IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 119 
the green near my house, and I have been amused to watch them. 
One thing I have found out about them, they never lose their 
dignity. No matter how ignominiously they come off from any 
contest, they always retire in good order, and with an air of wisdom 
that is very comical. One day I was sitting at my window watch- 
ing them as they stalked about on the grass, when a frisky young 
cow put down her head and charged into the flock. Of course 
they scattered right and left in great haste, but hardly had she gone 
by, when their hurry was all over, and they subsided into a dignified 
walk, looking around as much as to ask "Who said they were fright- 
ened ? " Then, in a moment, the whole family set up the most violent 
squalling and screaming, and they ran after that cow with their 
necks stretched out and mouths open, and with an air as though they 
would eat her. I could not but laugh ; it was so much like some 
people, who, having escaped a danger by flight, brag and boast what 
they would have done, if something had been different. The 
Geese, by their manner, said "If you were not so big, Madam Cow, 
and we so small, and if you had not those sharp Lornr, while we 
have only our beaks, we'd show you i " 
