Mr. Grouse, who lived in the woods, beyond the pasture, could spread his
+tail. But he was a much smaller bird than Turkey Proudfoot and his tail
+wasn't nearly as big.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot often remarked that he had no rival. To be sure, there
+were young gobblers on the farm. But in the matter of tails, Turkey
+Proudfoot outshone them all.
+
+Farmer Green once had another turkey cock that bade fair to have as fine
+a tail as Turkey Proudfoot's. And for a time this gentleman made Turkey
+Proudfoot feel a bit uneasy.
+
+"I'll have to fight him and pull out some of his tail feathers," Turkey
+Proudfoot decided.
+
+But on the very day, in the fall, when Turkey Proudfoot intended to pick
+a quarrel with this person--and spoil his fatal beauty--he was missing.
+And oddly enough, nobody ever saw him around the farmyard again.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot went so far as to hint that he had scared the fellow
+away. Not many believed that that was what happened, however. For old
+dog Spot claimed to have seen one of the missing gobbler's wings
+hanging in the kitchen of the farmhouse.
+
+"Mrs. Green uses it for a brush," Spot had explained.
+
+When he heard that story Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed, "Nonsense! A Fox's
+tail is a brush. But a Turkey's wing is a wing. Old dog Spot doesn't
+know what he's talking about. No doubt Mrs. Green has a Fox's brush
+hanging up beside her kitchen range."
+
+Still, most of the farmyard folks insisted that the missing gobbler had
+met with an accident. Anyhow, the question as to what had become of him
+didn't trouble Turkey Proudfoot. The fellow was gone. And there wasn't
+another young gobbler on the farm that was likely to have a tail out of
+the ordinary. So Turkey Proudfoot was content.
+
+His peace of mind lasted only a few days. He was ranging through the
+meadow one morning when he heard a great commotion in the farmyard. Old
+Mr. Crow soon came sailing over from the edge of the woods to see what
+was the matter. And after a while he went sailing back again. On his way
+he stopped to drop down into the meadow and speak to Turkey Proudfoot.
+
+"You ought to hurry home," Mr. Crow croaked. "Johnnie Green has a new
+pet. You ought to see him."
+
+"Johnnie Green's pets don't interest me," Turkey Proudfoot sniffed.
+"He's never owned a pet yet that had a tail worth looking at twice. As
+for his Guinea Pigs--well, they haven't tails that you could look at
+even once. They haven't any tails at all. I must say I don't admire
+Johnnie Green's taste in pets," said Turkey Proudfoot.
+
+"Ah! This one is different," Mr. Crow told him with a hoarse laugh.
+"When you see his tail you'll fold yours up in a hurry. And you'll never
+spread it again."
+
+"Impossible!" cried Turkey Proudfoot. "Impossible!" He was so angry with
+Mr. Crow that he couldn't say anything more.
+
+For all that, he strode away towards the farmyard. And he had a most
+uneasy feeling under his wishbone.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+THE NEW PET
+
+
+Turkey Proudfoot came hurrying back to the farmyard from the meadow
+where Mr. Crow had stopped and advised him to go home and see Johnnie
+Green's new pet.
+
+When Turkey Proudfoot scurried around the barn he found everybody all
+a-flutter. No one paid any attention to Turkey Proudfoot, though he
+spread his tail and strutted up to his neighbors with a most important
+air.
+
+"What's going on here?" Turkey Proudfoot demanded in his most lordly
+tone.
+
+Henrietta Hen went out of her way to answer him. "Johnnie Green has a
+new pet," she explained. "He's a wonderful creature."
+
+"I don't think much of him," said the rooster. He had a surly look, as
+if something--perhaps a pebble--had stuck in his crop.
+
+"I can't quite swallow this new pet," the rooster told Turkey Proudfoot.
+
+"Ah! You haven't seen him with his tail spread!" Henrietta Hen
+exclaimed. "His tail is simply gorgeous."
+
+His tail! That was exactly what old Mr. Crow had mentioned. "Oh, well!"
+Turkey Proudfoot thought. "I'm foolish to be stirred up over this
+affair. The new pet's tail can't be as grand as mine. There's nothing
+for me to worry about."
+
+But there was. What Henrietta Hen said with her next breath made Turkey
+Proudfoot miserable.
+
+"You'd better put down your tail," she advised him.
+
+"Put down my tail!" he squawked. "Anybody would think you were talking
+about an umbrella. What's wrong with my tail, madam? I hope you don't
+think I'm ashamed of it."
+
+"I fear you will be, when you see Johnnie Green's new pet," Henrietta
+Hen rattled on. "You'll want to hide your tail then."
+
+"Stop!" cried Turkey Proudfoot sternly. "You have said too much."
+
+"Good!" the rooster chimed in. "I agree with you. She always talks too
+much." Once such a remark about Henrietta Hen would have made the
+rooster angry. Now, however, it pleased him.
+
+"I know what's the matter with you," Henrietta Hen told the rooster.
+"Your nose is out of joint."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the rooster. "My nose--and by that no doubt
+you mean my bill--is _not_ out of joint."
+
+"Oh, yes it is!" she insisted. "And Turkey Proudfoot's will be out of
+joint too, as soon as he sees the newcomer."
