York it was useless for
him to walk around in the hope of meeting his uncle, or any of his
family.

"I declare, I don't know what to do, Crippy," he said as he seated
himself on a doorstep with the goose by his side, and looked mournfully
up and down the street. "I shouldn't wonder if we hadn't been more'n
half-way round the city in all this time, an' yet we hain't seen any of
uncle Robert's folks. What shall we do?"

Crippy made no reply to the question; but a boy about Dan's size, who
was looking wonderingly at the goose as he stood on his shortest leg in
a mournful way spoke:

"Wot is it yer don't know wot ter do?"

"I don't know how to find my uncle Robert. Crippy an' me come down to
see him, an' now we can't find his house."

"Do you call him Crippy?" asked the boy as he nodded toward the goose.

"Yas, he's Crippy Hardy. Mother was goin' to kill him for dinner
to-morrer, so we come down here to get uncle Robert to go up an' see
about it."

"How far have you come?"

"Seven miles."

"Did you walk?"

"Every step."

"Well," said the boy as he looked at Crippy in a critical way, "it seems
to me that's a mighty mean kind of a goose ter walk so far fur. He
hain't handsome no ways, an' I think he'd look a good deal better on
ther table roasted, than he does out here on ther street."

Up to that moment Dan had been disposed to trust this boy who was so
friendly; but when he spoke so slightingly of Crippy, he was
disappointed in him.

"You don't know Crippy, or you wouldn't say that," replied Dan gravely.
"I would walk seventeen times as far if it would keep him from gettin'
killed."

"Well, I tell yer wot it is," and the boy spoke like one thoroughly
conversant with geese and their ways, "he's got ter be a good deal
better'n he looks ter 'mount to anything."

"An' he is," replied Dan; and then he gave the stranger a full account
of Crippy's sagacity and wisdom, with such success that when he had
finished the goose evidently stood high in the city boy's estimation.

"He's prob'ly a mighty nice kind of a goose," said the boy; "but it
seems to me if I had a pet I'd want one that could sleep with me, an'
you know you couldn't take this goose to bed."

"I could if mother would let me, an' I don't see why she won't, for I
know Crippy would just snuggle right down as good as anybody could."

For some time the two discussed the question of pets in general, and
Crippy in particular, then the city boy remembe