Mrs. Goose ceased speaking, as if she was at an end of her
story-telling, and your Aunt Amy, unwilling to part with her new friend
so soon, was trying to think of some word which would provoke such a
remark as would give new life to the conversation, when she was really
startled by a loud hissing, as if an angry goose was near at hand.

Much to her surprise, she saw that it was Mrs. Gray Goose herself who
was making the outcry, as she looked angrily toward the shore of the
pond, where could be seen a goose and a gander dressed in clothing of
the latest style.

"What do you think of that?" Mrs. Gray Goose cried. "Isn't it really
very foolish?"

"Indeed it is," your Aunt Amy replied emphatically. "When birds,
animals, or human beings appear dressed in anything likely to attract
attention, they show very poor taste, to speak mildly."

[Illustration: A Foolish Pair.]

"That foolish goose would willingly go hungry in order to get something
which would cause the ganders to look at her. Instead of raising
feathers and laying eggs, as is her work in this world, she goes
rambling all over the neighborhood in some ridiculous fashion, and, I am
sorry to say, she finds plenty of ganders who are ready to follow her.

"She'll come to some such end as did young Mr. Rat, before many years
have gone by, else I'm very much mistaken. How strange it is that some
birds are never contented to do what nature intended should be their
duty!"