118 LITTLE FOLKS 
to write with and to make into ornaments — we have made his name 
a synonym for stupidity. 
This is all wrong. He is not a coward. He is ready to fight 
even with a swan which is ever so much bigger than he is. In 
Russia they have trained Ganders to fight, as some people do cocks. 
Anybody — who has studied history — knows that the cackling of 
Geese saved Rome, for which the Romans are duly grateful, but 
the French hate Geese to this day for their interference in the plans 
of their ancestors. 
The Romans feed their Geese intended for the table, with figs 
drenched with wine, and the despised birds long had the place of 
honor on royal tables. He's thought enough of as soon as his 
neck is wrung, you see, and roast Goose on Michaelmas day, is to 
this day, the thing in England. 
Geese live to a great age — it is said as much as eighty or a 
hundred years — and when well treated, they become much attached 
to their owners.' You have probably read the story of the Gander 
in Germany, which was in the habit of leading an old blind woman 
to church. He seized the hem of her dress and led her to her seat, 
and he retired to eat the grass about the door till she came out, 
when he led her home in the same way. 
I have seen another story of an American Gander. The whole 
flock were stolen and could not be found. A few weeks afterwards 
the Gander appeared at the gate of his home screaming and refusing 
to come in. The owner — to pacify him — came out and followed 
him. He set off at once for an old barn, in which the owner found 
the rest of the flock. The Gander had crawled out through a hole 
in the floor, and went to his master to have the family released. 
There's another instance of wisdom in the bird. The Geese 
in Richmond Park — in England — finding that the water rats dis- 
turbed their nests, made their nests in the trees after that, and 
when the little ones were hatched, they brought them to the ground 
one by one — under their wings. 
In France, the skin of Geese is stripped off and prepared 
for clothing; with the down on, it is made into powder puffs. 
Rut the Goose has had greater honor than that. Great honors 
have been paid to it among the natives of the East. The Buddhist 
monuments are often ornamented with the figure of a Goose, and 
the Ancient Britons thought it impious to eat the flesh of a Goose. 
One of my neighbors has a flock of Geese, which wander over 
