I didn't s'pose they'd
act like that. And I didn't pull the turkey's tail. I ist held on to the
first thing I grabbed, and the turkey pulled. Honest, it was the turkey
pulled." He turned to Wesley. "You tell her! Didn't the turkey pull? I
didn't know its tail was loose, did I?"
"I don't think you did, Billy," said Wesley.
Billy stared into Margaret's cold face. "Sometimes at night, Belle sits
on the floor, and I lay my head in her lap. I could pull up a chair and
lay my head in your lap. Like this, I mean." Billy pulled up a chair,
climbed on it and laid his head on Margaret's lap. Then he shut his eyes
again. Margaret could have looked little more repulsed if he had been a
snake. Billy was soon up.
"My, but your lap is hard," he said. "And you are a good deal fatter 'an
Belle, too!" He slid from the chair and came back to the middle of the
room.
"Oh but I wisht he wasn't dead!" he cried. The flood broke and Billy
screamed in desperation.
Out of the night a soft, warm young figure flashed through the door and
with a swoop caught him in her arms. She dropped into a chair, nestled
him closely, drooped her fragrant brown head over his little bullet-eyed
red one, and rocked softly while she crooned over him--
"Billy, boy, where have you been?
Oh, I have been to seek a wife,
She's the joy of my life,
But then she's a young thing and she can't leave her mammy!"
Billy clung to her frantically.
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