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 do
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