will increase seven-fold, the geese being kept in the houses, and even
bedrooms, of their owners whilst hatching, and a person called a gozzard
having the charge of them. They are plucked, poor things, for their
feathers as often as five times a year, and for their quills once. Even
the young goslings of six weeks' old are deprived of their tail
feathers, in order, as it is said, to accustom them to this cruel
operation. When ready for the London market, the geese are marched
slowly up from Lincolnshire to London, in flocks of from two to nine
thousand. Being slow travellers, they are on foot from three in the
morning to nine in the evening, and during that time get through about
nine miles.

[Illustration: THE GOOSE.]

Amongst the Romans this bird was held sacred to Juno, their supreme
heathen goddess; indeed, it appears to have been looked upon with
reverence by all ancient nations, and not longer ago than the time of
the Crusades, a goose was carried as a standard from our own country by
an irregular band of crusaders. Possibly in former times the good
qualities of the goose were better known than now; for the sagacity and
affection of this bird have been proved by so many well authenticated
instances, that I am at a loss which to select for your entertainment,
and must try to choose those you are least likely to have met with
already. As a proof of the goose's sagacity, is the following. A goose
begun to sit on six or eight eggs, when the dairy maid, thinking she
could hatch a larger number, put in as many duck eggs, which could
scarcely be distinguished from the others. On visiting the nest next
morning, all the duck eggs were found put out of the nest on the ground.
They were replaced, but the next morning were again found picked out and
laid outside, whilst the goose remained sitting on the whole of her own
eggs. Lest she should abandon the nest altogether, she was not troubled
with the strange eggs again, but allowed to rear her own children in
peace. There are a vast number of stories told of singular and strong
attachments formed by geese to people. We hear of one old gander who
used to lead his old blind mistress to church, graze in the churchyard
during the service (for I ought to have told you that geese eat grass
like oxen), and then lead her home again. A goose attached itself so
strongly to its master that it forsook for him the society of its
fellows, followed him wherever he went, even through the cro