+
+"Where is he?" Turkey Proudfoot suddenly demanded. "Let me have a look
+at him! I'll soon show _him_ whether there's anything wrong with my
+bill." He puffed himself up and looked very fierce.
+
+To his amazement, Henrietta Hen only laughed.
+
+"Tell that to the new pet!" she said. "You'll find him in front of the
+farmhouse."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot didn't thank her. He was so angry that he was almost
+choking. And he strode off with a gleam in his eyes that the younger
+gobblers knew only too well--and feared.
+
+[Illustration: The Peacock Ignores Turkey Proudfoot. (_Page_ 67)]
+
+On the lawn before Farmer Green's house Turkey Proudfoot saw such a
+sight as he had never expected to behold. A big bird stood proudly on
+the grass plot, looking for all the world as if he owned not only the
+house, but the whole farm. His colors were like the blues and greens of
+a rainbow. And behind him he carried aloft a tail that made Turkey
+Proudfoot all but ill with envy.
+
+"Who-who-who is this person?" Turkey Proudfoot gasped, turning to old
+dog Spot.
+
+"Don't you know?" said Spot. "He's Johnnie Green's new pet. He's the
+Peacock."
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+A PROUD PERSON
+
+
+The peacock in front of the farmhouse paid no heed to Turkey Proudfoot,
+but moved very slowly and very haughtily about the lawn. His huge tail
+was spread like a sail. In the light summer breeze it swayed and
+rippled, sending out a thousand shimmering gleams. And on his tail were
+dozens of eyes. At least they looked like eyes to Turkey Proudfoot. And
+they all seemed to be trying to out-stare him.
+
+For a minute or two Turkey Proudfoot glared at this newcomer--this new
+pet of Johnnie Green's. Then, after first spreading his own tail to its
+fullest size, he swaggered up to the peacock.
+
+"You needn't pretend not to see me," Turkey Proudfoot gobbled. "You
+can't fool me. You've a hundred eyes on your tail. And they've been
+looking at me steadily."
+
+The peacock calmly turned his head and glanced at Turkey Proudfoot. He
+did not answer.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot thrust his own head forward.
+
+"Maybe I'm not good enough for you to speak to," he began. "Maybe I'm
+not enough of a dandy--"
+
+Just then somebody interrupted him. It was Henrietta Hen. Being a prying
+sort of person she had followed Turkey Proudfoot around the house to see
+what happened when he and the newcomer met.
+
+"Don't be rude to this gentleman," said Henrietta Hen. "He hasn't
+spoken since he arrived in the wagon an hour ago. We've about decided
+that he is dumb. And it's a great pity if he is. No doubt his voice--if
+he had one--would be as beautiful as his tail."
+
+At that the peacock opened his mouth. Out of it there came the harshest
+sounds that had ever been heard on the farm. Turkey Proudfoot was so
+startled that he threw his head into the air and took several steps
+backward. As for Henrietta Hen, she cackled in terror and ran out of the
+yard and crossed the road, where she narrowly escaped being run over by
+a passing wagon.
+
+"My goodness!" Turkey Proudfoot thought. "It's no wonder this Peacock
+doesn't talk much. If I had a voice like his I'd never use it." He
+didn't know what the peacock had said. Somehow his voice was so awful
+that Turkey Proudfoot had caught no actual words that meant anything to
+him.
+
+Again the peacock screamed. Henrietta Hen heard him. And she was so
+flustered that she ran back and forth across the road three times and
+was almost trampled on by a horse.
+
+At last Turkey Proudfoot understood what the peacock said. "Are you a
+barnyard fowl?" he had asked.
+
+"Yes, I am," said Turkey Proudfoot. "Aren't you?"
+
+"No!" the peacock replied. "My place is out here in front of the house
+where people can see me when they drive by.... Probably," he added, "we
+shan't see much of each other."
+
+So saying, he walked stiffly away and mounted the stone wall, where
+passing travellers would be sure to notice him and admire his beauty.
+
+All this was a terrible blow to Turkey Proudfoot. For a moment he was
+tempted to rush at the haughty stranger and tear his handsome feathers
+into tatters. But the peacock looked so huge, standing on top of the
+wall with his great tail rising above him, and his voice was so
+frightfully loud and harsh, that Turkey Proudfoot didn't even dare
+threaten him. And that was something unusual for one who had long
+claimed to be ruler of the farmyard.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+MRS. WREN'S ADVICE
+
+
+Turkey Proudfoot never knew that the peacock was no bigger than he was.
+The elegant creature had such a huge tail and such a loud, harsh voice
+that Turkey Proudfoot stood in great awe of him.
+
+Being very peevish, after his first meeting with the peacock, Turkey
+Proudfoot went behind the barn and found a young gobbler and gave him a
+terrible drubbing. Then Turkey Proudfoot felt better.
+
+That night he roosted in a tree near the farmhouse. And in the morning
+when he awoke no thought of the peacock entered his head. He indulged in
+a few early morning gobbles--according to his custom--when a rasping
+scream reminded him of his hated rival. The peacock had slept in another
+tree not far away, even nearer the farmhouse than Turkey Proudfoot's.
+
+"Huh!" said Turkey Proudfoot. "Farmer Green won't care for that racket
+every morning just outside his window. And neither will Rusty Wren. He
+always goes to the trouble of waking Farmer Green with his singing. This
+new pet of Johnnie's has taken it upon himself to do Rusty's work."
