CHAPTER XIII 



THE WILD GOOSE 



WHEN we say of some one, 'He is as silly as a 

 goose,' we think we have applied the strong- 

 est term indicative of foolishness that our language 

 furnishes. Is the goose then so silly? That is what 

 I am about to discuss with you, my friends. 



"I agree at the outset that its appearance is not 



such as to give a high 

 idea of its intellectual 

 faculties. Its head is 

 too small for its body, 

 its diminutive and ex- 

 pressionless eyes, its 

 enormous beak hiding 

 its whole face, its wad- 

 dling walk made still 



more awkward by the fatty protuberance that hangs 

 down under its stomach and strikes its feet, its 

 neck sometimes awkwardly outstretched, sometimes 

 sharply bent as if broken, its cry surpassing in 

 hoarseness the note of the hoarsest clarion, its angry 

 or frightened whistle resembling the hiss of the 

 snake when surprised all that, I hasten to acknowl- 

 edge, does not prepossess one in favor of the bird. 

 But how often, under a rude exterior, is hidden a re- 

 fined nature ! Let us not judge the goose by its ap- 



108 



