Mrs. Gray, in a quick and anxious tone, to two little boys
who were playing near.

The urchins scampered off, well pleased to perform any errand.

"Oh, if he has dared to do anything to my geese, I will never forgive
him!" the good wife said, angrily.

"H-u-s-h, Sally! make no rash speeches. It is more than probable that he
has killed some two or three of them. But never mind, if he has. He will
get over this pet, and be sorry for it."

"Yes; but what good will his being sorry do me? Will it bring my geese
to life?"

"Ah, well, Sally, never mind. Let us wait until we learn what all this
disturbance is about."

In about ten minutes the children came home, bearing the bodies of three
geese, each without a head.

"Oh, is not that too much for human endurance?" cried Mrs. Gray. "Where
did you find them?"

"We found them lying out in the road," said the oldest of the two
children, "and when we picked them up, Mr. Barton said, 'Tell your
father that I have yoked his geese for him, to save him the trouble, as
his hands are all too busy to do it.'"

"I'd sue him for it!" said Mrs. Gray, in an indignant tone.

"And what good would that do, Sally?"

"Why, it would do a great deal of good. It would teach him better
manners. It would punish him; and he deserves punishment."

"And punish us into the bargain. We have lost three geese, now, but we
still have their good fat bodies to eat. A lawsuit would cost us many
geese, and not leave us even so much as the feathers, besides giving us
a world of trouble and vexation. No, no, Sally; just let it rest, and he
will be sorry for it, I know."

"Sorry for it, indeed! And what good will his being sorry for it do
us, I should like to know? Next he will kill a cow, and then we must be
satisfied with his being sorry for it! Now, I can tell you, that I don't
believe in that doctrine. Nor do I believe anything about his being
sorry--the crabbed, ill-natured wretch!"

"Don't call hard names, Sally," said Farmer Gray, in a mild, soothing
tone. "Neighbour Barton was not himself when he killed the geese. Like
every other angry person, he was a little insane, and did what he would
not have done had he been perfectly in his right mind. When you are a
little excited, you know, Sally, that even you do and say unreasonable
things."

"Me do and say unreasonable things!" exclaimed Mrs. Gray, with a look
and tone of indignant astonishment; "me do and say unreasonable things,
when I am an