+
+It was true that Rusty Wren was upset. He scolded a good deal to his
+wife that day about the peacock.
+
+"There's no use of my singing a dawn song beneath Farmer Green's window
+any more," Rusty Wren grumbled. "The terrible squalls of this new bird
+will disturb everybody in the valley."
+
+"Don't be silly!" said Mrs. Wren. "Don't be silly like Turkey Proudfoot.
+He's making himself miserable because the Peacock has a tail that sticks
+up higher than his. How absurd," she cried, "to be proud like Turkey
+Proudfoot, just because your tail happens to stick up in the air. Why,
+yours and mine stick up. But we don't go around boasting about them. And
+if somebody else has a stickier-up tail, why worry about it? And if
+somebody else with a louder voice can wake Farmer Green better than you
+can, why worry about that? Let the Peacock scream if he wants to!"
+
+"And _I_--" cried Turkey Proudfoot, who had been standing beneath the
+tree where Mr. and Mrs. Wren were talking--"_I_ say, let the Peacock
+parade in the front yard if he wants to. I certainly shan't visit him
+there. I'll parade behind the farmhouse."
+
+When Turkey Proudfoot first spoke up like that, Rusty Wren and his wife
+gave each other an uneasy look. They had expected him to be angry. And
+now, with an air of great relief, Mrs. Wren exclaimed:
+
+"I apologize to you, Mr. Turkey Proudfoot. You're not as silly as I
+supposed. You're not as vain as I thought you were. I begin to think
+we've been mistaken about you all these years."
+
+"You certainly have been," Turkey Proudfoot declared. "I'm not vain at
+all and I'm glad I haven't the Peacock's horrid, harsh voice. Mine is
+much more beautiful than his. And nobody can deny it."
+
+"_Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble!_"
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+DRUMMING ON A LOG
+
+
+Turkey Proudfoot was not always content to stay in the farmyard.
+Although Farmer Green fed him well, he liked to range over the fields in
+search of extra tidbits, such as grain, seeds and insects. Sometimes he
+wandered even as far as the pasture. And one day he strayed into the
+edge of the woods beyond the pasture fence.
+
+There he discovered a beech tree. And Turkey Proudfoot was enjoying the
+nuts that he found on the ground beneath it when all at once a
+_thump-thump-thump_ startled him. He raised his head and listened. The
+thumping sound came faster and faster, then died away in a rumble.
+
+"Ho! It's only Johnnie Green drumming. Probably his mother wouldn't let
+him drum near the farmhouse, so he came to the woods where she couldn't
+hear him."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot paid no more heed to the drumming, which rolled through
+the woods now and then. He went on with his search for beechnuts. But at
+last a thought popped into his head. "Johnnie Green must be eating most
+of the time, or he'd drum oftener," Turkey Proudfoot muttered. "He must
+have found a beech tree."
+
+Soon Turkey Proudfoot decided to join Johnnie Green. He hoped that
+beechnuts were more plentiful beneath Johnnie's tree. So Turkey
+Proudfoot picked his way slowly through the underbrush. And guided by
+the _thump-thump-thump_ which once in a while boomed upon his ears, at
+last Turkey Proudfoot came into a little clearing.
+
+There on a log sat a speckly, feathered, short-necked gentleman with a
+tail spread in much the fashion in which Turkey Proudfoot so often
+carried his own.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot drew back behind a bush, out of sight.
+
+"I'll show that bird a tail that _is_ a tail," he muttered to himself.
+So he spread his tail and then stepped proudly forth. A dry twig snapped
+beneath his weight. At that sound the stranger on the log turned his
+head quickly. Just for an instant there was an eager look on his face.
+But when he beheld Turkey Proudfoot it changed to one of
+disappointment.
+
+"Who are you?" the stranger asked in none too pleasant a tone.
+
+"I'm Turkey Proudfoot," said the ruler of the farmyard. "I live down the
+hill at Farmer Green's place."
+
+"Then you'd better go home where you belong," said the stranger on the
+log. "I was expecting some one. I've been drumming for a friend. And
+when I heard you step on that dry twig I thought she'd come. I had my
+tail spread in her honor."
+
+"Drum again!" Turkey Proudfoot ordered. "Call your friend at once and
+I'll show her a tail that is a tail. Yours is no bigger than Mrs.
+Green's fan."
+
+The stranger made no move to obey. He appeared somewhat sulky.
+
+"What's your name?" Turkey Proudfoot demanded.
+
+"I'm Mr. Grouse," the stranger snapped out. "I supposed everybody in
+Pleasant Valley knew me. My drumming is famous."
+
+"Indeed!" said Turkey Proudfoot. "I thought it was Johnnie Green making
+that noise."
+
+"No wonder!" Mr. Grouse sniffed. "You're only a barnyard fowl. You can't
+be expected to know anything about us game birds."
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+A GAME BIRD
+
+
+Mr. Grouse moved back and forth upon his log in the clearing in the
+woods. And casting a withering glance at Turkey Proudfoot, he said,
+"It's plain that you don't know what a game bird is. Men--and boys,
+too--come into the woods with guns to hunt us. And we make game of them
+by rising swiftly with a loud _whir_ and flying off before they have
+time to shoot us."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot gaped at Mr. Grouse.
+
+"Don't they ever hit you?" he faltered.
