XXIITURKEY PROUDFOOT
Mistah Mulewas standing at the foot of the lane, near the barn. Near him, Turkey Proudfoot was strutting about, looking for food now and then, in the mud, and gobbling once in a while.
Suddenly Mistah Mule gave his odd laugh, “Hee-haw!” And when he heard it, Turkey Proudfoot began to swell up, and dart his head toward Mistah Mule, and raise his feet and then put them down in the same spot. He was angry; he thought Mistah Mule was laughing at him. “What is there about me that amuses you?” he cried.
Mistah Mule turned about with an air of great surprise.
“I didn’t know they was anyone here,” he replied. “I was just laughin’ at my own thoughts.”
“Do you mean to tell me that you haven’t noticed me here in this lane?” Turkey Proudfoot demanded hotly. “Why, I was here when Farmer Green turned you out of the barn!”
“I never knowed it,” Mistah Mule declared.
“Do you mean to say you haven’t heard my gobble?” Turkey Proudfoot asked in a loud voice. “Why, I’ve gobbled a hundred times if I have once.”
“I ain’t heard you,” said Mistah Mule with a grin.
Now, Turkey Proudfoot liked all the neighbors to notice him. He wanted all the farmyard folk to admire his walk, hisfine feathers, his hideous voice. And when Mistah Mule told him that he hadn’t even known he was anywhere around, Turkey Proudfoot grew angrier than ever. If Mistah Mule had been a person of his own size, Turkey Proudfoot would certainly have rushed at him, and fought him. But Mistah Mule could have kicked him over the fence without half trying. And Turkey Proudfoot knew it. There was nothing he could do except bluster. And he could always do that without half trying.
“You’ve been on this farm quite a while now,” he gobbled loudly. “You ought to know by this time that I’m a person of importance. When I go out for a stroll, all the farmyard folk turn their heads and stare at me.”
“Does they?” said Mistah Mule pleasantly. “What for does they do that?”
“My goodness!” Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed. “What a dull fellow you are! Haven’t you any eyes? Haven’t you any ears?”
Mistah Mule had both eyes and ears—especially ears. But he claimed not to know what Turkey Proudfoot meant.
“Haven’t you learned yet that I’m the ruler of the farmyard?” Turkey Proudfoot asked him scornfully.
And at that, Mistah Mule gave voice to his queerhee-hawonce more.
“I was laughin’ at you that time,” he remarked.