202 FIVE AOBES TOO MUCH. 



be questioned, for the pond is there, and I have vis 

 ited it often, and never saw a goose near it. It is 

 well known that feathers are plucked from the living 

 geese, and, as the sign is no longer up, it is fair to 

 presume it must have been taken down. So, with 

 the foundation of the pond, which still exists, to start 

 upon, and with the absence of the sign and the ad 

 mitted probability of the geese, we have a strong 

 case without the positive assertion of my informant, 

 who insisted she had been there, and whom I shrewd 

 ly suspected to be Dame Marrott herself, converted 

 by glamourie from a Dutch vrow into an Irish crone. 

 As this legend lends a double charm and greatly-en 

 hanced value to the property in the neighborhood of 

 the pond, the interests of my five acres and their 

 owner could not permit it to be lost. 



