Christmas Every Day | Page 7

she told them
that she was very tender-hearted, and never hurt a single thing, and she
tried to make them understand that there was a great difference between
eating people and just eating turkeys.
"What difference, I should like to know?" says the old hen-turkey,
pretty snappishly.
"People have got souls, and turkeys haven't," says the other little girl.
"I don't see how that makes it any better," says the old hen-turkey. "It
don't make it any better for the turkeys. If we haven't got any souls, we
can't live after we've been eaten up, and you can."
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?"
"Oh, easily," said the papa.
"Tell how," said the little girl.
"Now look here," said the papa, "are you telling this story, or am I?"
"You are," said the little girl, and she cuddled down again. "Go on."
"Well, then, don't you interrupt. Where was I? Oh yes."

Well, he couldn't do anything with them, old First Premium couldn't.
They acted perfectly ridiculous, and one little brat of a spiteful little
chick piped out, "I speak for a drumstick, ma!" and then they all began:
"I want a wing, ma!" and "I'm going to have the wish-bone!" and "I
shall have just as much stuffing as ever I please, shan't I, ma?" till the
other little girl was perfectly disgusted with them; she thought they
oughtn't to say it before her, anyway; but she had hardly thought this
before they all screamed out, "They used to say it before us," and then
she didn't know what to say, because she knew how people talked
before animals.
"I don't believe I ever did," said the little girl. "Go on."
Well, old First Premium tried to quiet them again, and when he couldn't
he apologized to the other little girl so nicely that she began to like him.
He said they didn't mean any harm by it; they were just excited, and
chickledren would be chickledren.
"Yes," said the other little girl, "but I think you might take some older
person to begin with. It's a perfect shame to begin with a little girl."
"Begin!" says old First Premium. "Do you think we're just beginning?
Why, when do you think it is?"
"The night after Thanksgiving."
"What year?"
"1886."
They all gave a perfect screech. "Why, it's Christmas Eve, 1900, and
every one of your friends has been eaten up long ago," says old First
Premium, and he began to cry over her, and the old hen-turkey and the
little turkey chicks began to wipe their eyes on the backs of their wings.
"I don't think they were very neat," said the little girl.
Well, they were kind-hearted, anyway, and they felt sorry for the other

little girl. And she began to think she had made some little impression
on them, when she noticed the old hen-turkey beginning to untie her
bonnet strings, and the turkey chicks began to spread round her in a
circle, with the points of their wings touching, so that she couldn't get
out, and they commenced dancing and singing, and after a while that
little he-turkey says, "Who's it?" and the other little girl, she didn't
know why, says, "I'm it," and old First Premium says, "Do you
promise?" and the other little girl says, "Yes, I promise," and she knew
she was promising, if they