e was the
old tom-turkey a struttin' and a sidlin' and a quitterin,' and a
floutin' his tail-feathers in the sun, like a lively young widower, all
ready to begin life over agin.

"'But,' says Huldy, 'you know he can't set on eggs.'

"'He can't? I'd like to know why,' says the parson. 'He 'shall' set on
eggs, and hatch 'em too.'

"'O doctor!' says Huldy, all in a tremble; 'cause, you know, she
didn't want to contradict the minister, and she was afraid she should
laugh,--'I never heard that a tom-turkey would set on eggs.'

"'Why, they ought to,' said the parson, getting quite 'arnest: 'what
else be they good for? you just bring out the eggs, now, and put 'em in
the nest, and I'll make him set on 'em.'

"So Huldy she thought there wern't no way to convince him but to let him
try: so she took the eggs out, and fixed 'em all nice in the nest;
and then she come back and found old Tom a skirmishin' with the parson
pretty lively, I tell ye. Ye see, old Tom he didn't take the idee at
all; and he flopped and gobbled, and fit the parson; and the parson's
wig got 'round so that his cue stuck straight out over his ear, but he'd
got his blood up. Ye see, the old doctor was used to carryin' his p'ints
o' doctrine; and he hadn't fit the Arminians and Socinians to be beat by
a tom-turkey; so finally he made a dive, and ketched him by the neck
in spite o' his floppin', and stroked him down, and put Huldy's apron
'round him.

"'There, Huldy,' he says, quite red in the face, 'we've got him now;
'and he travelled off to the barn with him as lively as a cricket.

[Illustration: Huldy came behind chokin' with laugh, Page 065]

"Huldy came behind jist chokin' with laugh, and afraid the minister
would look 'round and see her.

"'Now, Huldy, we'll crook his legs, and set him down,' says the parson,
when they got him to the nest: 'you see he is getting quiet, and he'll
set there all right.'

"And the parson, he sot him down; and old Tom he sot there solemn
enough, and held his head down all droopin', lookin' like a rail pious
old cock, as long as the parson sot by him.

"'There: you see how still he sets,' says the parson to Huldy.

"Huldy was 'most dyin' for fear she should laugh. 'I'm afraid he'll get
up,' says she, 'when you do.'

"'Oh, no, he won't!' says the parson, quite confident. 'There, there,'
says he, layin' his hands on him, as if pronouncin' a blessin'. But when
the parson riz up, old Tom he riz up too, and began to