+
+"They've never shot me," said Mr. Grouse. "Once a hunter knocked out
+one of my tail feathers. But that was only an accident."
+
+[Illustration: Turkey Proudfoot Has a Chat with Mr. Grouse. (_Page_ 80)]
+
+"I shouldn't care to be a game bird," Turkey Proudfoot remarked. "I'm
+sure it's much safer living at the farmyard."
+
+Mr. Grouse gave him an odd look. One winter when food was scarce in the
+woods he had flown down to the farmyard. And he remembered seeing turkey
+feathers scattered about the chopping block near the woodpile.
+
+"How do you usually spend the holidays?" he asked.
+
+"Last Fourth of July I went up in the haymow and kept out of sight all
+day," said Turkey Proudfoot. "I don't like firecrackers."
+
+Mr. Grouse nodded his head.
+
+"I don't blame you for that," he observed. "Firecrackers sound too much
+like guns.... But I wasn't thinking of the Fourth of July," he went on.
+"When I asked how you spent the holidays I was thinking more of those to
+come. Now, Thanksgiving Day isn't a long way off. Have you made any
+plans for that?"
+
+When he mentioned Thanksgiving Day Turkey Proudfoot gave a sudden start.
+
+"For goodness' sake, don't speak of that now!" he cried. "I came to the
+woods to enjoy myself. And now you're trying to spoil my good time."
+
+Mr. Grouse could see that Turkey Proudfoot was angry. And being rather
+peppery himself, he was tempted to say something sharp--something about
+_axes_, which are always sharp unless they're dull. But Mr. Grouse
+managed to control his temper. After all, he thought, it was no wonder
+that Turkey Proudfoot didn't want to hear about Thanksgiving Day.
+
+"Pardon me!" said Mr. Grouse. "I only brought up this matter in a
+cousinly kind of way."
+
+"Cousinly!" cried Turkey Proudfoot. "You and I, sir, are total strangers
+to each other."
+
+"Well, we ought not to be," said Mr. Grouse. "It's time we got
+acquainted with each other. Didn't you know that your family and mine
+are related?"
+
+"No!" Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed. "No! I never knew it."
+
+"It's the truth," Mr. Grouse told him. "Don't you think we look a bit
+alike, except that my neck is somewhat short, and yours is long and
+skinny? And of course my head is feathered out, while yours is bald and
+red."
+
+"That will do!" Turkey Proudfoot gobbled angrily. "Even if you are my
+cousin you needn't make such remarks about me."
+
+Mr. Grouse begged his pardon again.
+
+"I was only pointing out the differences between us," he explained. "But
+if they displease you, I'll speak of the ways in which we are alike.
+Now, take our tails--"
+
+"I won't!" Turkey Proudfoot squalled. "I'll take my own tail wherever I
+go. But I won't take yours."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+RED LIGHTNING
+
+
+"What's the matter with my tail!" cried Mr. Grouse.
+
+"It's too small," Turkey Proudfoot declared. "Now, if you want to see a
+tail that _is_ a tail--"
+
+"I don't!" cried Mr. Grouse. "Not if you want me to look at yours! In
+fact, I don't care to talk with you any more. I was going to suggest a
+pleasant way for you to spend Thanksgiving Day. But nothing I say seems
+to please you. Besides, you began to boast about your tail the moment
+you entered this clearing. And if there's anybody I can't endure, it's
+a boaster." He was a rough and ready sort of fellow--this Mr. Grouse.
+When he had anything to say he didn't go beating about the bush. He came
+right out in the open and spoke his mind freely.
+
+You might think that Turkey Proudfoot would have taken his cousin's
+remarks to heart. But he didn't. He was so pleased with his own tail
+that to him it was the biggest thing in the world. Indeed, when he
+spread his tail and looked at it he could see nothing else.
+
+"You are jealous," he told Mr. Grouse. "And I can't blame you. It's only
+natural that you should look at my tail with envy. Everybody does down
+at the farmyard."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot must have forgotten all about the peacock, when he
+spoke. Anyhow, he gazed around at his tail with great admiration.
+
+All at once there was a terrible, loud _whirring_ sound. Turkey
+Proudfoot started up in alarm. To his amazement, where Mr. Grouse had
+been sitting on the log there was now nothing at all.
+
+"Up! Up!" It was Mr. Grouse's voice that Turkey Proudfoot heard; and it
+seemed to come from the tree right above his head.
+
+Although Turkey Proudfoot didn't like to obey anybody's orders--and
+certainly not Mr. Grouse's--there was a note of alarm in the cry that
+made him squall with terror. He started to run, flapping his wings
+awkwardly. And just as he rose into the air a reddish, brownish streak
+flashed beneath him.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot settled himself on a branch of an old oak and looked
+down at a sharp-faced, grinning person who leered up at him. It was
+Tommy Fox. And though he looked very pleasant, inside he was feeling
+quite peevish. If it hadn't been for Mr. Grouse's warning he would
+surely have captured Turkey Proudfoot.
+
+It was like Turkey Proudfoot not to thank his cousin. And it was like
+him, too, to fly into a rage.
+
+"You might have warned me sooner," he complained to Mr. Grouse. "That
+red rascal is quick as lightning. He almost caught me."
+
+"I thought you'd follow me when you saw me rise," said Mr. Grouse.
