ave only got instinct; so
there!"

"You'd better look out," says the old hen-turkey; and all the little
turkey chicks got so mad they just hopped, and the oldest little
he-turkey, that was just beginning to be a gobbler, he dropped his
wings and spread his tail just like his father, and walked round the
other little girl till it was perfectly frightful.

"I should think they would 'a' been ashamed."

Well, perhaps old First Premium _was_ a little; because he stopped
them. "My dear," he says to the old hen-turkey, and chick-chickledren,
"you forget yourselves; you should have a little consideration.
Perhaps you wouldn't behave much better yourselves if you were just
going to be eaten."

And they all began to scream and to cry, "We've _been_ eaten, and
we're nothing but turkey ghosts."

"_There_, now, papa," says the little girl, sitting up straight, so as
to argue better, "I _knew_ it wasn't true, all along. How could turkeys
have ghosts if they don't have souls, I should like to know?"

"Oh, easily," said the papa.

"Tell how," said the little girl.

"Now look here," said the papa, "are you telling this story, or am I?"

"You are," said the little girl, and she cuddled down again. "Go on."

"Well, then, don't you interrupt. Where was I? Oh yes."

Well, he couldn't do anything with them, old First Premium couldn't.
They acted perfectly ridiculous, and one little brat of a spiteful
little chick piped out, "I speak for a drumstick, ma!" and then they
all began: "I want a wing, ma!" and "I'm going to have the wish-bone!"
and "I shall have just as much stuffing as ever I please, shan't I,
ma?" till the other little girl was perfectly disgusted with them; she
thought they oughtn't to say it before her, anyway; but she had hardly
thought this before they all screamed out, "They used to say it before
_us_," and then she didn't know what to say, because she knew how
people talked before animals.

"I don't believe I ever did," said the little girl. "Go on."

Well, old First Premium tried to quiet them again, and when he
couldn't he apologized to the other little girl so nicely that she
began to like him. He said they didn't mean any harm by it; they were
just excited, and chickledren would be chickledren.

"Yes," said the other little girl, "but I think you might take some
older person to begin with. It's a perfect shame to begin with a
little girl."