But then they cried: "What are you so mad about? We didn't ask
about the castle; we only wanted to know about your kennel, stupid!"
When the boy heard this joke, he laughed; then a thought stole in on him
which at once made him serious. "Think how many of these amusing things
you would hear, if you could go with the wild geese through the whole
country, all the way up to Lapland!" said he to himself. "And just now,
when you are in such a bad fix, a trip like that would be the best thing
you could hit upon."
The wild geese travelled to one of the wide fields, east of the estate,
to eat grass-roots, and they kept this up for hours. In the meantime,
the boy wandered in the great park which bordered the field. He hunted
up a beech-nut grove and began to look up at the bushes, to see if a
nut from last fall still hung there. But again and again the thought of
the trip came over him, as he walked in the park. He pictured to himself
what a fine time he would have if he went with the wild geese. To freeze
and starve: that he believed he should have to do often enough; but as a
recompense, he would escape both work and study.
As he walked there, the old gray leader-goose came up to him, and asked
if he had found anything eatable. No, that he hadn't, he replied, and
then she tried to help him. She couldn't find any nuts either, but she
discovered a couple of dried blossoms that hung on a brier-bush.
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