+
+"I didn't see you."
+
+"Well, you _heard_ me, didn't you?"
+
+"I heard a _whirring_ sound," said Turkey Proudfoot, "but I didn't know
+what it was."
+
+"Great snakes!" cried Mr. Grouse. "Farmer Green ought not to let you
+come into the woods--not if he expects you to spend Thanksgiving Day
+with him!"
+
+Tommy Fox chuckled at that remark.
+
+But Turkey Proudfoot never let on that he heard it. He crouched lower
+upon the limb of the oak tree and pretended to fall asleep.
+
+Daylight was fast fading.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+NIGHT IN THE WOODS
+
+
+Mr. Grouse and Tommy Fox soon went about their business, leaving Turkey
+Proudfoot to roost in the oak tree in the woods.
+
+Though he pretended to be fast asleep, Turkey Proudfoot had kept one eye
+slightly open. He had seen Tommy Fox trot away toward the pasture. He
+had heard Mr. Grouse go _whirring_ off into the depths of the woods.
+
+"It's too late to go back to the farmyard this evening," Turkey
+Proudfoot grumbled. "It's almost dusk already. And there's no telling
+about Tommy Fox. He may be hiding behind a tree, ready to pounce on me
+the moment I alight on the ground."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot actually began to feel a bit sleepy. He was in the
+habit of going early to roost anyhow. So he huddled low on the branch of
+the oak tree. And soon he was in the land of dreams.
+
+He slept a long time. And while he slept a number of things happened of
+which he knew nothing.
+
+Tommy Fox came stealing back in the moonlight and gazed up at him with
+longing eyes.
+
+Miss Kitty Cat, who had prowled through the pasture on a hunt for field
+mice, spied him. "I declare, that's Turkey Proudfoot!" she exclaimed.
+"He must have got lost up here. I certainly shan't wake him and tell him
+the way home. If I spoke to him he'd be sure to gobble and scare away
+all the mice in the neighborhood."
+
+Benjamin Bat came zigzagging through the air and all but blundered into
+Turkey Proudfoot. Missing him by the breadth of a wing, Benjamin Bat
+hung head downward from a near-by limb and stared at the sleeping form.
+"Hello!" he squeaked. "Here's a newcomer in these woods. I should think
+he'd cling to that limb upside down. He'd find it a much safer way than
+sitting on top of the limb." Benjamin Bat was on the point of rousing
+Turkey Proudfoot and advising him to change his position when a
+quavering whistle sent Benjamin hurrying away. He knew the voice of
+Simon Screecher, Solomon Owl's small cousin. And he had no wish to meet
+him.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot stirred in his sleep. He was dreaming--dreaming that
+Johnnie Green was whistling to old dog Spot to come and drive Turkey
+Proudfoot out of the newly planted cornfield. The whistling seemed to
+come nearer and nearer. "I won't stir for old Spot," Turkey Proudfoot
+gobbled aloud in his sleep.
+
+"Maybe you'll stir for me," cried a strange voice. And Turkey Proudfoot
+woke up with a start.
+
+"Where am I?" he bawled. For a moment he couldn't remember having gone
+to sleep in the woods.
+
+"You're right up under Blue Mountain," said Simon Screecher. "It's a
+dangerous place for a stranger to sleep. There are birds and beasts
+a-plenty in these woods that would make a meal of you if they caught you
+here."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot yawned.
+
+"I'm not worrying," he replied. "Foxes can't climb trees. And I'm as
+big as any bird in the neighborhood."
+
+"You're as big--yes! And bigger than most!" Simon Screecher admitted.
+"But it isn't bigness alone that counts in the woods," he insisted.
+
+"What does count, then?" Turkey
+
+Proudfoot demanded.
+
+"You ought to be able to guess," said Simon Screecher. "It's right in
+front of your eyes."
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+BEAKS AND BILLS
+
+
+Turkey Proudfoot was a poor guesser. There in the woods, at night, Simon
+Screecher the owl had told him of something that "counted," something
+that was right in front of Turkey Proudfoot's eyes. And Turkey Proudfoot
+named everything he could think of. He mentioned the oak tree in which
+he sat, the darkness, the yellow moon.
+
+"You're wrong!" Simon Screecher kept telling him. "You're getting
+further away with every guess. I suppose I'll have to tell you what I
+mean: it's your beak. And if that isn't right in front of your eyes, I
+don't know what is."
+
+"My beak!" cried Turkey Proudfoot. "I don't call my bill my beak. I call
+my beak my bill."
+
+"Well, beak or bill, yours is a useless thing," Simon Screecher sneered.
+"It may do well enough to pick up a kernel of corn. But it can't be much
+good as a weapon. It ought to be sharp and hooked to be of any use in a
+fight."
+
+With every word that Simon Screecher said, Turkey Proudfoot was growing
+angrier.
+
+"There's nothing wrong with my bill," he clamored. "I've had plenty of
+fights in the farmyard. The fowls are all afraid of me at home."
+
+Simon Screecher gave a most disagreeable laugh.
+
+"I wasn't thinking of farmyard fights," he sniffed. "If Fatty Coon or
+Grumpy Weasel or my cousin Solomon Owl grabbed you, you'd find that a
+fight in the woods is a very different matter from a mere barnyard
+squabble."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot was furious.
