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 shining 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!"
"Oh, we have lots of them," said Bunny. "Don't we, Sue?"
"Yes, Bunny. But I don't like turkey adventures."
The next day the two children went after wild strawberries. Grandpa
Brown told them of a place, not far from the house, on a little hill,
where many berries grew.
"And you won't have to go near the turkey to get there, either," he
said. "Though I see you haven't your red dress on, Sue, so even if the
gobbler did see you, I don't believe he would chase you this time."
"I only wear my red dress when I go visiting," said Sue. "But I'm not
going to visit turkey gobblers any more."
Bunny and Sue found many berries on the hill their grandpa had told them
about, and soon their pail was half full. A little way off were some
woods, but before one came to the place where the trees grew thick, with
green moss beneath them, there was a field, and in this field Bunny saw
some bushes with deep, purple berries growing on them.
"Oh, Sue!" he cried. "Let's pick some raspberries! There's lots on those
bushes, and grandma can make raspberry jam, and put it in tarts, like
Aunt Lu did. Let's pick raspberries! We've got enough strawberries!"
"All right," answered Sue, for she was always ready to do what Bunny
wanted her to.
The two children were soon in the field, picking the purple raspberries.
They walked on and on, from one bush to another, and by the time their
pail was full, with the raspberries on top of the strawberries, they
were close to the woods.
"Let's go in and rest in the shade," Sue said. "I'm awful tired and hot,
Bunny."
"All right, we'll go in," and in they went. It was nice and cool beneath
the trees, and the children found a spring of water where they had a
drink, for they were thirsty.
"And I'm hungry, too," said Sue, after a bit. "Bunny, do you s'pose we
could eat some of the berries? We can pick more before we go home."
"Yes, we'll eat some, Sue."
Seated on the green moss, in the shade of a tree, Bunny and Sue ate the
berries, getting their faces and hands stained red and purple.
"But we can wash in the spring before we go home," Sue said, "so it will
be all right."
"Yes," agreed Bunny.
After resting a while the children washed at the spring, and took
another drink. Then they saw a big frog hopping along. He must have been
having a bath in the spring, which was almost as large as a washtub.
"Let's see if we can catch that frog!" cried Bunny. "We won't hurt him,
though."
So he and Sue followed the frog. But the frog was a good jumper, and led
the children quite a chase. And then, just when Bunny thought he was
going to put his hands on him, the big green fellow found another
spring, and into that he went with a splash, grunting as he did so:
"Ker-ugh! Ker-ung!"
"Oh, he's gone!" cried Sue, quite sadly.
"Never mind," replied Bunny. "We'll find another."
But they did not, though they waited around the second spring for some
time.
"I guess we'd better go home," said Bunny.
"Yes," agreed Sue, looking around at the trees on every side of them.
The children started, but going home was not as easy as it seemed. They
walked on and on, and soon Sue began to get tired.
"Aren't we at the place where we picked the berries?" she asked, after a
bit.
"Almost," answered Bunny. But though he looked and looked through the
trees he could not see the field and the little hill that was not far
from Grandpa Brown's house.
The children went on a little farther, until, all at once, Bunny
stumbled over a stone and fell.
The pail flew from his hand, and the berries spilled all over the
ground.
"Oh, dear!" cried Sue. Then she added quickly: "But I'll help you pick
them up, Bunny."
Bunny sat up and rubbed his knee. He wrinkled up his nose in a funny
way.
"Does it hurt?" asked Sue.
"My leg does, a little, but not my nose," Bunny said. And then he
laughed.
The children picked up the scattered berries. Their pail was only half
full now, for they could not find all the berries that had spilled.
"We'll have to pick a lot more," remarked Sue.
"Yes," said Bunny. "We will when we find the bushes."
On they went again. But it seemed that they would never get out of the
woods. After a while Bunny stopped, sat down on a log and said:
"Sue, I know what's the matter!"
"What?" asked the little girl. "Does your leg hurt? Is that what's the
matter?"
"No," answered Bunny. "The matter is--we're lost. That's why we can't
find the berry-bushes. We're lost, Sue!"