Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
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.
"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.
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.
"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. On the lawn before Farmer Green's house Turkey Proudfoot saw such a sight as he had never expected to behold.
I know not whether the truth was so, nor who took the tattle of our mess to headquarters, but Webb's regiment, as its Colonel, was known to be in the Commander-in-Chief's black books: "And if he did not dare to break it up at home," our gallant old chief used to say, "he was determined to destroy it before the enemy;" so that poor Major Proudfoot was put into a post of danger.
Every one of them took another step towards him. 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.
They walked together down the bluff, to where another little cavern, low and shallow, hid itself behind huckleberry-bushes. "I kep' the money here," Proudfoot said, kneeling in the cramped entrance and delving among the rocks. He drew out a roll of bills and fingered them thoughtfully. "The reward, now, hit was fifteen hundred dollars with what the State an' company both give, warn't it?
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.
"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.
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.
Word Of The Day