He had never felt so ill at ease in all his life. But he remembered that he was the ruler of the turkey flock and the handsomest bird on the farm. It would never do to have it said that he ran away from six silly geese.
"I'll scare 'em," he thought. Thereupon he burst into a deafening gobble and took one step towards the geese.
He had fully expected to see them fall back. What they actually did was most annoying. Every one of them took another step towards him.
V
A SAFE PERCH
As Turkey Proudfoot faced the six geese in the farmyard he began to feel that he had made a great mistake in speaking to them. Their hisses were far from agreeable. They were even threatening.
"This will never do," Turkey Proudfoot muttered to himself. "No doubt I could whip all six of them; but they'd be likely to pull some of my tail feathers out. And I don't want my tail spoiled." For a moment or two he didn't know what to do. But suddenly an idea popped into his head.
"Follow me!" he ordered the geese.[p. 21] And wheeling about, he marched off across the farmyard.