see! but a truly beautiful great flock of white geese. Some were sailing
gracefully around the pond, some were pluming their snowy breasts on the shore
beside it, and three, the finest of them all, and each with a bow of ribbon
tied round its long neck, were confined within a little picket-fence apart
from the others.

"Why, what beauties, Mrs. Kirk!" exclaimed Tattine, the minute she spied them,
"and what are the ribbons for? Do they mean they have taken a prize at some
show or other? And why do they each have a different color?"

"They mane," said Mrs. Kirk proudly, standing with her hands upon her hips and
her face fairly beaming, "they mane as how they're to be presinted to you
three children. The red is for Master Rudolph, the white is for Miss Mabel,
and the blue is for you, Miss Tattine."

"Oh, Mrs. Kirk!" the three children exclaimed, with delight, and Mabel added
politely, "But do you really think you can spare them, Mrs. Kirk?"

"Why, of course she can! can't you, Mrs. Kirk?" cut in Rudolph warmly, for the
idea of relinquishing such a splendid gift was not for a moment to be thought
of. "I wonder how we can get them home," he added, by way of settling the
matter.

"Indade, thin, and I have this foine crate ready to go right in the back of
your cart," and there, to be sure, was a fine sort of cage with a board top
and bottom and laths at the sides, while other laths were lying ready to be
nailed into place after the geese should have been stowed away within it. The
children were simply wild over this addition to their separate little sets of
live-stock, and although the whole day was delightful, there was all the while
an almost impatient looking forward to the supreme moment when they should