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Show Mm GEESE IftJJt the mMmQ pw - U r$ n-- ii ' f i - rvdv1---" rvn& i"' Kvf, M-?-r5-V - p, , -v fJ gznm? colts' Gmrcmfr 'TJl 7 I N and around a picturesque la W village on the verge of the j i Taunus mountains, north of Frankfort, may be wit-j wit-j a nessed in summer time - the daily migration of hundreds of geese from their confined quarters in the cottage yards to the green uplands above the hamlet. To one unaccustomed to the sight it is a quaint and interesting spectacle to watch the passing of such a flock on the highway and to follow It until the goal i reached. In the summer days the work of the village begins very early. The men go to the Selds to guide the plow or prune fruit trees. Buxom women are seen walking walk-ing to the allotments nearer home. Girls help in the fields and the children chil-dren go to school. The youngest of these are liberated early; they must not be cooped up in a schoolroom in the heat of the day, so they are free to help in various easy ways in the work of the village. If you enter this Hessian hamlet, at half-past nine you Bnd quite a commotion, and you hear the cackling of large numbers of geese. From nearly every cottage gateway come geese, in twos, threes, tens and sometimes twenty, each with a dab of gay color on its wing, the mark of ownership. The housewife or her children "shoo" them out into the road, and soon the village is alive with them. The older members of the flock soon steer in the direction of the well-known pond, but the; young recruits re-cruits are very unruly and want to srmple the contents of the gutter, or to invade the yards higher up the street. But here comes Gretchen, one of the daily drivers of the geese. With a wisp of birch she gathers these wilful wil-ful ones from under the great farm wagons and out of the gutter, and moves them along towards the old castle, where the noise of a rattle announces an-nounces that Hans has already started with the main flock. There he is, near one of the four fine towers of the old Schloss, his coat .thrown over one shoulder, stick in one hand, birch switch in the other, and his rattle under un-der his arm. Gretchen adds her con- tingent to his, Julie and Rosine join them with other straggling cacklers, Karl, Moritz and Ernest must be in at the drive, and before long the last houses of the village are left behind and six hundred geese begin to climb the dusty road that leads to the pond. Hans has a shaggy-coated dog. He carries a stick in his mouth. His services are really not required, and he gladly walks quietly with the drivers. The children keep the geese from straying from the road on to the tempting herbage of the banks, and progress is slowly made under the Increasing heat of the sun. The passage of so many hundreds of webbed feet raises a dust, so that by the time the top of the hill is reached it is very pleasant for all to leave the road and turn on to the turfy ground, in the direction of the longed-for water wa-ter and the tree-shaded boggy land. And now the older geese, the knowing ones, may be seen to hurry forward, quite outstripping the main flock, for the goal is near. They see water ahead. Their quick waddle becomes a half-flight, until, with a joyful rush, they dive into the cool waters of the pond, making rippling eddies as they swim. Willows and poplars shade the south bank, green weeds and rushes harbor insect food, and acres of swampy land are backed by pleasaflt coppiced knolls. It Is the promised land. Here comes the main flock; rushing, cackling, splashing they go into the pond until it is seething with life. The early comers have swum across and are out again on the further fur-ther side, grubbing in the grass-land. Hans throws himself on the ground to rest after the dusty walk. His dog stays with him. They spend the day with the geese. Gretchen has other work to do in the village, and after a short rest she slowly trudges home again, accompanied by some of the children. But out here with the geese we stay for a while, enjoying the air. White fleecy clouds float in the blue sky, reminding one of the poetical Italian saying: "Lt Madonna fa la lana." From the edge of the forest near by comes the scent of the firs. I Occasionally a timber team emerges from the wood and passes . by the high road to the village below. be-low. Or a load o f brushwood may be seen in the distance, drawn by two patient oxen towards to-wards the farmstead farm-stead on the uplands. up-lands. All else is stillness, save for the , cackling of the flock, and even this sound is almost al-most stilled as noonday approaches ap-proaches and the heat stills all. So passes the day. ) At five o'clock in the evening Hans sends his gentle dog to gather together to-gether his great white family. Soon the air is full of sound. The flock is in the move. The journey home is all down hill and the sun's heat is spent The geese have had a good day. As the village is reached they need no herding into their own yards. |