One morning Tom met the geese on their way to the pond, and for once
the gander was not leading them. Tom made sure of this. Gander had once
chased him half a mile for teasing the geese.
“I’ll be master instead of the gander,” said he to the geese. “Shoo! back
you go.” He spread out his arms to drive them back. When they turned to
go, he ran around in front of them. “Shoo! forward you go,” said he. Once
more the geese set off hopefully for the pond. “Shoo! back you go,” cried
Tom. So he kept the poor geese running back and forth distracted.
At last one small goose plucked up her courage. “Hiss-s-s-s-s,” she
cried, stretching out her long neck toward Tom. Instantly out went twenty
necks and twenty geese made for Tom, crying, “Hiss-ss-ss-ss.” Tom took to
his heels.