ooked at the goose with envious
eyes. They had never seen such a wonderful bird, and longed to have at
least one of its feathers. "Ah," thought the eldest, "I shall soon have
an opportunity to pluck one of them;" and so it happened, for not long
after the young man left the room. She instantly went up to the bird and
took hold of its wing, but as she did so, the finger and thumb remained
and stuck fast. In a short time after the second sister came in with the
full expectation of gaining a golden feather, but as she touched her
sister to move her from the bird, her hand stuck fast to her sister's
dress, and neither of them could free herself. At last, in came the
third sister with the same intention. "Keep away, keep away!" screamed
the other two; "in heaven's name keep away!"

But she could not imagine why she should keep away. If they were near
the golden bird, why should not she be there? So she made a spring
forward and touched her second sister, and immediately she also was made
a prisoner, and in this position they were obliged to remain by the
goose all night.

In the morning the young man came in, took the goose on his arm, and
went away without troubling himself about the three girls, who were
following close behind him. And as he walked quickly, they were obliged
to run one behind the other, left or right of him, just as he was
inclined to go.

In the middle of a field they were met by the parson of the parish, who
looked with wonder at the procession as it came near him. "Shame on
you!" he cried out. "What are you about, you bold-faced hussies, running
after a young man in that way through the fields? Go home, all of you."

He placed his hand on the youngest to pull her back, but the moment he
touched her he also became fixed, and was obliged to follow and run like
the rest. In a few minutes the clerk met them, and when he saw the
parson runing after the girls, he wondered greatly, and cried out,
"Halloa, master parson, where are you running in such haste? Have you
forgotten that there is a christening to-day?" And as the procession did
not stop, he ran after it, and seized the parson's gown.

In a moment he found that his hand was fixed, and he also had to run
like the rest. And now there were five trotting along, one behind the
other. Presently two peasants came by with their sickles from the field.
The parson called out to them, and begged them to come and release him
and the clerk. Hardly had they tou