THE RED COW 



finally got broody she was given seventeen eggs and 

 allowed to settle down to the task of incubating 

 Christmas dinners. As far as she was concerned 

 this was all right, for she is a modest, quiet bird, 

 whose presence would never be noticed. But this is 

 not the case with her lordly spouse. Every morning 

 at about a quarter to four he comes down from his 

 perch on the ridge-pole of the stable and struts down 

 to see if his lady has passed a comfortable night. As 

 the grass is long and wet with dew he comes to the 

 lawn and sends her his morning greetings, and I can 

 tell you that a forty-pound gobbler can let out a very 

 considerable amount of noise. He gets right under 

 my window and explodes into assorted sounds. Once 

 a minute, or oftener, he lets out a gobble, until I get 

 up and throw a shoe or a hairbrush at him. Then I 

 go back to bed and try to sleep until it is time to 

 get up. If there is any way of treating his vocal 

 cords so as to stop this morning charivari I wish 

 some scientist would write and tell me about it. And, 

 by the way, I can give him a little interesting in- 

 formation in return. After she was given her eggs 

 the turkey hen evidently became dissatisfied with her 

 nest and moved to a new location about faur feet 

 away. In order to do this she had to move her 



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