The Wanderer was a great white gander, with a
long neck and a still longer tongue, if one could measure it by
the clatter it made in the world. His Wife was a patient gray
goose, who waddled after him unceasingly, and was always ready to
add her shrill voice to his.
It troubled their young owner not a little that the Wanderer had
to wear a great yoke of light wood about his neck; but after the
bird had twice run away and trampled the gardens of their
neighbors, he could see that it was necessary.
Almira Jane put the matter very clearly before him. "I don't think
he does like his collar much, and it ain't really ornamental,"
said she; "but it is kinder to the neighbors to have him wear a
yoke so that he cannot squeeze between the pickets in the fences
to destroy the gardens."
"But the goose may do the same mischief," interrupted Master
Sunshine anxiously.
Almira Jane shook her head wisely.
"The poor silly thing will never think of it by herself," she
answered. "All she does is to follow her mate; and if we keep him
out of trouble, she will be all right, I promise you."
It always made Almira Jane laugh when she thought of the day when
Master Sunshine brought the Wanderers home. Master Sunshine had
gone to old Mrs. Sorefoot, who lived down the road, to get a
setting of Leghorn eggs. The old lady, whose life was being made
miserable by the clamor of the pair of geese which a grandchild
had brought her the week before as a particularly choice gift,
told Master Sunshine that, if he would but take them away, they
should be his property.
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