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Johnny Bear - And Other Stories from Lives of the Hunted by Ernest Thompson Seton
page 59 of 78 (75%)
face full of motherly tenderness. Oh, she was so proud and happy, and
she would sit there and watch them and silently love them till it was
time to go home, or until some sign of distant danger showed. Then, with
a low growl, she gave the signal, and all disappeared from sight in a
twinkling, after which she would set off to meet and turn the danger, or
go on a fresh hunt for food.




IX.


Oliver Jake had several plans for making a fortune, but each in turn was
abandoned as soon as he found that it meant work. At one time or other
most men of this kind see the chance of their lives in a poultry-farm.
They cherish the idea that somehow the poultry do all the work. And
without troubling himself about the details, Jake devoted an unexpected
windfall to the purchase of a dozen Turkeys for his latest scheme. The
Turkeys were duly housed in one end of Jake's shanty, so as to be well
guarded, and for a couple of days were the object of absorbing interest,
and had the best of care--too much, really. But Jake's ardour waned
about the third day; then the recurrent necessity for long celebrations
at Medora, and the ancient allurements of idle hours spent lying on the
tops of sunny buttes and of days spent sponging on the hospitality
of distant ranches, swept away the last pretence of attention to his
poultry-farm. The Turkeys were utterly neglected--left to forage for
themselves; and each time that Jake returned to his uninviting shanty,
after a few days' absence, he found fewer birds, till at last none but
the old Gobbler was left.
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