+
+"If you'll come over here on this limb I'll peck you," he cried.
+
+"Huh! We don't fight that way in the woods," Simon Screecher retorted.
+"We don't peck. We tear-r-r-r!"
+
+He rolled out the last word in a long-drawn quaver which gave it a
+horrid sound--especially in the woods, after dark. And Turkey Proudfoot
+felt chills a-running up and down his back.
+
+"A-ahem! You-you needn't bother to come over here," he stammered. "I-I
+shouldn't like to peck you. You-er-you seem to be a very pleasant sort
+of person."
+
+"Well, I'm not!" Simon Screecher informed him. "And you ought to see my
+cousin, Solomon Owl. He's a _terrible_ fellow."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot's wishbone seemed to be trying to come up into his
+month. At least, he had to swallow several times before he could answer.
+
+"I'd like to see your cousin," he replied, "but not to-night."
+
+He had scarcely finished speaking when a loud call came booming through
+the woods: "_Whooo-whoo-whoo, whoo-whoo, to-whoo-ah!_"
+
+"Who's that?" gasped Turkey Proudfoot.
+
+"That's my cousin, Solomon Owl," Simon Screecher explained. "And he's
+not far away."
+
+"My goodness!" Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed. "If he's as big as his voice
+he must be enormous."
+
+"He's twice my size," said Simon Screecher. "Not nearly as big as you
+are, of course! But you ought to see his beak. I do believe he could
+tear you into--"
+
+"I don't want to see him to-night," Turkey Proudfoot interrupted. "I
+hope he won't come this way. Go and find him. And tell him to meet me
+here _to-morrow_ night."
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+FARMYARD MANNERS
+
+
+"Oh, very well!" said Simon Screecher to Turkey Proudfoot. "I'll give my
+cousin your message. I'll tell him that you want him to meet you here in
+this clearing in the woods to-morrow night." So off Simon Screecher
+flew.
+
+He had not been gone long when a noisy "_haw-haw-hoo-hoo_" rolled and
+echoed through the woods.
+
+"He's laughing!" Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed. "Solomon Owl is laughing. I
+wonder what the joke is." He was so curious to know that he actually
+began to wish that Simon Screecher would hurry back. And after a little
+while he did.
+
+"What was the joke?" Turkey Proudfoot demanded. "I heard you cousin
+laughing."
+
+"Solomon Owl says that he doesn't care to meet you at all," Simon
+Screecher explained. "He says he has heard about you before and that
+you're a tough old bird."
+
+"I'm not!" Turkey shrieked. "I'm very tender--and I'm not ten years
+old."
+
+"Solomon Owl says he doesn't care to bother with any but the very
+youngest Turkeys."
+
+"Well," Turkey Proudfoot retorted, "no matter what he says, the joke's
+on him. I wasn't coming back here to-morrow night. I don't like sleeping
+in the woods and having my rest disturbed by hoots and whistles."
+
+"I suppose you don't," Simon Screecher admitted. "And I shouldn't care
+to try to sleep at the farmyard in the daytime and he waked by gobbles."
+
+"I wish you _would_ come down to the farmyard," Turkey Proudfoot told
+him. "You'd drive old dog Spot half crazy with your whistling."
+
+Simon Screecher looked thoughtful.
+
+"No!" he said. "Farmer Green might drive me half crazy with his old
+shotgun." He yawned as he spoke. "I don't see what's making me so
+sleepy," he remarked. "I must be going home."
+
+"Don't hurry!" Turkey Proudfoot begged him. "I'm beginning to enjoy your
+company--though I can't exactly say why. And I'd like to gabble with you
+for an hour or two. I don't see what makes me so wakeful."
+
+Just then a familiar sound greeted Turkey Proudfoot's ears. It was a
+crow. It was the rooster's crow, way down at the farmyard.
+
+"Why, it's almost dawn!" Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed. "I didn't know the
+night was so nearly gone. It's no wonder I couldn't sleep. The dawn of
+another day always makes one wide awake."
+
+"It always makes one sleepy, you mean," Simon Screecher corrected him.
+
+Now, Turkey Proudfoot always grew angry when anybody corrected him in
+any way. And he flew into a rage.
+
+"Go away! Go home!" he spluttered. "I don't enjoy your company."
+
+Simon Screecher started homewards at once.
+
+"Farmyard manners!" he muttered. "I declare, I wish Cousin Solomon
+hadn't eaten those two mice and those three frogs and those four spiders
+and those five grasshoppers to-night. When he's well fed he's always
+good-natured. If he had been hungry he'd have been in a terrible temper.
+And he'd have fought this Turkey bird until there was nothing left of
+him but his tail feathers."
+
+Turkey Proudfoot never knew what a narrow escape he had. As soon as it
+began to grow light he dropped down out of the oak tree and hurried
+home, for he didn't want to miss the breakfast that Farmer Green always
+gave him.
+
+Along in the fall, breakfasts always seemed to be bigger.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+CRANBERRY SAUCE
+
+
+"Ho, hum!" old Mr. Crow yawned. He had stopped to talk with Turkey
+Proudfoot in the cornfield. It was fall; and the shocks of corn stood on
+every hand like great fat scarecrows, with fat yellow pumpkins lying at
+their feet, as if the scarecrows' heads had fallen off.
