While I was resting and taking my lunch, I could hear the gander discussing the affairs of the farm-yard with the geese.  I did not greatly enjoy the discussion.  His tone of voice was very proud, and he did not seem to be speaking well of me.  I was suspicious that he did not think me a very brave girl.  A young person likes to be spoken well of, even by the gander.

Aunt Targood’s gander had been the terror of many well-meaning people, and of some evildoers, for many years.  I have seen tramps and pack-peddlers enter the gate, and start on toward the door, when there would sound that ringing warning like a war-blast.  “Honk, honk!” and in a few minutes these unwelcome people would be gone.  Farm-house boarders from the city would sometimes enter the yard, thinking to draw water by the old well-sweep:  in a few minutes it was customary to hear shrieks, and to see women and children flying over the walls, followed by air-rending “honks!” and jubilant cackles from the victorious gander and his admiring family.

“Aunt, what makes you keep that gander, year after year?” said I, one evening, as we were sitting on the lawn before the door.  “Is it because he is a kind of a watch-dog, and keeps troublesome people away?”

“No, child, no; I do not wish to keep most people away, not well-behaved people, nor to distress nor annoy any one.  The fact is, there is a story about that gander that I do not like to speak of to every one—­something that makes me feel tender toward him; so that if he needs a whipping, I would rather do it.  He knows something that no one else knows.  I could not have him killed or sent away.  You have heard me speak of Nathaniel, my oldest boy?”

“Yes.”

“That is his picture in my room, you know.  He was a good boy to me.  He loved his mother.  I loved Nathaniel—­you cannot think how much I loved Nathaniel.  It was on my account that he went away.

“The farm did not produce enough for us all:  Nathaniel, John, and I. We worked hard and had a hard time.  One year—­that was ten years ago—­we were sued for our taxes.

“‘Nathaniel,’ said I, ‘I will go to taking boarders.’

“Then he looked up to me and said (oh, how noble and handsome he appeared to me!): 

“‘Mother, I will go to sea.’

“‘Where?’ asked I, in surprise.

“‘In a coaster.’

“I turned white.  How I felt!

“‘You and John can manage the place,’ he continued.  ’One of the vessels sails next week—­Uncle Aaron’s; he offers to take me.’

“It seemed best, and he made preparations to go.

“The spring before, Skipper Ben—­you have met Skipper Ben—­had given me some goose eggs; he had brought them from Canada, and said that they were wild-goose eggs.

“I set them under hens.  In four weeks I had three goslings.  I took them into the house at first, but afterward made a pen for them out in the yard.  I brought them up myself, and one of those goslings is that gander.