The Ulise- Goose.

“Geese have goose-thoughts.”
—R. BROWNING.

My) O-BO-BO-BO-BO-BO!”” said the goose, stretching out
) her long grey and white neck and orange beak from a
corner of the shed. ‘‘ My eggs are laid. What is to
be done next? I want to think.”

So she put her head a little on one side to ponder; for
although it is the law among birds that everyone must do
exactly the same things as his grandfather and grandmother
have done before him, this goose was young, and her grand-
mother was—well, it is better to say dead, for geese do not like
to have details mentioned. And her mother was dead too.

These were the first eggs that she had laid, and for the
moment she really could not remember what more ought to be
done with them.

‘“Bo-bo! Gaa S-sss!” screamed the goose, as two strange
little boys passed through the yard. She ran out after them
with her neck stretched out in front of her, and her mouth so
wide open that the little boys ran for their lives to the farmer’s
kitchen door. They had bare legs above their socks to take
care of, and the goose seemed so very warlike, although if one
of them had just turned round and said ‘‘ Bo!” to her again,
she would have scuttled off directly.

These two little boys were the children of a poor widow
who sometimes sent them up to the farm to gather sticks.
The elder of the two was no taller than his brother, and most