Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Grandpa's Farm Part 20

"Gobble--obble--obble!" cried the turkey, but of course Bunny Brown and his sister Sue did not know what the gobbler was saying.

"Oh, take him away, Bunny! Take him away!" cried the little girl, dancing up and down, her red dress fluttering in the wind.

CHAPTER XIV

LOST IN THE WOODS

Bunny Brown did not just know how he was going to drive the angry turkey gobbler away from his sister Sue. He did not stop to think of that, but, like the brave little fellow he was, he ran toward Sue, ready to do something. The gobbler was closer to Sue now.

"I've got to drive him away! I've got to drive him away!" said Bunny to himself, over and over again.

"Oh, Bunny! Bunny!" cried Sue. "Take him away! Take him away!"

This would have been hard for Bunny to do, for the gobbler was a very big one, and Bunny could never in the world have lifted him.

"I wish my dog Splash were here!" thought Bunny. "He'd make that old gobbler run!"

But Splash was not there. He had run off down the road with another dog, just before Bunny Brown and his sister Sue set off together.

"Gobble-obble-obble!" cried the turkey. He spread out his wings wider than ever, and the red thing that hung down over his "nose," as Sue called his beak, seemed to stand up straight, he was so angry.

"Oh, Bunny!" and Sue was screaming now. "Help me, Bunny!"

And then, all at once, Bunny thought of something.

In his hand he carried a tin pail, which he and Sue had hoped to fill with wild strawberries on their way back from playing with the children in the next house. Raising this pail over his head, Bunny threw it as straight as he could at the gobbler.

And, to Bunny's surprise, the pail went right over the turkey's head. It caught by the wire handle around the gobbler's neck, and hung in such a way that the gobbler could no longer see Sue and her red dress. And I think the little girl's red dress made the gobbler more angry than he would otherwise have been. Gobblers don't like red, for some reason or other.

"Gobble-obble-obble!" called the big turkey. Oh, but he must have been surprised! He did not know what to do. He just danced around and around, trying to shake the pail off his neck. If he had only lowered his head, as he did when picking up corn, the pail would have slid off. But the gobbler did not think of that.

Perhaps he still thought he could find Sue, and pick her legs with his sharp beak because she wore a red dress that he did not like. And it was such a pretty red dress, too, and Sue looked so nice in it.

"Gobble-obble-obble!" went the turkey, louder than ever.

"Oh, Bunny! Bunny!" cried Sue, as she ran toward her brother. "What did you do to him?"

"I--I tried to hit him with the pail, to make him let you alone," said Bunny, "but the pail went on his neck. Wasn't I a good shot, Sue?"

"Yes," she said. "And now let's run before he comes after us again. Run, Bunny, run!"

"But I--I want my pail!" Bunny said, holding back. "The turkey has my pail, and we can't get any strawberries."

But though Sue was younger than Bunny she knew it would never do to try and take the pail away from the turkey now.

"You can't get it, Bunny," she said. "If you take it away from him he'll bite you. 'Sides, when he has it on him that way it's just like the blinkers on a horse. He can't see us. Come on."

What Sue said was true. The turkey could not see the children as long as the pail was on his neck in that way.

"When he drops it off we can come back and get it--maybe when he has gone to bed, Bunny," said Sue. "Turkeys go to bed early; don't they?"

"Maybe," answered her brother. He knew chickens went to bed, or to "roost" as it is called, quite early, and a turkey, after all, was like a big chicken, or rooster.

"Well, when he goes to bed we'll come and get the pail," said Sue. "Only we can't get any strawberries then, 'cause it'll be dark."

"All right," agreed Bunny, as he hurried across the field with Sue.

"We'll let him have the pail for a while."

It seemed the only thing to do, as the turkey was waltzing, dancing and strutting about, with the pail still on his neck, making his funny noise.

"Gobble-obble-obble!"

He did not try to find Sue, and her red dress, or even Bunny now.

Probably the gobbler was trying to get the pail off his head. And, just as Bunny and Sue reached the fence, and crawled through, to the road, where the gobbler could not get them, the big turkey did manage to get rid of the pail.

He put his head down, and the pail handle slipped over his neck. Then, with a loud gobble, he ran toward Bunny and Sue. But they were safe on the other side of the fence by this time.

"Oh, Bunny, I'm so glad!" said Sue. "It's a good thing you had that pail with you!"

"Well, if I couldn't throw that at him I could throw a stone," said Bunny.

But I think the pail was just the very best thing the little boy could have thrown at the gobbler. Besides, it did not hurt him, as a stone might have done.

Looking back, to see where the pail lay, Bunny went on with Sue to the house where they were to spend the afternoon. They found their little friends waiting for them, and, after telling about the turkey, the children had fine fun.

"That was Mr. North's turkey," said Gladys Parker, one of the little girls. "He's real mean, that turkey is, and chases everybody."

"Well, he chased me," said Sue, "only Bunny made him stop."

"I'm glad you did," said Ethel Burke. "Maybe he'll be a better gobbler after this."

The children played many games, they had fun in the swing, and Mrs.

Parker gave them all some milk and cookies for lunch.

When it came time for Bunny and Sue to go home they went past the field where the gobbler had been. He was not there now, as the children found, after looking carefully about. Maybe he had gone to bed, for it was about time for the chickens to go to roost. Turkeys like to roost in trees, you know, and not in a coop, as chickens do. And perhaps the big gobbler was, even then, perched up in some tree, with his head under his wing. And, for all I know, perhaps he was dreaming of a little girl in a red dress, and a boy who threw a pail over a turkey's head. That is if gobblers do dream.

"Oh, there's the pail!" cried Bunny, as he saw the s.h.i.+ning tin in the middle of the field. "I'm going to get it, Sue."

And Bunny did. It was too late, then, to pick any of the wild strawberries, but Bunny and Sue knew they could come some other time.

They reached home safely, and told about the gobbler.

"My!" exclaimed Grandma Brown. "But that was quite an adventure, Bunny and Sue!"