erves, apples? I haven't got much; I have done all
I can for him, poor boy.'

"Brother looked at me curiously, and said:

"'Give him one of those wild geese, and we will fatten it on shipboard
and will have it for our Thanksgiving dinner.'

"What Brother Aaron said pleased me. The young gander was a noble
bird, the handsomest of the lot; and I resolved to keep the geese to
kill for my own use, and to give _him_ to Nathaniel.

"The next morning--it was late in September--I took leave of
Nathaniel. I tried to be calm and cheerful and hopeful. I watched him
as he went down the walk with the gander struggling under his arms. A
stranger would have laughed, but I did not feel like laughing; it was
true that the boys who went coasting were usually gone but a few
months, and came home hardy and happy. But when poverty compels a
mother and son to part, after they have been true to each other, and
shared their feelings in common, it seems hard, it seems hard--though
I do not like to murmur or complain at anything allotted to me.

"I saw him go over the hill. On the top he stopped and held up the
gander. He disappeared; yes, my own Nathaniel disappeared. I think of
him now as one who disappeared.

"November came. It was a terrible month on the coast that year. Storm
followed storm; the sea-faring people talked constantly of wrecks and
losses. I could not sleep on the nights of those high winds. I used to
lie awake thinking over all the happy hours that I had lived with
Nathaniel.

"Thanksgiving week came.

"It was full of an Indian-summer brightness after the long storms. The
nights were frosty, bright, and calm.

"I could sleep on those calm nights.

"One morning I thought I heard a strange sound in the woodland
pasture. It was like a wild goose. I listened; it was repeated. I was
lying in bed. I started up--I thought I had been dreaming.

"On the night before Thanksgiving I went to bed early, being very
tired. The moon was full; the air was calm and still. I was thinking
of Nathaniel, and I wondered if he would indeed have the gander for
his Thanksgiving dinner, if it would be cooked as well as I would have
cooked it, and if he would think of me that day.

"I was just going to sleep when suddenly I heard a sound that made me
start up and hold my breath.

"'_Honk_!'

"I thought it was a dream followed by a nervous shock.

"'_Honk! honk!_'

"There it was again, in the yard, I was surely awake and in my senses.