136 THE WISE GOOSE.

so good and gentle that a child could lead her, for the children
to take home the sticks in.

“Run up to the field beyond the orchard, and if you are
good boys you can get enough sticks there to fill the little
cart, I shouldn’t wonder, before evening—the wind has broken
off a fine lot. And come in presently, my dears, and I'll
find you a bit of dinner; and here, take this drink of milk
and piece of cake. You can eat a bit, I'll warrant. Young
things mostly can.”

peVies. dsaldela ari:

“ Aw,” said Silly Billy, smiling very much when he saw the
cake. So the little pair trotted off to their work, while the
goose went back to the shed and looked wonderingly at the
eggs.

There was a comfortable whisp of hay in the corner, in
which the eggs were-half buried, for somehow the goose seemed
to have a dreamy sort of idea that in her grandmother's days
eggs had to be kept warm.

“The question is, what to do next?” said the goose to
herself. “I really must ask the advice of the farmer’s wife.
There is no one so wise as she is, excepting myself.”

So she waddled away to the dairy door, where the busy
woman was scouring her milk-pans.

‘“ Bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo !” said the goose quietly, in her throat,
without opening her beak to hiss as she did at strangers.

‘What is it you wants then, my dear?” said the farmer’s
wife, in a comforting tone, for she knew that the goose was
uneasy about something ; and she put down her milk-can and
began to look about her; for she could understand from
the goose’s manner that she had eggs hidden somewhere.

She crossed the yard, and goosie followed close at her
petticoats. When the farmer's wife took a wrong turning, the