XXI
FARMYARD MANNERS
"Oh, very well!" said Simon Screecher to Turkey Proudfoot. "I'll give my cousin your message. I'll tell him that you want him to meet you here in this clearing in the woods to-morrow night." So off Simon Screecher flew.
He had not been gone long when a noisy "haw-haw-hoo-hoo" rolled and echoed through the woods.
"He's laughing!" Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed. "Solomon Owl is laughing. I wonder what the joke is." He was so curious to know that he actually began to wish that Simon Screecher would hurry[p. 101] back. And after a little while he did.
"What was the joke?" Turkey Proudfoot demanded. "I heard you cousin laughing."
"Solomon Owl says that he doesn't care to meet you at all," Simon Screecher explained. "He says he has heard about you before and that you're a tough old bird."
"I'm not!" Turkey shrieked. "I'm very tender—and I'm not ten years old."
"Solomon Owl says he doesn't care to bother with any but the very youngest Turkeys."