goose-king himself coming along," they said
tauntingly. "There's no limit to their audacity!"

"That's no goose, it's only a tame duck."

The big white gander remembered Akka's admonition to pay no attention,
no matter what he might hear. He kept quiet and swam ahead as fast he
could, but it did no good. The swans became more and more impertinent.

"What kind of a frog does he carry on his back?" asked one. "They must
think we don't see it's a frog because it is dressed like a human
being."

The swans, who but a moment before had been resting in such perfect
order, now swam up and down excitedly. All tried to crowd forward to get
a glimpse of the white wild goose.

"That white goosey-gander ought to be ashamed to come here and parade
before swans!"

"He's probably as gray as the rest of them. He has only been in a flour
barrel at some farm house!"

Akka had just come up to Daylight and was about to ask him what kind of
help he wanted of her, when the swan-king noticed the uproar among the
swans.

"What do I see? Haven't I taught you to be polite to strangers?" he said
with a frown.

Snow-White, the swan-queen, swam out to restore order among her
subjects, and again Daylight turned to Akka.

Presently Snow-White came back, appearing greatly agitated.

"Can't you keep them quiet?" shouted Daylight.

"There's a white wild goose over there," answered Snow-White. "Is it not
shameful? I don't wonder they are furious!"

"A white wild goose?" scoffed Daylight. "That's too ridiculous! There
can't be such a thing. You must be mistaken."

The crowds around Morten Goosey-Gander grew larger and larger. Akka and
the other wild geese tried to swim over to him, but were jostled hither
and thither and could not get to him.

The old swan-king, who was the strongest among them, swam off quickly,
pushed all the others aside, and made his way over to the big white
gander. But when he saw that there really was a white goose on the
water, he was just as indignant as the rest.

He hissed with rage, flew straight at Morten Goosey-Gander and tore out
a few feathers.

"I'll teach you a lesson, wild goose," he shrieked, "so that you'll not
come again to the swans, togged out in this way!"

"Fly, Morten Goosey-Gander! Fly, fly!" cried Akka, for she knew that
otherwise the swans would pull out every feather the goosey-gander had.

"Fly, fly!" screamed Thumbietot, too.

But the goosey-gander was so hedged in by the swans th