58 BEYOND THE PASTURE BARS 



geese and guineas and pigs and pigeons, cows and 

 horses and mules, cats and dogs, chickens and 

 bees and sheep, and a hornets' nest and a nest 

 of flying squirrels in the same old grindstone ap- 

 ple-tree, and a pair of barn owls in the old wagon 

 house, and I don't know what else; for there 

 was everything on the old farm when I was a boy, 

 and I suppose we shall find everything there yet. 



I want you to see the turkeys. I want you to 

 follow an old hen turkey to her stolen nest. I 

 want you to watch the old gobbler turkey take his 

 family to bed to roost, I mean. For unless you 

 are a boy, and are living in the wild portions of 

 Georgia and the southeastern states, you may 

 never see a wild turkey. For that reason I want 

 you to watch this tame turkey, because he is al- 

 most as wild as a wild turkey in everything ex- 

 cept his fear of you. He has been tamed, we 

 know, since the year 1526, yet not one of his wild 

 habits has been changed. 



So it is with the house cat. We have tamed 

 the house cat, but we have not changed the wild, 

 night-prowling hunter in him. You have to 

 smooth a cat the right way, or the wild cat in him 

 will scratch and bite you. Have you never seen 

 his tail twitch, his eyes blaze, his claws work as 



