THE TUBKET. 



Roast turkey is one among the many good tMngs for which 

 the world has to thank Colxunbus ; for, prior to the discovery 

 of America, it was a " dainty dish " that had never been set 

 before even the king. Cynics and misanthropes may curve 

 their profound noses at a man who could waste a word about 

 BO trifling an afiair ; but for that I don't care. To discard 

 turkey, is to knock away one of the prime buttresses of Christ- 

 mas, and to do damage to that venerated institution is, as 

 every Englishman is prepared to vouch, ultra-paganish, and 

 deserving of the stocks at the very least. Trifling, indeed! 

 To pacify ten thousand hungry bellies, to make twenty thou- 

 sand eyes twinkle again, is a worthy achievement. Were I a 

 descendant of Columbus, I would insist on adding a turkey 

 to my armorial bearings. 



The wild American fellow was, however, of more gigantic 

 stature than is meleagius domesHcus — the domestic turkey. 

 The former bird measured five feet from his beak to his tail's 

 tip ; when he spread his wings they covered full six feet of 

 ground. In a " Perfect Description of Virginia," a quaint 

 volume, printed by hands that two hundred years ago had gone 

 to dust, we are told the colonists of the new world had 

 " wilde turkies, some weighing sixtie pound weight." Even at; 

 the present day, they abound in great flocks in the vicinity of' 

 the Ohio and Mississippi, though they either have dwindled in 

 29 



