“Was that a wild one that the dogs couldn’t catch?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me about some tame ones. Do they live in the woods?”
“No, they live in the barnyard with the chickens, and the cows, and the horses. Why, did you never see one?”
“Yes, but I want to hear you tell about them—that’s better than seeing.”
Jim could hold in no longer. He had become so excited that he kept rubbing one shoe against the other, twisting and squirming like an eel. At last he burst out:
“An’ one o’ gobble-gobble was dat ornery, Mammy Henny shut him up in de coop!”
Aunt Nancy turned in astonishment, and Chad, who had come in with some dishes, was about to crush him with a look, when the Colonel said, with a sly twinkle in his eye:
“What did he do, Jim?”
“Jes’ trompled de li’l teeny chickens an’ eat up all de corn an’ wouldn’t let nobody come nigh him. An’ he was dat swelled up!”