“Now, it’s the nature of turkeys, when they see another one holding up something that seems like a good, tempting morsel, to close in on the run and get their share. So in they tore. First hen turkey, however run off with the rabbit. She thought it must be good to eat, seeing that all the others were after her hotfoot. When she had run as long as she could, with every once in awhile another turkey getting in a peck at it, she laid it down to take a peck herself, and the others crowded around, shutting their eyes and getting in their work, and before they knew what they were pecking at they had torn that poor little rabbit all to bits.”
The audience blinked up at him, as yet hardly understanding the application of the allegory. He straightened till his head grazed the cracked ceiling.
“Since then I have always had an eye out to protect the innocent little rabbits from excited turkeys, who most likely might be sorry after they realised what they were pecking at.”
Esther Dunham interrupted him. She half rose from her seat and cried in shrill tones:
“As near as I can ketch what you’re drivin’ at, Squire Look, you’re callin’ me a hen turkey and you’re flingin’ out that the rest of the women in this school deestrick are turkeys, too. I for one don’t consider that is a compliment, and I don’t propose to sit here and listen to any more of that sort of talk.”
He smiled indulgently at her excitement and went on:
“As old Anse Breed, the chicken thief, used to say, ‘It’s a wise fowl that doesn’t step off the roost on to the first warm board that’s stuck up in the night.’
“Now, we’ll just let the story I’ve told stand for what it’s worth. But you mustn’t expect me to argue in defence of such turkeys. And if you ever see an old gobbler named Phineas Look forgetting himself to any such extent you may throw just as many stones at me as you like till I come to my right senses.
“You all know why you’ve met here to-night. All this gossip and guess-so and say-so has been thrashed over at back doors and front doors, upstairs and downstairs. I’ll not soil my tongue by rolling it in my mouth.”
“It’s the bus’ness of this meeting to bring out the evidence,” blurted “Wolf” Doughty.