Poor Minty! She ran fast, never looking back, although the minister"s daughter called to her in kindliest tones.
There was no hope of keeping a secret from Aunt Kittredge when once she had discovered that there was one. The only chance of saving Priscilla"s life lay in persuading Lot Rankin to care for and conceal her.
But, alas! she found that Lot was not to be persuaded. He was going into the woods to work, and his mother was "set against turkeys."
Moreover, she was "so lonesome most of the time that when folks _did_ come along she told "em all she knew."
Jason, who had been very anxious, met her at the corner. Perhaps it was not to be wondered at that Jason was somewhat cross and unreasonable. He said only a girl would be so foolish as to send that feather to the minister"s daughter. Girls were all silly, even those who had high foreheads, and he would never trust one again. He hoped she was going to have sense enough not to tell, no matter what Aunt Kittredge did.
Poor Minty felt herself to be quite unequal to resisting Aunt Kittredge, but she swallowed a lump in her throat and said firmly that she would try to have sense enough.
As they pa.s.sed the blacksmith"s shop, Liphlet, Uncle Piper"s man, called out to them: "Mebbe I shan"t have time to go up to your house.
The blacksmith is sick, so I had to come over here to get the mare shod, and I wish you"d tell your aunt that Sabriny says "twan"t no turkey"s wing that she sent her: "twas some kind of a sea-bird"s wing, and it come off of somebody"s bunnit, and she"s a-goin" to fetch it back!"
Minty and Jason answered not a word, but as they went on they looked at each other despairingly.
"We should have been found out anyway," said Minty.
Her pitifully white face seemed to touch Jason and arouse a spark of manly courage in his bosom.
"I"ll stand by you, Mint, feather and all. You can"t help being a girl," he said magnanimously. "And I won"t run away to be a cowboy like Hiram Trickey."
Minty gave him a little grateful glance, but she could not speak. It did not seem so dreadful now about Hiram Trickey. She wished that a girl could run away to be a cowboy.
As they slowly and dejectedly drew near the house, they saw a horse and a farm wagon at the door, and through the window they discovered that Uncle and Aunt Kittredge, Clorinda, and Cyrus were all in the kitchen. There was a visitor. Here was at least a slight reprieve.
They went around through the woodshed; it seemed advisable to approach Aunt Kittredge with caution, even in the presence of a visitor.
"Well, I must say I"m consid"able disappointed," the visitor was saying, as they softly opened the door. He was a bluff, burly man, who sat with his tall whip between his knees. "I ought to "a" stopped when I see her out there top of the stone wall the last time I come by--the handsomest turkey cretur I ever did see, and I"ve been in the poultry business this twenty years. I knew in a minute she belonged to that breed that old Mis" Joskins had; she fetched "em from York State. She moved away before I knew it, and carried "em all with her."
"I bought some eggs of her, and "most all of "em hatched, but that white turkey was the only one that lived," said Aunt Kittredge. "I declare if I"d known she was anything more"n common, and worthy of havin" her picture in a book--"
"You"d ought to have known it, Maria!" said Uncle Kittredge testily.
"I wa"n"t for havin" her killed, and you"d ought to have heard to me!"
"I was calc"latin" to hev her picter right in the front of my new poultry book," continued the visitor, whom the children now recognized as the distinguished poultry dealer of North Edom for whom Cyrus had once worked. "And I was going to have printed under it, "From the farm of Abner Kittredge, Esq., Corinna." Be kind of a boom for you "n"
Corinna, too--see? And if you didn"t want to sell her right out, I was calc"latin" to make you a handsome offer for all the eggs she laid."
"There! Now you see what you"ve done, Maria! I declare I wouldn"t gredge givin" a twenty dollar bill to fetch that white turkey back!"
exclaimed Uncle Kittredge.
"Oh, oh! Uncle Kittredge!" Minty broke away from Jason, who would have held her back, not feeling sure that it was quite time to speak, and rushed into the room. "You needn"t give twenty dollars! Priscilla is down in the little shanty in the logging wood! We saved her--Jason and I--and we bought a turkey of Jonas Hicks instead. I paid with my own money, Aunt Kittredge! And then I--I took the gull"s wing off the minister"s daughter"s hat to send to Sabriny, and--and so that"s why I sent her the blue feather, and--and Sabriny"s going to send the gull"s wing back--"
"Jason, you go and fetch that turkey home!" said Uncle Kittredge.
"And, Maria, don"t you blame them children one mite!"
"I never heard of such high-handed doin"s!" gasped Aunt Kittredge.
