Page:The New-Year's Bargain (1884).djvu/203

 Wouldn't Mother make some pies out of it for them?

But there are no eggs, or ginger, or lemon-peel,' answered the poor, discouraged Mother.

"However, the children begged so hard, that at last she said she would try to make some pies. But then Thanksgiving was nothing without a turkey.

Oh, if we only had a turkey!' cried the little ones.

"I happened to come by that day as they were talking; and it seemed to me rather a pity if, in a land full of turkeys, the Fiskes couldn't have just one to make merry with. So I cast about in my mind for some way of securing a dinner for them. At last I found it. Forty miles off, through the woods, there lived a rich settler, who I knew kept turkeys. His wife had been lucky that year, and had raised a fine brood. There were at least twenty.

"Among these was one little gobbler, a real vagabond by nature, who was always running