"No, I can't," said Ellen, "I can't leave it till it's done.
Why, I thought Mr. John was here! I didn't see him go out.
I'll come in a little while."
"Did he set you about that precious piece of business?" said
William.
"Yes."
"I declare," said Margaret, "he's fitter to be the Grand Turk than any one else I know of."
"I don't know who the Grand Turk is," said Ellen.
"I'll tell you," said William, putting his mouth close to her ear, and speaking in a disagreeable loud whisper, "it's the biggest gobbler in the yard."
"Ain't you ashamed, William!" cried little Ellen Chauncey.
"That's it exactly," said Margaret "always strutting about."
"He isn't a bit," said Ellen, very angry; "I've seen people a great deal more like gobblers than he is."
"Well," said William, reddening in his turn, "I had rather, at any rate, be a good turkey gobbler, than one of those outlandish birds that have an appetite for stones, and glass, and bits of morocco, and such things. Come, let us leave her to do the Grand Turk's bidding. Come, Ellen Chauncey, you mustn't stay to interrupt her we want you!"