THE WILD TURKEY. 43 



any person except a great prince who has carroty hair 

 and a turned-up nose, and has slain more men single- 

 handed than the hero in a dime novel." 



" Go on with your romancing." 



" All right. Now, you may not believe it, but I can 

 assure you I have seen that turkey running through the 

 woods without even a pin-feather on him. And I can 

 also tell you that he didn't present a very respectable 

 appearance without his clothes." 



" What became of them? " 

 ■ " They were all shot away by hunters." 



We had reached the thicket by this time, and, on en- 

 tering it, I saw bunches of feathers on the ground. 



"You see," exclaimed my companion, "he's leaving 

 them behind him. You may get enough to stuff a bed, 

 if you keep on — " 



I bounded forward before he could finish the sentence, 

 for, lying on a bier composed of gaudy flowers, was the 

 stately creature whose beauty I had so much admired, 

 and whose life I had so eagerly sought. Lifting it up by 

 the legs, I dangled it before my comrade's eyes, and, 

 straightening myself up so as to assume as much altitude 

 as possible, I looked him boldly in the face, while my 

 features beamed with rectitude and the self-assertive air 

 of a great conqueror. After staring at each other in 

 silence for a short time, he curled up his lip, and said, 

 disparagingly: 



"Phew! that's nothing; that's not the gobbler I was 

 talking about. Why, anybody that wasn't stone-blind 

 could kill that fellow." 



"That will do," I replied; "you are so Jealous of me 

 that you can't speak well of anything I do." 



"Well, you haven't much to be proud of there, for 

 that veteran is as old as the hills. He is the patriarch of 

 the forest." 



** I killed him, anyhow, and didn't run away from him, 