+
+Mr. Crow always yawned a good deal when he chatted with Turkey Proudfoot
+and he wasn't always as careful as he might have been about covering up
+his yawns. Somehow Mr. Crow found Turkey Proudfoot dull company. Turkey
+Proudfoot had never been off the farm. On the other hand, old Mr. Crow
+was a great traveller. In his younger days he used to spend every winter
+in the South. And though he felt that the long journey had become too
+hard for him now, he thought nothing of flying around Blue Mountain and
+up and down Pleasant Valley.
+
+As a result of his wanderings Mr. Crow had learned many things. And as a
+result of his staying at home, Turkey Proudfoot had learned little or
+nothing. Often Turkey Proudfoot complained to Mr. Crow that he couldn't
+even understand what Mr. Crow was talking about. But on this occasion
+Mr. Crow mentioned something that made him shudder.
+
+"Ho, hum!" Mr. Crow yawned again. "My appetite isn't what it used to be.
+I believe I need to eat something tart. So I think I'll go over to the
+cranberry bog and pick a few cranberries. Why don't you come along with
+me?"
+
+"Ugh!" Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed. "Cranberries! I can't stand even the
+mention of them."
+
+"Ha!" Mr. Crow murmured to himself. "I've waked him up at last. I
+thought that would fetch him." And to Turkey Proudfoot he said, "Do you
+mean to tell me that you don't like cranberries? Why, I've always heard
+Turkey and cranberry sauce mentioned together."
+
+"Ah!" said Turkey Proudfoot. "I've no doubt you've heard them spoken of
+only too often. But that's no reason why I should be fond of cranberry
+sauce. To tell the truth, all my life I've schemed to keep away from
+it."
+
+"Then you don't care for the sharp taste of cranberries," said Mr. Crow.
+
+"I've never eaten any," Turkey Proudfoot told him. "I'm sure I couldn't
+eat any if I wanted to. I believe the sight of them would take my
+appetite away."
+
+Old Mr. Crow shook his head. And he leaned over to pick up a stray
+kernel of corn.
+
+"Don't take that!" Turkey Proudfoot warned him. "I've had my eye on that
+kernel. I was going to eat it as soon as you went away."
+
+Old Mr. Crow bolted the kernel of corn in a twinkling.
+
+"You forget that you're not in the farmyard," he said boldly. "You can't
+treat me as if I were a Hen." And he chuckled--in a croaking sort of
+fashion.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot glared at him. He knew that it was useless to rush at
+Mr. Crow. The old gentleman would only rise into the air and sail away
+with a loud haw-haw.
+
+Now, Mr. Crow was a famous tease. He dearly loved to annoy others. And
+he gave Turkey Proudfoot a sly glance.
+
+"Ouch!" he exclaimed. "I have a twinge of rheumatism."
+
+"Where is your pain?" asked Turkey Proudfoot.
+
+"In one of my drumsticks," said old Mr. Crow promptly, with a
+spluttering cough, to keep from laughing.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot was furious.
+
+"Cranberry sauce and drumsticks!" he exclaimed. "You do choose the most
+painful things to talk about."
+
+"I was only trying to be polite," Mr. Crow told him. "You're always
+complaining that I don't talk about matters you can understand."
+
+"I understand these only too well--" Turkey Proudfoot said--"especially
+at this season of the year!"
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+VACATION TIME
+
+
+It was well along in November. And Turkey Proudfoot was feeling
+fidgetty. Whenever Farmer Green or the hired man stepped into the yard,
+he started up with a wild look in his eye.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot was no longer roosting at night in the tree near the
+farmhouse.
+
+With the coming of cold weather he had been glad enough to roost under a
+shed beside the barn.
+
+Ever since the winter before, Turkey Proudfoot had enjoyed sound sleeps
+at night. But for weeks now he had often waked up in the middle of the
+night and found himself all a-shiver.
+
+"It's the fault of that horrid old Mr. Crow," Turkey Proudfoot
+complained to old dog Spot one day. "He would talk about cranberry sauce
+and drumsticks. And of course a person can't sleep well with such things
+on his mind."
+
+Old dog Spot nodded.
+
+"Isn't it about time for you to go on your yearly vacation?" he
+inquired.
+
+"Don't talk so loud!" Turkey Proudfoot hissed. And he took a quick
+glance all around. Then he said to old dog Spot, in almost a whisper,
+"To-morrow morning I'll be missing. Now, don't tell anybody!"
+
+"Certainly not!" Spot promised. "I'm glad you're going away for a little
+change. I've thought lately that you were getting more peevish and
+quarrelsome than ever."
+
+"I'm not!" Turkey Proudfoot gobbled. "I may be a bit excitable because
+I've lost a good deal of sleep lately. But I'm as good-natured as I ever
+was."
+
+"Oh, very well!" said Spot. "I'll admit all that. I certainly don't want
+to quarrel with you just as you're going to leave us for a while.... We
+shall miss you while you're gone," he added with a sly smile. "The place
+will seem very quiet without your gobble."
+
+"Yes, I dare say it will be lonesome around here," Turkey Proudfoot
+agreed. "And I suppose things will be in a muddle in the farmyard by the
+time I get back, with nobody to keep order there."
+
+"I'll do the best I can while you're away," old dog Spot promised.
+
+Turkey Proudfoot seemed doubtful that Spot could take his place.
