{"id":10378,"date":"2012-02-20T17:09:27","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T22:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=10378"},"modified":"2026-07-30T14:22:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:22:33","slug":"scrumptious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=10378","title":{"rendered":"Scrumptious (by bahj)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/strong>: A little tale about helping a friend in need and making wishes . . .<\/p>\n

Rated: Family Friendly \/ Word count: 1108<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Scrumptious<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cScrumptious,\u201d Little Joe called out loudly as he entered the yard.<\/p>\n

He ran towards the barn looking for the huge tom turkey that he and Hoss had become so attached to the last few months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere you are Scrump,\u201d Little Joe exclaimed, entering the warm barn.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t call him Scrump,\u201d Hoss chided, \u201chis name\u2019s Scrumptious.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boy\u2019s older brother Adam had been the one to suggest the name for the bird, when they had purchased him earlier that spring. Neither boy knew what scrumptious meant, but they thought the name fit their plump little friend well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can call him Scrump if I want to,\u201d the six year old retorted.<\/p>\n

Hoss just sighed and turned back to the bird. He was leaning over the pen, his head resting on his hands. He gazed sorrowfully at the now enormous turkey. Hoss hadn\u2019t told Little Joe yet, but their pet was sentenced to be executed later that day for the family\u2019s Thanksgiving dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cHoss,\u201d Little Joe said inquiringly, \u201cwhat does, bootchir, mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss scrunched up his face in puzzlement.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh,\u201d he answered finally, \u201cyou mean butcher?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that\u2019s what I said,\u201d stated Little Joe impatiently, \u201cwhat\u2019s it mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d Hoss wondered if there was a way to phrase this delicately, \u201cit means to kill something, so that we can eat it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss watched in amazement as Little Joe turned pale and then began wailing his head off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong, Joe,\u201d Hoss asked patting his distraught brother\u2019s back anxiously.<\/p>\n

\u201cHop Sing\u2026Hop Sing said\u2026he told Pa\u2026he\u2019s gonna butcher Scrumptious!\u201d Little Joe hiccupped between sobs.<\/p>\n

Hoss tried in vain for the next several minutes to comfort Joe, but the young boy just couldn\u2019t understand the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe,\u201d Hoss explained for the umpteenth time with all the wisdom of his twelve years, \u201ctomorrow\u2019s Thanksgiving, and you gotta have turkey to eat. It\u2019s the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, nobody\u2019s gonna eat Scrumptious!\u201d Joe replied hotly, \u201cI won\u2019t let \u2018em!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss sighed again, shaking his head. He had no desire for the homely bird to be killed either, despite his love for a good turkey dinner.<\/p>\n

The two forlorn figures sat dejectedly in the barn for the next half hour, patting their feathered friend comfortingly and offering him words of encouragement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, Hoss,\u201d Little Joe blurted suddenly, \u201cI saw a turkey over at Mr. Gregor\u2019s farm the other day. Me and Pa went over to bring him a ham, and he had one hanging in his smoke house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo,\u201d Hoss answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo,\u201d Little Joe continued in exasperation, \u201cwe could sneak over there and get that turkey. Mr. Gregor\u2019d just figure it was coyotes or a bear or somethin\u2019. Then Hop Sing wouldn\u2019t have to kill Scrumptious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss\u2019s face had slowly been turning into one big frown as he listened to his brother\u2019s wild scheme.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe, I\u2019m surprised at you!\u201d he stated emphatically, \u201cThat would be stealing! If Pa found out we\u2019d be dead meat!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHoss,\u201d Joe continued in desperation, \u201cit wouldn\u2019t be like the bad kind of stealing, we\u2019d just be doin\u2019 it to save Scrumptious\u2019s life! Please, Hoss, please. Don\u2019t let them kill Scrumptious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little Joe had fallen to his knees, his hands clasped together as he looked pitifully at his older brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, alright,\u201d answered Hoss in defeat, \u201cbut I\u2019m only doin\u2019 this to save his life, and you better do exactly what I tell ya to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI will,\u201d Little Joe promised enthusiastically.<\/p>\n

The boys spent the next hour carefully going over their plan and when Hoss felt sure Little Joe understood his part, they proceeded to the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cHop Sing,\u201d Hoss said brightly entering the kitchen. \u201cI just come to tell ya that you don\u2019t need to worry about butchering that old turkey. It\u2019s already been taken care of. He\u2019ll be hangin\u2019 in the smoke house pretty soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hop Sing looked at the boy in confusion for a moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone already butcher turkey?\u201d he questioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cYep, figured we owed it to ya to help out some,
\ntomorrow bein\u2019 such a busy day and all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hop Sing grunted and then turned back to his baking; still looking somewhat suspicious.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood, at least that part\u2019s over,\u201d Hoss thought to himself, and then raced back to the barn where Little Joe was already waiting impatiently.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you tell Pa we we\u2019re goin\u2019 for a ride,\u201d asked Hoss breathlessly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYep, and he said it was fine as long as we don\u2019t go too far, and to be back before dark.\u201d Joe repeated the instructions with a smile.<\/p>\n

Hoss figured Pa would probably consider Mr. Gregor\u2019s small farm as too far, but he was already committed to their \u201csaving the bird\u201d project. So, with no further delay the set out to accomplish their mission.<\/p>\n

The next afternoon as the boy\u2019s sat enjoying a slice of pumpkin pie after their bountiful meal. There came a knock at the door.<\/p>\n

Ben rose to see who had come to visit and both Hoss and Joe cringed as they heard the voice of their neighbor, Mr. Gregor. His angry words carried over to the dining table and the boys could hear him ranting about a missing turkey, and small footprints near the scene of the crime.<\/p>\n

Adam noticed his two younger brothers looking at each other in guilty silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only have one question,\u201d he said, his voice laced with amusement, \u201cWhat did you do with Scrumptious?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoss looked at Joe and Joe looked at Hoss, then the two looked at their older brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s out in the woodshed,\u201d answered Hoss miserably, \u201cWe were gonna take him up into the hills tomorrow and let him go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam watched his brothers\u2019 fidget uncomfortably in their chairs for a moment, then suddenly reached out, grabbing the wishbone from the turkey plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere,\u201d he said, holding it out to them, \u201ceach of you take a side and make a wish, whichever one get\u2019s the biggest side will have their wish come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boys\u2019 heard the front door slam and then the heavy footsteps of their father coming toward them. They quickly grabbed their side of the bone, made a desperate wish, and then pulled with all their might.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The end<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: A little tale about helping a friend in need and making wishes . . .<\/p>\n

Rated: Family Friendly \/ Word count: 1108<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":10624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1008,4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-humor","category-prequels","wpcat-1008-id","wpcat-4-id","wpcat-30-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/brothers.jpg?fit=296%2C226&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}