The old Squire did not like to accept money from an old friend, and
after we young people went home to Maine to live he transferred to us
the privilege of sending Senator Fessenden a turkey for Thanksgiving,
and allowed us to have the return present.
By September we began to look the flock over and pick out the one that
bade fair to be the largest and handsomest in November. There was much
"hefting" and sometimes weighing of birds on the barn scales. We
carefully inspected their skins under their feathers, for we sent the
judge a "yellow skin," and never a "blue skin," however heavy.
That autumn there was considerable difference of opinion among us which
young gobbler, out of twenty or more, was the best and promised to
"dress off" finest by Thanksgiving. Addison chose a dark, burnished bird
with a yellow skin; at that time our flock was made up of a mixture of
breeds--white, speckled, bronze and golden. Halstead chose a large
speckled gobbler with heavy purple wattles and a long "quitter" that
bothered him in picking up his food.
Theodora and Ellen also selected two, and I had my eye on one with
golden markings, but of that I need say no more here; as weeks passed,
it proved inferior to Addison's and to Theodora's.
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