"Run under the fence and scratch him off!" gobbled his wife, the old turkey hen.
But no; he was deaf to their cries, and with pride gone and feathers clinging to his sides, he was running and jumping around the yard madly and blindly, nearly knocking his head off as first he ran dizzily into this and then into that.
When Zip had watched the excitement as long as he cared to, he thought, "Now is my time to grab Peter-Kins by the tail and pull him off that turkey's back before it kills itself."
So with one bound he was through the fence and had Peter-Kins' tail in his mouth before he ever saw him coming. But the monkey did not drop from the turkey's back as Zip thought he would. He only clung the tighter, and with his arms around the turkey's neck and with his knees digging into the turkey's sides, Zip could not dislodge him.
Zip being too stubborn to let go the monkey's tail, the three queer looking objects went running around and around the barnyard together, under wagons, between coops, across the watering trough. Sometimes running, sometimes jumping or half flying went the long-legged turkey with the bobbing monkey on its back, whose tail was in the little dog's mouth.
This was what Miss Belinda saw when she returned from market and looked into her barnyard to see what was causing all her fowls to make such a fuss.
"Well, I declare, if there isn't a little dog chasing my chickens and turkeys! But what is that on the big gobbler's back? Sure as I live, it is Peter-Kins! Here, you horrid little dog, let go my darling Peter-Kins' tail!" and Miss Belinda picked up a long-handled rake that was leaning against the fence and went after Zip.
All this time Polly had been screeching, "Help! Help! Naughty Peter-Kinks! Spank! Spank!"
Zip held on the monkey's tail until the rake appeared over his head, then he let go quickly, giving an extra bite to the tip, which came off in his mouth. He jumped back just in time to save himself from being hit on the head, for the rake came down with such force that it laid both the turkey and Peter-Kins out flat on their backs, where they lay kicking as if in the throes of death.
Miss Belinda thought she had killed her pets, and began to cry as she picked them up.