The other little girl was awfully frightened to have the hen-turkey take that tack.
“I should think she would 'a' been,” said the little girl; and she cuddled snugger into her papa's arms. “What could she say? Ugh! Go on.”
Well, she didn't know what to say, that's a fact. You see, she never thought of it in that light before. All she could say was, “Well, people have got reason, anyway, and turkeys have only got instinct; so there!”
“You'd better look out,” says the old hen-turkey; and all the little turkey chicks got so mad they just hopped, and the oldest little he-turkey, that was just beginning to be a gobbler, he dropped his wings and spread his tail just like his father, and walked round the other little girl till it was perfectly frightful.
“I should think they would 'a' been ashamed.”
Well, perhaps old First Premium was a little; because he stopped them. “My dear,” he says to the old hen-turkey, and chick-chickledren, “you forget yourselves; you should have a little consideration. Perhaps you wouldn't behave much better yourselves if you were just going to be eaten.”
And they all began to scream and to cry, “We've been eaten, and we're nothing but turkey ghosts.”
“There, now, papa,” says the little girl, sitting up straight, so as to argue better, “I knew it wasn't true, all along. How could turkeys have ghosts if they don't have souls, I should like to know?”