THE GOOSE WHO WANTED HER OWN WAY
It would be hard to tell which family is the most important among thefarmyard people. There is no one animal so wise as Collie, the farmer'sdog, and all the rest love him and mind him when he is sent to bringthem up from the pasture or to drive them to the water. Still, he doesnot spend his days in barn or field and only comes with his master orfor a visit now and then.
You may remember how the Garter Snake and the old Tree Frog were theleaders in the meadow, and how in the forest all looked up to the GroundHog. These people were patient and old, and partly because they were oldand had had many years in which to think about life, they were verywise. In the farmyard the Oxen were the most patient and the oldest, andit was to them that all the animals went when they were in trouble.
There were also the Horses, fine strong creatures, always helpingsomebody else and working all day during most of the year. They drew thereaper through the tall grain, and where in the morning had been a fieldof waving golden wheat, at sunset were bundles or sheaves of gatheredgrain, and the stubble was ready for the fowls. They were busy people;and sometimes during the winter they liked to remind their neighbors howmuch they had done.
Then again, there were the Cows, who are the sisters of the Oxen. Theyare large and there are many of them, yet they are not so wise, and thatis easily understood. All that they have to do on the farm is to givemilk for the butter-and cheese-making, and for the farmer's children todrink. No farmer could get along without his Cows, but they do not worklike their brothers. They have so easy a time that they do not learnmuch. You know, when people work, they have to think, and when peoplethink enough useful thoughts it makes them wise. That is one of the manyreasons why it is so foolish to be lazy.
Truly, it would be hard to say which farmyard family is the mostimportant, but there is no trouble at all in telling which family thinkthemselves the most so. If you ask any Goose, she will tell you that oneof their flock is worth five Horses or a dozen Cows. Nobody else wouldtell you this, and if you should speak of it to the span of Bays, or theDappled Gray, or even the youngest Colt in the stable, they would answeryou only with a hearty Horse laugh. The Cows would smile and reply,"What a Goose she was to say that!"
There has always been a flock of Geese on the farm, and their neighborsare so used to their queer ways that they only smile when the Geese puton airs, and it is a good-natured smile, too. They even feel rathersorry for them when they lose their feathers, although the Nigh Ox oncesaid that if it were not for being plucked once in a while, the Geesewould really be too airy to live with.
Perhaps the Nigh Ox was right in what he said, for certainly after theyhave worn their feathers all winter, they hold their heads higher thanever, and tell what they think and what they would do, and it is wellthey should be reminded that they work for a living like all theirneighbors. The farmer's wife never plucks the Geese until warm weathercomes. Then she takes all the soft, short feathers that they have wornthrough the winter, and this leaves them looking very ragged indeed.There was a time, years ago, when Geese had to give up their longtail-and wing-feathers to be whittled into pens, but these Geese didn'tknow about that, and there was nobody in the farmyard old enough toremember it and tell them, so they thought they had a pretty hard timein even giving up their breast feathers.
"Sssss!" the Gander used to say, "if the farmer's boys must havefeather pillows on which to lay their heads, why do they not grow theirown feathers?"
"Humph!" said the Nigh Ox once; "If you must have oats to eat, why don'tyou grow the oats?" But the Gander was already waddling away andpretended not to hear him.
It is in the winter that the Geese put on the most airs. Then, when theHorses are being harnessed, they say to each other, "Dear me! Wouldn'tit be dreadful to work in that way for a living?" And sometimes, whenthe team is hitched to a post by the farmhouse, they waddle past in asingle line with the Gander at the head, and say to the Horses: "Hearyou have to take a load of wood to town. It's too bad. Hope you won'tget very tired. We are going to the river for a nice cold swim.Good-bye." Then they march off with their heads held high, and as soonas their backs are turned, the Horses look at each other and laughsoftly. They know that there is nothing in the world better than good,honest, hard work, no matter of what kind it is.
