ss. And I
think the little girl's red dress made the gobbler more angry than he
would otherwise have been. Gobblers don't like red, for some reason or
other.
"Gobble-obble-obble!" called the big turkey. Oh, but he must have been
surprised! He did not know what to do. He just danced around and around,
trying to shake the pail off his neck. If he had only lowered his head,
as he did when picking up corn, the pail would have slid off. But the
gobbler did not think of that.
Perhaps he still thought he could find Sue, and pick her legs with his
sharp beak because she wore a red dress that he did not like. And it was
such a pretty red dress, too, and Sue looked so nice in it.
"Gobble-obble-obble!" went the turkey, louder than ever.
"Oh, Bunny! Bunny!" cried Sue, as she ran toward her brother. "What did
you do to him?"
"I--I tried to hit him with the pail, to make him let you alone," said
Bunny, "but the pail went on his neck. Wasn't I a good shot, Sue?"
"Yes," she said. "And now let's run before he comes after us again. Run,
Bunny, run!"
"But I--I want my pail!" Bunny said, holding back. "The turkey has my
pail, and we can't get any strawberries."
But though Sue was younger than Bunny she knew it would never do to try
and take the pail away from the turkey now.
"You can't get it, Bunny," she said. "If you take it away from him he'll
bite you. 'Sides, when he has it on him that way it's just like the
blinkers on a horse. He can't see us. Come on."
What Sue said was true. The turkey could not see the children as long as
the pail was on his neck in that way.
"When he drops it off we can come back and get it--maybe when he has
gone to bed, Bunny," said Sue. "Turkeys go to bed early; don't they?"
"Maybe," answered her brother. He knew chickens went to bed, or to
"roost" as it is called, quite early, and a turkey, after all, was like
a big chicken, or rooster.
"Well, when he goes to bed we'll come and get the pail," said Sue. "Only
we can't get any strawberries then, 'cause it'll be dark."
"All right," agreed Bunny, as he hurried across the field with Sue.
"We'll let him have the pail for a while."
It seemed the only thing to do, as the turkey was waltzing, dancing and
strutting about, with the pail still on his neck, making his funny
noise.
"Gobble-obble-obble!"
He did not try to find Sue, and her red dress, or even Bunny now.
Probably the gobbler was trying to get the pail off his head. And,
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