BATTLE OF THE TURKEYS. 37 



know, by intuition, the limits of their own 

 fields ; where they have a right to go, and 

 where they sometimes go without any right. 

 On their own ground they have a look of 

 self-importance and honest pride that would 

 scorn an evil deed ; but when they go where 

 they know they ought not to go, they look, 

 and I am sure they feel, like sneaks and 

 humbugs, however much they may try to 

 disguise that consciousness. A pig in the 

 farmyard is a pig in satisfied possession of 

 his rights ; but if by accident a gate has been 

 left open, and he sneaks into the kitchen 

 garden, he knows perfectly well that he is a 

 burglar. How excitedly he pegs into the 

 young potatoes or luscious green food, how 

 well he knows that his opportunity is short, 

 how cleverly he makes the best of it, and 

 how quickly he scampers away at the bang 

 of a door or crunch of a footstep. 



The Sultan of our Turks was strutting 

 about in an excited manner, and working 

 himself into a tremendous passion. Some- 

 times I have noticed that he ruffles himself 

 up in this way out of a feeling of pride and 

 vanity, for the purpose of showing himself 

 off to the admiring gaze of his family ; but 

 on this occasion he was animated by passion 

 and insulted dignity. His long coxcomb (or 