Every winter the Geese forget about having to be plucked, and everyspring they are surprised to lose their feathers. They are plucked fourtimes before fall comes, and these four times come so near together thateven they can remember from one to another. You would think that thenthey would not be so airy, but instead of saying, "Of course we work forour living--why shouldn't we?" they say, "Why, yes, we do let thefarmer's wife have some of our feathers when she wants them. We supposeyou might call it work to grow feathers for her, still it does not takemuch of our time, and it is quite different from drawing loads andgetting tired as the Horses and Oxen do. Growing feathers is genteel."
They do not remember anything long, and so, when they have made amistake once, they are likely to make the same mistake over and overagain. Then, too, they cannot tell big things from little things, andthey are not happy unless they can have their own way all the time. Andyou know that nobody can be sure of that. It all comes of their notbeing willing to think hard, and sometimes it makes them a great deal oftrouble, as it did on the day when the Gray Goose would not go throughthe farmyard gate.
This was soon after the Gander and his wife had hatched their brood ofseven Goslings, and they were taking them at once to the brook. It wasa happy day for all the flock. The Gander and the Mother Goose were gladbecause their children were safely out of the shell, and because theywould no longer have to sit with cramped legs on the nest. Ganders aregood fathers, for they cover the eggs half of the time, while the MotherGoose is resting. The other Geese were not only proud of the Goslings,but they were glad to have the Gander and the Mother Goose free to goaround with them again. They had missed them very much.
The gate from the farmyard into the meadow stood wide open, and all theGeese except the Gray one followed the Gander through. The Gray Goosetried to go through a small hole in the fence very near the gate. Shesqueezed her head into it and stretched her neck on the meadow side ofthe fence, but she could not get any farther, although she pushed untilshe was dizzy.
THE GRAY GOOSE TRIED TO GO THROUGH.]
"Wait for me," she cried. "Wait for me-ee!"
"Hurry, then," said the Gander.
"I am hurrying," she cried, and she pushed with all her strength, butsince the hole in the fence was so small, she did not get any fartherthan before.
"Go through the gateway," said the Nigh Ox, who was grazing near by.
"Sssss!" said the Gray Goose stiffly. "I would rather go through here. Ihave chosen to go this way."
"Oh!" said the Nigh Ox, "excuse me! Do go through there by all means!"
"We are going on," called the Gander; "we would wait, but the Goslingsare in a hurry to take their first bath. Come as soon as you can."
The Gray Goose tried harder than ever to go the way that she had chosen,but it only made her so out of breath that she had to lie down and rest.Once she thought she heard somebody laugh, yet when she looked at theNigh Ox, who was the only person around, he was lying with closed eyesand solemnly chewing his cud, so she decided that she must have beenmistaken.
Down by the brook the rest of the flock were cackling merrily, and shecould see the seven Goslings swimming with the Geese and the Gander."Oh," she cried, "how I wish I were with them! I don't see what is thematter with this hole in the fence. The farmer ought to make it bigger."
She pushed and scolded and fussed until her neck was sore and she wastoo tired to swim if she had a chance, so she sat down to rest. She didremember what the Nigh Ox had said; still, if she couldn't go as she hadplanned, she wouldn't go at all. She walked into the barn to find a cooland shady place, lowering her head as she stepped over the threshold ofthe high front door.
"What did you do tha
t for?" twittered a Swallow.
"Because I don't want to hit my head on the top of the doorway;" shereplied. "I always do so. All of our flock do so."
"Tittle-ittle-ittle-ee," laughed the Swallow, as she darted away andalighted on the fence by the Nigh Ox. "Why isn't the Gray Goose inswimming with the rest?" asked she.
"Because she can't push her fat body through that hole in the fence,"said the Nigh Ox, switching his tail toward it as he spoke.
"Why doesn't she go through the gateway, then?" asked the Swallow.
"Because she says she would rather go the other way, and that if shecan't go that way, she won't go at all."
"And she is missing all that fun?" said the Swallow.
"All of it," answered the Nigh Ox, "but then, you know, she is such aGoose!"