"I expect I shall have to send you children each a copy of my book with the picter of that turkey in it," said the poultry dealer. "And maybe the boy and I can make kind of a contract about eggs and chickens."
The minister"s daughter wore her gull"s wing to church the next Sunday, and she privately confided to Minty that she "didn"t blame her one bit." Aunt Kittredge looked at Minty somewhat severely for several days but only as she looked at her when she turned around in church or fidgeted in the long prayer. And after the poultry book came out with Priscilla"s photograph as a frontispiece, and people began to make pilgrimages to the Red Hill farm to see the poultry, she was heard to say several times that "it was wonderful to see how a smart boy like Jason could make turkey raising pay," and that "as for Minty, she always knew that high forehead of hers wasn"t for nothing."
THE THANKSGIVING GOOSE[18]
BY FANNIE WILDER BROWN.
How a little boy learned to be thankful. A charming story even though it _has_ a moral.
"But I don"t like roast goose," said Guy, pouting. "I"d rather have turkey. Turkey is best for Thanksgiving, anyway. Goose is for Christmas."
[Footnote 18: From the _Youth"s Companion_, November 26, 1908.]
Guy"s mother did not answer. He watched her while she carefully wrote G. T. W. on the corner of a pretty new red-bordered handkerchief. Five others, all alike, and all marked alike, lay beside it. The initials were his own.
"Why didn"t you buy some blue ones? I"d rather have them different,"
he said.
Mrs. Wright smiled a queer little smile, but did not answer. She lighted a large lamp and held the marked corner of one of the handkerchiefs against the hot chimney. The heat made the indelible ink turn dark, although the writing had been so faint Guy hardly could see it before.
"Oh, dear," he cried, "there"s a little blot at the top of that T! I don"t want to carry a handkerchief that has a blot on it."
"Very well," said his mother. "I"ll put them away, and you may carry your old ones until you ask me to let you carry this one. I don"t care to furnish new things for a boy who doesn"t appreciate them."
"I don"t like old--"
"That"ll do, Guy. Never mind the rest of the things that you don"t like. I want you to take this dollar down to Mrs. Burns. Tell her that I shall have a day"s work for her on Friday, and I thought she might like to have part of the pay in advance to help make Thanksgiving with. Please go now."
"But a dollar won"t help much. She won"t like that. She always acts just as if she was as happy as anybody. I don"t want to go there on such an errand as that."
Mrs. Wright smiled again, but her tone was very grave.
"Mrs. Burns is "as happy as anybody," Guy, and she has the best-behaved children in the neighbourhood. The little ones almost never cry, and I never have seen the older ones quarrel. But there are eight children, and Mr. Burns has only one arm, so he can"t earn much money. Mrs. Burns has to turn her hands to all sorts of things to keep the children clothed and fed. She"ll be thankful to get the dollar--you see if she isn"t! And tell her if she is making mince pies to sell this year, I"ll take three."
Guy walked very slowly down the street until he came to the little house where the Burns family lived.
"I"d hate to live here," he thought. "I don"t see where they all sleep. My room isn"t big enough, but I don"t believe there"s a room in this house as big as mine. I shouldn"t have a bit of fun, ever, if I lived here. And I"d hate to have my mother make pies and send me about to sell them."
Then he knocked on the front door, for there was no bell. No one came.
He could hear people talking in the distance, so he knew some of the family were at home. Some one always was at home here to look after the little children. He walked around to the kitchen door: it stood open. The children were talking so fast they did not hear his knock.
They were very busy. Katie, the eleven-year-old, and Malcolm, ten, Guy"s age, were cutting citron into long, thin strips, piling it on a big blue plate. Mary and James, the eight-year-old twins, were paring apples with a paring machine. The long, curling skins fell in a large stone jar standing on a clean paper, spread on the floor. Charlie, who was only four years old, was watching to see that none of the parings fell over the edge of the jar. Susan, who was seven, was putting raisins, a few at a time, into a meat chopper screwed down on the kitchen table. George, three years old, was turning the handle of the chopper to grind the raisins. Baby Joe was creeping about the kitchen floor after a kitten. Mrs. Burns was taking a great piece of meat from a steaming kettle on the back of the stove. Every one was working, except the baby and the kitten, but all seemed to be having a glorious time. What they were saying seemed so funny it was some time before Guy could understand it. At last he was sure it was some kind of a game.
"Mice?" asked Susan. Mary squealed, and they all laughed.
"Because they"re small," said Mary. "Snakes?"
"They can"t climb trees," Mrs. Burns called out from the pantry. The children fairly roared at that. "A pantry with no window in it?"