WILD GOOSE; CANADA GOOSE 53 



toward our shore with outstretched necks. I knew them 

 first from ducks by their long necks. Soon appeared 

 the man, running toward the shore in vain, in his great- 

 coat ; but he soon retired in vain. We remained close 

 under our umbrella by the tree, ever and anon looking 

 through a peep-hole between the umbrella and the tree 

 at the birds. On they came, sometimes in two, some- 

 times in three, squads, warily, till we could see the 

 steel-blue and green reflections from their necks. We 

 held the dog close the while, — C, lying on his back in 

 the rain, had him in his arms, — and thus we gradually 

 edged round on the ground in this cold, wet, windy 

 storm, keeping our feet to the tree, and the great wet 

 calf of a dog with his eyes shut so meekly in our arms. 

 We laughed well at our adventure. They swam fast and 

 warily, seeing our umbrella. Occasionally one expanded 

 a gray wing. They showed white on breasts. And not 

 till after half an hour, sitting cramped and cold and 

 wet on the ground, did we leave them. 



Heard the cackling of geese from over the Ministerial 

 Swamp, and soon appeared twenty-eight geese that flew 

 over our heads toward the other river we had left,^ we 

 now near the black birches. With these great birds in 

 it, the air seems for the first time inhabited. We detect 

 holes in their wings. Their clank expresses anxiety. 



April 19, 1852. That last flock of geese yesterday is 

 still in my eye. After hearing their clangor, looking 

 southwest, we saw them just appearing over a dark pine 

 wood, in an irregular waved line, one abreast of the 



^ [That is, the Sudbury River. They were then near the Assabet.] 



