All this the dog managed to cry out in one breath; and the wild geese flew back and forth over the estate, and listened to him until he was winded.  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.  These the boy ate with a good relish.  But he wondered what mother would say, if she knew that he had lived on raw fish and old winter-dried blossoms.

When the wild geese had finally eaten themselves full, they bore off toward the lake again, where they amused themselves with games until almost dinner time.

The wild geese challenged the white goosey-gander to take part in all kinds of sports.  They had swimming races, running races, and flying races with him.  The big tame one did his level best to hold his own, but the clever wild geese beat him every time.  All the while, the boy sat on the goosey-gander’s back and encouraged him, and had as much fun as the rest.  They laughed and screamed and cackled, and it was remarkable that the people on the estate didn’t hear them.

When the wild geese were tired of play, they flew out on the ice and rested for a couple of hours.  The afternoon they spent in pretty much the same way as the forenoon.  First, a couple of hours feeding, then bathing and play in the water near the ice-edge until sunset, when they immediately arranged themselves for sleep.

“This is just the life that suits me,” thought the boy when he crept in under the gander’s wing.  “But to-morrow, I suppose I’ll be sent home.”

Before he fell asleep, he lay and thought that if he might go along with the wild geese, he would escape all scoldings because he was lazy.  Then he could cut loose every day, and his only worry would be to get something to eat.  But he needed so little nowadays; and there would always be a way to get that.