Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

OUR SPRINGTIME 105
the meadow in the wake of the old goose and her fascinating
Hock! Later a prickly little body was soused in the rain barrel
to soothe the overheated follower of goslings.
One of our favorite resorts was the old barn built by our
grandfather in 181 2. To our young minds it was a marvel of
ever changing interest. It was our gymnasium, where to drop
from a lofty beam to the mow below was an exciting feat, and
where our performances had danger's thrill; for instance, once
I was walking a bridge made of pitchforks covered with hay
when they came apart and I descended with violence, unfortunately
upon a poor little kitten of a new batch living
there. Another acrobatic feat risked Ida's little bones. She
and Joe were playing "Hide and Whoop," and she was search-
ing for him in the mow but was not successful, so she said:
"I just don't believe you are up here at all!" Utter silence
greeted her, so she continued, "If you are up here I'll just
jump oft' this loft!" Gleefully he sprang up from the hay at
once, and the plucky little sister gathered herself together and
jumped, landing on that old rail floor below where the cover-
ing of hay was very thin and jarring herself most terribly.
The open space at the rear of the barn was a nice place for
mother's geese. On St. Valentine's day they, with great
propriety, chose their mates, and two by two they would
walk proudly under the barn and make their nests. Will
would creep under a little later and on hands and knees would
look for eggs, which he found covered up with softest down.
These he brought out in his cap. After a while, however, we
left them to hatch in those soft nests whose lining the mother
goose had plucked from her own breast, and then we waited
for the signal of the old gander and the appearance of Mother
Goose with her soft, downy brood. She headed at once for the
pond to give her children their first bath, and they acted much
better than human young on similar occasions. Once when
Will was under the barn he found the Httle wagon grandfather
had made for him, to which he had tried to add a propeller,
as such wagons have now. This is the little wagon of which
I wrote in a previous chapter. It happened that later grandfather,
having become offended with "Billigee," had hidden