ZIP, PETER-KINS AND THE TURKEY GOBBLER
Promptly at nine-thirty the next morning the doctor's carriage appeared in
front of his patient's house opposite Miss Belinda's cottage.
Zip lay quietly on the seat until the doctor had disappeared in the house,
and then he quickly jumped out of the buggy, tiptoed across the street and
quietly slipped under the fence. Once under, he stood stock-still and
listened, eyes up and ears alert to catch any sound or see any movement of
his old enemies, the monkey and the parrot. All was quiet in the front
yard, and not even Polly's cage was to be seen swinging on its accustomed
hook beside the front door. Still Zip listened and looked in every tree
and bush, to make sure the monkey was not hiding under the leaves, ready
to pounce on him. He had just come to the conclusion that they had been
shut in the house when he heard a terrible commotion and cackling going on
in the chicken yard, and above it all Polly's voice screaming, "Help!
Help! Naughty Peter-Kinks! (This was Polly's name for Peter-Kins.) Spank!
Spank! Help! Help!"
Polly had heard Miss Belinda say this so many times that she had learned
to imitate her perfectly.
"That monkey is up to some mischief," thought Zip. "I'll run and see what
he's up to, and maybe I'll have a chance to get even with him for running
his claws into my back when he was taking that ride!"
Soon Zip was at the fence that divided the chicken yard from the lawn, and
looking through the pales, this is what he saw:
Peter-Kins ran down the trunk of a big elm tree that shaded part of the
chicken yard, then he grabbed up a tiny little fluffy yellow chicken right
from under the old hen's very bill, and made off with it up the tree. This
made the old hen so angry and frightened that she cackled and carried on
just like people do when terrified. Then just when all the rest of the
chickens had quieted down a little and the old hen had gathered the rest
of her brood under her wings, Peter-Kins threw the little peep at mother
hen's head, which killed the little chicken instantly and upset all the
rest of the fowls in the barnyard once more.
[Illustration]
"I'll just keep hidden, and wait until he comes down," planned Zip, "and
then I will pounce out and grab him by the back of his neck and shake him
as if he were a rat."
[Illustration: PETER-KINS LEAPED ONTO A TURKEY GOBBLER THAT WAS STRUTTING
AROUND THE YARD ALL SWELLED OUT WITH PRIDE
(_Page Fifty-Five_)]
But instead of coming down the trunk as he had before, Peter-Kins ran out
on one of the long, slender, drooping limbs that reached nearly to the
ground, and when it bent within three feet of the earth, he dropped and
lit on the back of a rooster.
[Illustration]
Then the fun began, for the poor old rooster was beside himself with
fright, and ran around and around the yard, trying to get between the
palings of the fence, into holes no larger than his head, into chicken
coops and out, in amongst the other fowls, squawking and gurgling as he
went. Then all of a sudden he was relieved of his rider, for Peter-Kins
leaped from his back onto a turkey gobbler that was strutting around the
yard all swelled out with pride, every feather spread out to its fullest
extent. Now another race began, the turkey gobbling and the monkey
chattering as they made the rounds.
Now while Peter-Kins had been riding the rooster, this very gobbler called
out, "You stupid fellow! Stop running round and round! Go under the fence
and scratch that beast off your back!"
But alas, for him! He could give advice, but not live up to it himself,
for while he was gobbling, Peter-Kins leaped from the rooster's back to
his own, and with shrunken feathers, he began running around and around
the yard, just as the rooster had done, too frightened to know what he was
doing, or to pay attention to his own advice, while all the chickens were
now cackling at him, "Run under the fence! Run under the fence and scratch
him off!"
"Run under the fence and scratch him off!" quacked the ducks.
"Run under the fence and scratch him off!" hissed the geese.
"Run under the fence and scratch him off!" gobbled his wife, the old
turkey hen.
But no; he was deaf to their cries, and with pride gone and feathers
clinging to his sides, he was running and jumping around the yard madly
and blindly, nearly knocking his head off as first he ran dizzily into
this and then into that.
When Zip had watched the excitement as long as he cared to, he thought,
"Now is my time to grab Peter-Kins by the tail and pull him off that
turkey's back before it kills itself."
So with one bound he was through the fence and had Peter-Kins' tail in his
mouth before he ever saw him coming. But the monkey did not drop from the
turkey's back as Zip thought he would. He only clung the tighter, and with
his arms around the turkey's neck and with his knees digging into the
turkey's sides, Zip could not dislodge him.
Zip being too stubborn to let go the monkey's tail, the three queer
looking objects went running around and around the barnyard together,
under wagons, between coops, across the watering trough. Sometimes
running, sometimes jumping or half flying went the long-legged turkey with
the bobbing monkey on its back, whose tail was in the little dog's mouth.
This was what Miss Belinda saw when she returned from market and looked
into her barnyard to see what was causing all her fowls to make such a
fuss.
"Well, I declare, if there isn't a little dog chasing my chickens and
turkeys! But what is that on the big gobbler's back? Sure as I live, it is
Peter-Kins! Here, you horrid little dog, let go my darling Peter-Kins'
tail!" and Miss Belinda picked up a long-handled rake that was leaning
against the fence and went after Zip.
All this time Polly had been screeching, "Help! Help! Naughty Peter-Kinks!
Spank! Spank!"
Zip held on the monkey's tail until the rake appeared over his head, then
he let go quickly, giving an extra bite to the tip, which came off in his
mouth. He jumped back just in time to save himself from being hit on the
head, for the rake came down with such force that it laid both the turkey
and Peter-Kins out flat on their backs, where they lay kicking as if in
the throes of death.
Miss Belinda thought she had killed her pets, and began to cry as she
picked them up.
As for Zip, he slunk away and ran back to the doctor's buggy just in time
to jump in as the doctor started for home. So by the time Miss Belinda had
gathered up Peter-Kins and saw that the turkey was more frightened than
hurt, Zip was blocks away, laughing to himself at the whack the monkey
and turkey had gotten instead of him, and at the funny spectacle the
three of them must have made as they ran around and around the yard.
"And won't Tabby laugh when I tell her about it?" he thought.