The Tale of Turkey Proudfoot

Tale of Turkey Proudfoot, by
Arthur Scott Bailey

Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Turkey Proudfoot, by Arthur Scott
Bailey This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Tale of Turkey Proudfoot Slumber-Town Tales
Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
Illustrator: Harry L. Smith
Release Date: June 16, 2007 [EBook #21844]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE
OF TURKEY PROUDFOOT ***

Produced by Joe Longo and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
at http://www.pgdp.net

THE TALE OF

TURKEY PROUDFOOT
SLUMBER-TOWN TALES
(Trademark Registered)
BY
ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
AUTHOR OF
SLEEPY-TIME TALES
(Trademark Registered)
TUCK-ME-IN TALES
(Trademark Registered)

THE TALE OF THE MULEY COW THE TALE OF OLD DOG
SPOT THE TALE OF GRUNTY PIG THE TALE OF HENRIETTA
HEN THE TALE OF TURKEY PROUDFOOT THE TALE OF PONY
TWINKLEHEELS THE TALE OF MISS KITTY CAT
[Illustration: The Geese Hissed at Turkey Proudfoot.
Frontispiece--(Page 16)]
SLUMBER-TOWN TALES (Trademark Registered)
THE TALE OF TURKEY PROUDFOOT
BY
ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
Author of "SLEEPY-TIME TALES" (Trademark Registered) AND
"TUCK-ME-IN TALES" (Trademark Registered)

ILLUSTRATED BY
HARRY L. SMITH
NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY GROSSET & DUNLAP

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I A STRUTTER 1 II THE SILLY SIX 6 III THE MEDDLER 11 IV
SCARING THE GEESE 16 V A SAFE PERCH 20 VI THE MIMIC 25
VII HALF WRONG 30 VIII HARD TO PLEASE 35 IX A STRANGE
GOBBLE 39 X THE WORM TURNS 45 XI BLUSTER 50 XII MR.
CROW'S NEWS 56 XIII THE NEW PET 61 XIV A PROUD PERSON
66 XV MRS. WREN'S ADVICE 71 XVI DRUMMING ON A LOG 75
XVII A GAME BIRD 80 XVIII RED LIGHTNING 85 XIX NIGHT IN
THE WOODS 90 XX BEAKS AND BILLS 95 XXI FARMYARD
MANNERS 100 XXII CRANBERRY SAUCE 105 XXIII
VACATION TIME 110 XXIV BROTHER TOM 115

ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The Geese Hissed at Turkey Proudfoot Frontispiece Polly Imitates
Turkey Proudfoot 40 The Peacock Ignores Turkey Proudfoot 64 Turkey
Proudfoot Has a Chat With Mr. Grouse 80

THE TALE OF TURKEY PROUDFOOT

I
A STRUTTER
All the hen turkeys thought Turkey Proudfoot a wonderful creature.
They said he had the most beautiful tail on the farm. When he spread it
and strutted about Farmer Green's place the hen turkeys were sure to
nudge one another and say, "Ahem! Isn't he elegant?"
But the rest of the farmyard folk made quite different remarks about
him. They declared Turkey Proudfoot to be a silly, vain gobbler, noisy
and quarrelsome.
Now, there was truth in what everybody thought and said about this
lordly person, Turkey Proudfoot. He did have a huge tail, when he
chose to spread it; and his feathers shone with a greenish, coppery,
bronzy glitter that might easily have turned the head of anybody that
boasted such beautiful colors. Certainly the hen turkeys turned their
heads--and craned their necks--whenever Turkey Proudfoot came near
them. And when he spoke to them, saying "Gobble, gobble, gobble!" in
a loud tone, they were always pleased.
The hen turkeys seemed to find that remark, "Gobble, gobble, gobble!"
highly interesting. But everybody else complained about the noise that
Turkey Proudfoot made, and said that if he must gobble they wished he
would go off by himself, where people didn't have to listen to him.
And nobody but the hen turkeys liked the way Turkey Proudfoot
walked. At every step he took he raised a foot high in the air, acting for
all the world as if the ground wasn't good enough for him to walk upon.
And when he wasn't picking up a seed, or a bit of grain, or an insect off
the ground, he held his head very high. Often Turkey Proudfoot seemed
to look right past his farmyard neighbors, as if he were gazing at
something in the next field and didn't see them. But they soon learned
that that was only an odd way of his. Really, he saw about everything
that went on. If anybody happened to grin at him Turkey Proudfoot was

sure to take notice at once and try to pick a quarrel.
After all, perhaps it wasn't strange that Turkey Proudfoot should act as
he did. Being the ruler of Farmer Green's whole flock of turkeys, he
was somewhat spoiled. All the hen turkeys did about as he told them to
do. Or if they didn't, Turkey Proudfoot thought that they obeyed his
orders. And the younger gobblers as well had to mind him. If they
didn't, Turkey Proudfoot fought them until they