Show That Gobbler for Christmas D By Dy CLARA DELAFIELD They TIley Just Could p RT U I. r. r in m mar a r m m. m I INot INot INot Not Kill the Bird might let you They Had h have ve the got gob ob- ob Watched Grow Crow 1 U bIer for lor Christ Up From mar said sl SI SI Babyhood las Hicks Hell lIeli beo bea be a o tine nile bird by bl then ten nut Hut 1 J donna dunno lIes lIe's the only one Ive I've reared out of ot that brows brood and Im I'm kinder attached to him However he Ill promised Mrs James finally to let tier her have the gobbler Silas lucks Hicks was RII not a sentimental man lie He was DS a fanner saner and In business busl- busl ness for the tile money It brought him Il lief had a 11 brother John who hud had gone june to the city and made money hand over list fist John was wall a II crusty II old I bachelor and largely devoid old of cf the sense of fatally family obligations There hind had been Pell a time five e years before when things thing went hadl badly with Silas Sill There was wm n a heavy y mortgage to meet the crops crop had hail been a failure 11 I and he had been In danger of ot dlo session his ids wife was on her hr sickbed from front which she was never liner to arise alle Silas had gone In his de to the brother whom In Ill hind hall not soon seen tour tar years John had turned him hint down list fist i r Father left you ou the furm farm because you ou up to him and kicked ma ms out Into the world he said Now Ive I've ilia made lIe my pile you ou have hu the nerve e to come Ollie to me for Cor help I dont don't ont see sea it It Silas My Iy wife's sick Kick SlIns Silas and jou youve you've t got ot lIH more re money mOiler than you know tw what int to do o with Ith Oh I can cnn foil find n It u use for tor It It John rejoined caustically Maybe abe If you'd ou 9 c P i shown hown H a little sympathy for me roe when I 1 was hooting It on the sidewalks Id I'd 1111 hire a II little more inure for fur you jou Silas Silas went Int home Somehow he lie managed man I aged to survive the nil crisis Hut his hla wife died nod he hI grew lonelier lonelier If he had had Iad a few thousand thousand thou thou- sand dollars he would have hae sold out end and gone one south to live e somewhere away uy from this bleak New En roast coast lint he could Just manage to tomake make intake both hoth ends meet Hall Dully he cursed his brother In his paean heart lie He started pulsing raising turkeys and that wag a failure Only the gobbler lived He lie used to the bird with In In- r terl terest t. t The gobbler would come une cluckIng clucking cluck cluck- ing utter lifter him fur for crumbs And It was wusI odd how It look looked IK Like UIe John tie lie began 1111 to roll cull It John It hind a R I queer way any of putting Its head had upon one side hit and 1111 ii us liS John Jolin used to todo todo todo do dohon when hon lie he was a II boy Gradually to old Silas Silas' fancy the gobbler became an nn y of John lie He hated It He lie hated II It and he was attached too He lie made n a sort of pet lief of ot the gobbler He Ill wanted It to love 10 him so fur far as nil n II turkey gobbler Is capable of love lo Then when Christmas came he was going to cut Its throat thront very ery slowly ly bending Its head back bacle to sea ses the terror in Its eyes He lie would thus have ha his revenge re upon his lda brother Ye Yes Johns John's thriving nicely and putting on flesh he be told M Mrs t James Jumes Here lere ere he comes conies John I John I Up UI came come the big gobbler put Its a head bend on one side and surveyed nur Silas IlIus to see if he had any ay bread breud crumbs he the cutest thing 1 l said Mrs James I dont don't wonder you OU cant can't bear to let me have hae It Mr lUcks Hicks Oh that'll be nil all right marm m responded responded re re- Silas SlIn cheerily An Au elemental hatred for the gobbler had hind come to till ill his heart Christmas was ut at hand He Ill pictured how on the morrow ho would grub the bird he would Insult It Il with all nil the turkey abuse that he had bad placed picked up from It then It t should die slowly UK us he would like John to die On Christmas morning he found a aletter aletter aletter letter from an un unknown correspondent in n the city Opening It it he read that his Ids brother John was dla dead John had hind left lett forty thousand dollars half bait of which was to go to Silas In memory of our boyhood hood times together and In the hope hOlle that any ill reeling feeling If It existed has long ago ao been canceled can I Silas stared at the letter Ills eyes grew misty lie He saw John again oguin an as a little boy upon the faun farm his heart went out Jut to him across the years ears Gobble 1 Gobble The big turkey was Vas standing In front of hi hint him its head headon on one side one claw raised begging for crumbs You great big faker you ou I bellowed Silas The 1118 gobbler looking a little alarmed retreated a step or two o C e e e 0 e e e Oh Mr Hicks Im I'm willing to pay for that turkey but somehow I I-I I I feel I Just cant can't eat him after seeing freeing him grow up from babyhood Wal Wai Mrs Irs James I was kinder feeling that way myself said Silas Hicks scratching his head You see Im I'm selling out and going south and I Iwas i was wag figuring on taking him alon along and raising turkeys t e. e 12 nil W Water Ur Newspaper Veto |