THE GOOSING 223 
solid mass of geese, the sides a constant stream of 
parties, large or small, running away like lamplighters 
for all that the sleighs might do to stop them. 
The very earth seemed geese, and for that matter 
the sky too. For there never was an interval when 
geese were not rising, and instead of going right away 
at once, as one would have looked for geese to do, they 
hung about the spot, circling round and rising higher 
and higher till they lost themselves in the mist. I could 
never have believed it possible that so many geese could 
be had on one small island. 
And now I became aware that there were geese with 
us. Invisibly somehow they had arrived; but there 
they were, slipping along in the old way, heads out and 
low, and squatting in the stuff. 
Exactly at nine o’clock—five hours from the begin- 
ning—the advance guard of the swimming geese came 
round the corner of the creek. It was one solid phalanx 
of brent. They seemed to be by far the fastest swim- 
mers. For behind them at a considerable distance 
followed a smaller lot of grey geese, some swimming, 
some running along the edge. 
Then with one accord nearly all these grey geese 
rose—five hundred perhaps there were. 
Uano and I were lying low in the grass about fifty 
yards from the water-side ; but for all that I contrived by 
looking over a little mound to keep an eye on the scene. 
For some little while the geese delayed as though 
