“You are right, Mother Akka.  I should have thought of that long ago,” said the boy impulsively.

The next second he and the leader-goose were on their way to his home.  It was not long before Akka alighted behind the stone hedge encircling the little farm.

“Strange how natural everything looks around here!” the boy remarked, quickly clambering to the top of the hedge, so that he could look about.

“It seems to me only yesterday that I first saw you come flying through the air.”

“I wonder if your father has a gun,” said Akka suddenly.

“You may be sure he has,” returned the boy.  “It was just the gun that kept me at home that Sunday morning when I should have been at church.”

“Then I don’t dare to stand here and wait for you,” said Akka.  “You had better meet us at Smygahoek early to-morrow morning, so that you may stay at home over night.”

“Oh, don’t go yet, Mother Akka!” begged the boy, jumping from the hedge.

He could not tell just why it was, but he felt as if something would happen, either to the wild goose or to himself, to prevent their future meeting.

“No doubt you see that I’m distressed because I cannot get back my right form; but I want to say to you that I don’t regret having gone with you last spring,” he added.  “I would rather forfeit the chance of ever being human again than to have missed that trip.”

Akka breathed quickly before she answered.

“There’s a little matter I should have mentioned to you before this, but since you are not going back to your home for good, I thought there was no hurry about it.  Still it may as well be said now.”

“You know very well that I am always glad to do your bidding,” said the boy.

“If you have learned anything at all from us, Thumbietot, you no longer think that the humans should have the whole earth to themselves,” said the wild goose, solemnly.  “Remember you have a large country and you can easily afford to leave a few bare rocks, a few shallow lakes and swamps, a few desolate cliffs and remote forests to us poor, dumb creatures, where we can be allowed to live in peace.  All my days I have been hounded and hunted.  It would be a comfort to know that there is a refuge somewhere for one like me.”

“Indeed, I should be glad to help if I could,” said the boy, “but it’s not likely that I shall ever again have any influence among human beings.”

“Well, we’re standing here talking as if we were never to meet again,” said Akka, “but we shall see each other to-morrow, of course.  Now I’ll return to my flock.”

She spread her wings and started to fly, but came back and stroked Thumbietot up and down with her bill before she flew away.

It was broad daylight, but no human being moved on the farm and the boy could go where he pleased.  He hastened to the cow shed, because he knew that he could get the best information from the cows.