+
+"Keep your tail still when you bark," he told the old dog. "These
+farmyard fowls won't pay much attention to you if they see your tail
+a-wagging."
+
+"I'll remember what you say," Spot answered.
+
+"Be sure to keep a sharp eye on that Rooster." Turkey Proudfoot went on.
+"I don't want him to get the idea into his head that he's running things
+in this, farmyard."
+
+"Very well!" said Spot. "Shall I let him crow a bit, if he wants to?"
+
+"Let him crow--yes!" Turkey Proudfoot answered. "But if he starts to
+gobbling--well, you'd better send for me at once."
+
+"What about the Peacock?" Spot inquired wickedly. He knew that Turkey
+Proudfoot was frightfully jealous of Johnnie Green's newest pet.
+
+"The Peacock!" Turkey Proudfoot squawked. "Pull out his tail
+feathers--every one of them! I've been intending to do that myself. But
+I've been so busy that I haven't had the time for it."
+
+Then they said good-by.
+
+"You ought to tell me where you're going," Spot suggested. "If the
+Rooster should gobble I must know where to find you."
+
+So Turkey Proudfoot told him. He told him in such a low tone that nobody
+else could hear.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+BROTHER TOM
+
+
+It was almost dark in the cornfield on a crisp evening late in November.
+It was not Farmer Green's field, but that of a neighbor of his. And it
+was far from any house.
+
+The pumpkins had been gathered weeks before. The cornstalks had long
+since been cut and now stood in shocks amidst the stubble.
+
+On the whole, the scene was bleak and dismal. Not a creature moved
+anywhere. Even the meadow, mice had already found the nights too chilly
+for their liking. Turkey Proudfoot was there alone, standing like a
+statue, as if he were waiting for somebody.
+
+"I don't see where he can be," Turkey Proudfoot muttered. "I've spent
+three days and three nights here already. And he has never been late
+before in all the years that I've been coming here for my vacation."
+
+At last Turkey Proudfoot bestirred himself. With a hop, skip and a jump
+he landed on top of the rail fence that surrounded the field and settled
+himself for the night.
+
+He had scarcely closed his eyes when a faint "_Gobble, gobble, gobble_"
+from across the cornfield drove all idea of sleep out of his head. He
+started up, stretched his long neck as high as he could, and burst forth
+with a deafening "_Gobble, gobble, gobble!_" Then he paused and
+listened.
+
+The answer soon reached him. It was nearer this time. And after Turkey
+Proudfoot had repeated his interesting remark about a dozen times a huge
+old turkey cock came running up and alighted, panting, upon the
+fence-rail where Turkey Proudfoot was roosting.
+
+"You're late," Turkey Proudfoot greeted him. "I'd begun to fear that you
+had met with an accident. What kept you?"
+
+"They shut me up in a pen," the newcomer told him. He was still somewhat
+out of breath, partly because of rage at having been imprisoned, partly
+because he had been hurrying. "They shut me up two days ago," he
+explained.
+
+"Ah!" Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed. "You ought to have left home three
+days ago. Did you forget our yearly meeting?"
+
+"No!" said the other. "But I must have miscounted the days."
+
+"That's very dangerous at this time of year," Turkey Proudfoot replied.
+"It's a wonder that you escaped from the pen. How did you manage to slip
+out!"
+
+"Somebody left the door ajar," said the strange turkey.
+
+"Ah! I've always claimed that our family was lucky!" Turkey Proudfoot
+cried. And he gave his companion a slap on the back with his wing.
+
+Now, that was a jolly thing to do--and not at all like Turkey Proudfoot.
+But he was glad to see the newcomer. They were brothers. They had been
+separated when quite young; and they had lived on neighboring farms all
+their lives.
+
+For a time they talked together pleasantly enough. Of course Turkey
+Proudfoot couldn't help boasting about the way he ruled the roost when
+he was at home. But his brother Tom was just as great a boaster. And
+after a time each began to think the other's stories somewhat tiresome.
+So they began to yawn. And at last they fell asleep.
+
+A crescent moon peeped down at them from a clear, cold sky that crackled
+with stars. A chilling breeze swept down the valley. And sometime during
+the night Turkey Proudfoot woke up and found himself a-shiver. He sidled
+along the rail and huddled against his brother Tom.
+
+Brother Tom stirred and stretched himself.
+
+"This night's a nipper, isn't it?" he remarked. "I can't help wishing my
+legs were like Mr. Grouse's."
+
+"Huh!" Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed. "You'd look queer--as fat as you
+are--if you had legs as short as his."
+
+"Ah! But his legs are feathered out. And there's nothing like feathers
+to keep the cold off," said Brother Tom.
+
+"I suppose," said Turkey Proudfoot, "Mr. Grouse's legs wouldn't get as
+cold as ours do, even if he hadn't a feather on them."
+
+"Why not?" asked Brother Tom.
+
+"Because they're shorter," said Turkey Proudfoot.
+
+Brother Tom made no reply. He was no longer awake.
+
+Being on the leeward side of his brother, Turkey Proudfoot began to feel
+warmer.
+
+"I'm glad Tom's a big fellow," he murmured drowsily. "He makes a fine
+windbreak." Then he too fell asleep.
+
+And the next day was Thanksgiving.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tale of Turkey Proudfoot, by 
+Arthur Scott Bailey
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