STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 37 



ford to lose it. Pray don't ask for any better 

 apology than this. 



A Quaker gentleman — so runs the narrative 

 of Mrs. Child — was one day in the fields, near 

 a stream where several geese were swimming. 

 Presently, he observed one disappear under the 

 water, with a sudden jerk. \¥hile he looked 

 for her to rise again, he saw a fox come to the 

 surface, with the goose in his mouth, and smm- 

 ming quickly to the shore, the sly fellow trot- 

 ted off with his prey to the woods. He hap- 

 pened to go in a direction where it was easy for 

 the man to watch his movements. He carried 

 his burden to a recess under an overhanging 

 rock. Here he scratched away a mass of dry 

 leaves, scooped a hole, hid his treasure in it, 

 and covered it up very carefully. Then off he 

 went to the stream again, entered some distance 

 behind the flock of geese, and floated along, 

 without any noise, with merely the tip of his 

 nose visible above the surface of the water. 

 But this time the fellow, shrewd and cautious 

 as he was, did not succeed in making another 

 capture. The geese, in some way or other, took 

 the alarm, and flew away, cackling, as a goose 

 will in such circumstances, at the top of their 

 voices. The fox, as soon as he found that his 

 scheme had failed, made his way to the shore, 



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