GEESE 217 



ing our conversation he told me that the chapter 

 which had impressed him most in my book was 

 the one on the goose, especially all that related to 

 the lofty dignified bearing of the bird, its inde- 

 pendent spirit and fearlessness of its human masters, 

 in which it differs so greatly from all other domestic 

 birds. He knew it well ; he had been feelingly 

 persuaded of that proud spirit in the bird, and had 

 greatly desired to tell me of an adventure he had 

 met with, but the incident reflected so unfavour- 

 ably on himself, as a humane and fair-minded or 

 sportsmanlike person, that he had refrained. How- 

 ever, now that I had come to see him he would 

 make a clean breast of it. 



It happened that in January some winters ago, 

 there was a very great fall of snow in England, 

 especially in the south and west. The snow fell 

 without intermission all day and all night, and on 

 the following morning Wells appeared half buried 

 in it. He was then living with a daughter who 

 kept house for him in a cottage standing in its own 

 grounds on the outskirts of the town. On attempt- 

 ing to leave the house he found they were shut in 

 by the snow, w^hich had banked itself against the 

 walls to the height of the eaves. Hall an hour's 

 vigorous spade work enabled him to get out from 



