A Thanksgiving Tale: Chapter 1

Once upon a time, a baby turkey named Gobbles was hatched on Josiah Pruitt's farm. He was pretty cute as a baby, but as the weeks passed and his brothers and sisters grew feathers and got bigger, Gobbles just looked almost exactly the same as he did when he was newly hatched. The only new change was he grew one big feather on his tail, but other than that, he still had the appearance of a baby turkey.

When it became clear that Gobbles was not going to get any bigger, he decided it was time to go out and make his fortune. He tied a little gray work rag around his shoulders to use as a shawl, tied a piece of useful string around his tail for later, and set out on his way.

The morning that had started out sunny, blue, and bright soon became overcast and treacherous. As the winds tugged on Gobbles' shawl and cold rain started to fall, Gobbles looked desperately all around, but could see nothing but a cluster of hazy dark trees in the far distance. He closed his eyes and sat miserably in a puddle, resigning himself to his fate. He opened his eyes, looking back the way he had come, when suddenly he stopped and squinted. Sure enough, not ten feet behind him was a pumpkin patch! Was it possible he had passed all of those pumpkins without even noticing?

Since there didn't seem to be anything else to do, Gobbles ran over to the biggest pumpkin in the patch. As he leaned against it to catch his breath, he was astonished to feel that it was warm! He walked all the way around it, and saw that the pumpkin had been intricately carved to look like a house. It even had a working door with a wood-grain pattern carved. Gobbles knocked, listened for a response, and hearing none, he entered the pumpkin.

When Gobbles stepped inside, he gasped. Not only was the pumpkin carved like a house on the front, but on the inside, it was a fully furnished little room! And with nicer furnishings than those of farmer Josiah Pruitt's house at that. Gobbles wrung out his dripping shawl and hung it up next to the candle-fireplace, and inspected his surroundings. A steaming dish of cooked corn was set on the table with a card written in scrawling handwriting "A place of rest for the weary traveler." Gobbles flipped the card over as he chewed a piece of corn. After dinner, he settled down into the warm little bed with an orange patchwork quilt and inspected the card again. He yawned and said, "Well, thank you whoever," and fell asleep to the sound of rain thudding on the roof of the pumpkin.