“The worse of it is she will tattle to father and mother that we flew so close to her that we knocked her wing out of joint,” said Goldeye.  “You’ll see that it will end in our being driven from the island!”

“We have nothing but trouble in store for us, now that that young one has come back!” snapped Prettywing.  “Still I think it would be best for us to appear as pleased as possible over her return.  She is so stupid that perhaps she didn’t even notice that we gave her a push on purpose.”

While Prettywing and Goldeye were talking in this strain, the wild geese had been standing on the strand, pluming their feathers after the flight.  Now they marched in a long line up the rocky shore to the cleft where Dunfin’s parents usually stopped.

Dunfin’s parents were good folk.  They had lived on the island longer than any one else, and it was their habit to counsel and aid all newcomers.  They too had seen the geese approach, but they had not recognized Dunfin in the flock.

“It is strange to see wild geese land on this island,” remarked the goose-master.  “It is a fine flock—­that one can see by their flight.”

“But it won’t be easy to find pasturage for so many,” said the goose-wife, who was gentle and sweet-tempered, like Dunfin.

When Akka came marching with her company, Dunfin’s parents went out to meet her and welcome her to the island.  Dunfin flew from her place at the end of the line and lit between her parents.

“Mother and father, I’m here at last!” she cried joyously.  “Don’t you know Dunfin?”

At first the old goose-parents could not quite make out what they saw, but when they recognized Dunfin they were absurdly happy, of course.

While the wild geese and Morten Goosey-Gander and Dunfin were chattering excitedly, trying to tell how she had been rescued, Prettywing and Goldeye came running.  They cried “welcome" and pretended to be so happy because Dunfin was at home that she was deeply moved.

The wild geese fared well on the island and decided not to travel farther until the following morning.  After a while the sisters asked Dunfin if she would come with them and see the places where they intended to build their nests.  She promptly accompanied them, and saw that they had picked out secluded and well protected nesting places.

“Now where will you settle down, Dunfin?” they asked.

“I?  Why I don’t intend to remain on the island,” she said.  “I’m going with the wild geese up to Lapland.”

“What a pity that you must leave us!” said the sisters.

“I should have been very glad to remain here with father and mother and you,” said Dunfin, “had I not promised the big, white—­”

“What!” shrieked Prettywing.  “Are you to have the handsome goosey-gander?  Then it is—­” But here Goldeye gave her a sharp nudge, and she stopped short.

The two cruel sisters had much to talk about all the afternoon.  They were furious because Dunfin had a suitor like the white goosey-gander.  They themselves had suitors, but theirs were only common gray geese, and, since they had seen Morten Goosey-Gander, they thought them so homely and low-bred that they did not wish even to look at them.