Written
by: Arthur Scott Bailey, 1915
Recorded by: Patricia Thornton-Houser
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When
Jasper Jay
told Fatty Coon about Farmer Green's forty fat turkeys Fatty felt
hungrier
than ever.
"Oh!
I mustn't go near Farmer Green's house!" he said. "My
mother told me to keep away from there. . . . What time did you
say the turkeys go to roost?"
"Oh!
they go to roost every night at sundown,"
Jasper Jay explained. "And there they sit, up in the tree,
all night long. They're fast
asleep. And you would have no trouble at all in catching as
many as you wanted. . . . But of course, if you're afraid--why
there's no use of MY talking about it. There's plenty
of other coons in these woods
who'd be glad to know about those turkeys. And maybe they'd have
the manners
to say 'Thank you!' too." And with a hoarse,
sneering
laugh Jasper Jay flew away.
That
was enough for Fatty. He made
up his mind that he would show Jasper Jay that HE was not afraid.
And he wanted a turkey to eat, too. He said nothing to his mother
about Jasper's news. But that very night, when the moon came up,
and the lights in Farmer Green's house were all out, Fatty Coon
went
stealing across the fields.
He was
not afraid, for he knew that Farmer Green and all his family were
in their beds. And it was so cold that Fatty felt sure that Farmer
Green's dogs would be inside their kennels.
Fatty
did not intend
to make any noise.
The turkeys were asleep --so Jasper Jay had told him--and he expected
to grab
one of them so swiftly
and silently
that the other turkeys would never know it.
When
Fatty Coon came to Farmer Green's yard
he had no trouble at all in finding the spreading
oak.
He could see the turkeys plainly
where they dozed
on the bare
branches.
And in less time than it takes to tell it Fatty had climbed
the tree. On the very lowest limb
there was a row
of four plump
turkeys, all sound
asleep. And Fatty reached
out and seized
the nearest one. He seized the turkey by the neck, so that the big
bird could not call out. But Fatty was not quite quick enough. Before
he could pull her off her perch
the turkey began to flap
her wings, and she struck
the turkey next to her, so that THAT turkey woke
up and began to gobble
and flap HER wings. Then the next turkey on the limb woke up. And
the first thing that Fatty Coon knew, every one of the thirty-nine
turkeys that were left was going gobble-gob-gob-gob-gobble! And
some of them went sailing
off across the yard. One of them landed
on top of the porch
just outside Farmer Green's window and it seemed to Fatty that that
one made the greatest racket
of all.
Farmer
Green's window flew
up; and Farmer Green's voice
called "Spot! Spot!"
Fatty
Coon did not wait to hear anything more. He dropped
the turkey he had seized and slipped
down to the ground.
And then he ran toward the woods as fast as he could go.
Farmer
Green's dog Spot was barking
now. And Fatty wanted to climb one of the trees by the
roadside. But he remembered
the narrow
escape he had had when the dog had treed
him near the cornfield.
So he never stopped until he reached
the woods. Then he went nimbly
up into the trees. And while Spot was barking at the foot of
the first tree he climbed, Fatty was
travelling through the tree-tops toward home.
He never
said anything to his mother about Farmer Green's turkeys. But the
next time he saw Jasper Jay Fatty told him exactly
what he thought of him.
"Ha!
ha!" Jasper Jay only laughed. And he did not seem at all
surprised that Fatty had fallen into trouble. To tell the truth,
he was only sorry
because Fatty had escaped.
Jasper Jay did not like Fatty Coon. And he had told him about the
forty fat turkeys because he hoped that Fatty would get
caught if he tried to steal
one of them.
"Wait
till I catch you!" Fatty said.
But
Jasper Jay only laughed more than ever when Fatty said that. He
seemed to think it was a great joke.
He was most annoying.
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