"The Turkey" Summary

"The Turkey" begins in the imagination of an eleven-year-old boy, Ruller, who is pretending to be a Wild West cowboy capturing a cattle rustler named Mason. Ruller twirls his six-shooters, ties the bad man's ankles up in an imaginary rope, and is preparing to deal the crook a final bullet in the head when he spies the glint of glossy feathers in the distance. It is a big tom turkey, wobbling along, dragging one wing and placing its large three-toed feet high and slow in the sand, swinging its red wattles back and forth as it tries to run. Ruller immediately loses interest in playing cowboys and rustlers and begins to imagine the heroic return to town with the huge turkey draped over his shoulder.

A chase of Olympic dimensions begins to ensue, with Ruller leaping hedges, crawling under...