FAIKY TALES FOK LITTLE FOLKS. 199 



floor, while he was nowhere to be found. She called, 

 but there was no answer. The place seemed unusu 

 ally silent, and there was no noise from the fowls. 

 She went to the poultry-yard ; no geese were to be 

 seen. She called them, as if to be fed ; they did not 

 come. She began to search, and then she found one 

 poor goose stretched upon the ground, bloody and 

 half dead. What did it mean ? She took him up and 

 carried him in, to revive him by the fire. Little did 

 she dream that she bore her husband in her arms. 

 She rubbed and caressed him till he came to him 

 self, and then, for the first, did the old man know 

 what had befallen him. He was changed to a gan 

 der ; he tried to ^peak a loud hiss alone issued from 

 his mouth. He tried to gesticulate he could only 

 flap his wings. He walked hastily up and down ; he 

 pulled at the dame s frock, who was now busied with 

 other things, and he thrust his bill in her lap, till she, 

 alarmed at such proceedings, drove him from the 

 house. How miserable was now his lot ! how sorely 

 he repented of his past wickedness ! He approached 

 other geese of the neighbors, but they either fled from 

 him, or fell upon and beat him. He was compelled 

 to remain solitary and miserable, with no one to 

 whom he could confide his sorrows. 



But the worst was to come. His wife, after won- 



