Yesterday I happened to read a story written by E.B. White, a famous American writer of essays and children’s literature. The Geese is the name of the story, which vividly depicted the writer’s experience with some geese he kept. This evoked my memories of early days with geese.
That time, I guess, I was just about ten, and my brother was eight. Our family lived in the country along the river. In summer, one of the joyous things for us
was to wend to the river and watch waterfowls, ducks and geese largely, swimming
on and playing around it. It was so much fun.
You know, a goose’s shape is far larger than a duck, so its way of swaggering around looks far clumsier and amusing than that of a duck.. I guess, partly due to this, that time we more liked to frolic with the geese than with the ducks. My
brother and I would fling some stones into the water where the geese drifted at
. The geese would flop about their wings, and quack about, like complaining. And
the river was soon struck into a clamor.
Do they feel angry, my brother would ask. I guess so. For the group of geese seemed to distain us afterwards, they would choose to drift in the middle of the river to shun away from our mischievous behavior. For retaining our fun, I soon realized that we had but to behave ourselves,
In general, goose is a tamed waterfowl. But once I met an aggressive one. That day after school I was one the way back home. It was twilight, a time geese should return their pens. When I just passed by a group of geese by the river, by accident I found one of them chasing after me! What’s the matter with him? But I got no time to think but run about hastily for escaping him.
When I arrived home, I complained to Mum that just now a crazy goose followed after me. I told her that I was scared. My mother laughed. Then she told me that was just a trick the goose played on me. She said that goose is like a dog. Dog only barks at timid kids; and goose also only chases after timid kids. That time
I didn’t understand her words to the full, still, I took them at heart.
Now by recalling, I find, things in life, no matter how tiny or clumsy they look
, all can teach us something. Like the geese, I learned from them that it’s no
good to make fun of others at liberty, otherwise you should pay the price; and that don not shriek, but endeavor the hardship. It happens that the more you attempt to escape, the more chance you will fail, and vice versa.
Last year once I went to the vegetable market with my mother. It was a chilly morning. In the market I saw geese again at one place. Looked tamed, silent, and dumb, they were shut in a big shoddy cage, waiting to be fed, bought, and slaughtered.
At that moment, memories of my past childhood about them, just like yesterday, all flashed into my mind. For me, I was obligated to leave the carefree life there, but did they, the geese, also have but to give it up? Looking at their huddling together silently, somehow, my brother’s innocent voice rang again in my ears: do they feel angry? Well,do they?
Probably only God could tell.But you know, anyhow, I do miss them. I mean, the geese running about the field and drifting freely on the river, and the two little kids,who loafing away by the river all the summer round.
Caroline