Mr. Pryor
make their own bargain. The boy won't know for years that it is
practically a gift, and it would please Mr. Pryor immensely. Now run,
or you'll be late!"

I had to go, so I didn't know how they settled it, but if they wouldn't
let Leon have that horse, it was downright mean. What if we were under
obligations to Mr. Pryor? We were to Sarah Hood, and half the people
we knew, and what was more, we LIKED to be.

When I came from school that night father had been to town. He had an
ax and was opening a big crate, containing two of the largest, bluest
geese you ever saw. Laddie said being boxed that way and seeing them
so close made them look so big; really, they were no finer than
Pryors', where he had got the address of the place that sold them.
Mother was so pleased. She said she had needed a new strain, for a
long time, to improve her feathers; now she would have pillows worth
while, in a few years. They put them in the barn where our geese
stayed over night, and how they did scream. That is, one of them did;
the other acted queerly and father said to Laddie that he was afraid
the trip was hard on it. Laddie said it might have been hurt, and
mother was worried too. Before she had them an hour, she had sold all
our ganders; spring had come, she had saved the blue goose eggs, set
them under a hen, raised the goslings with the little chickens, never
lost one, picked them and made a new pair of pillows too fine for any
one less important than a bishop, or a judge, or Dr. Fenner to sleep
on. Then she began saving for a featherbed. And still the goose
didn't act as spry or feel as good as the gander. He stuck up his
head, screamed, spread his wings and waved them, and the butts looked
so big and hard, I was not right certain whether it would be safe to
tease him or not.

The first person who came to see them was Sarah Hood, and she left with
the promise of a pair as soon as mother could raise them. Father said
the only reason mother didn't divide her hair with Sarah Hood was
because it was fast, and she couldn't. Mother said gracious goodness!
she'd be glad to get rid of some of it if she could, and of course
Sarah should have first chance at it. Hadn't she kept her over night
so she could see her new home when she was rested, and didn't she come
with her, and help her get settled, and had she ever failed when we had
a baby, or sickness, or trouble, or thrashers, or a party? Of course
she'd gladl