A Thanksgiving Dinner That Flew Away

    A Cape Cod story about a wise old gander whose     adventure on the sea insured him against the perils of     the Thanksgiving hatchet. For boys or girls. THERE is one sound that I shall always remember. It is "Honk!" I spun around like a top, one summer day when I heard it, looking nervously in every direction. I had just come down from the city to the Cape with my sister Hester for my third summer vacation. I had left the cars with my arms full of bundles, and hurried toward Aunt Targood's. The cottage stood in from the road. There was a long meadow in front of it. In the meadow were two great oaks and some clusters of lilacs. An old, mossy stone wall protected the grounds from the road, and a long walk ran from the old wooden gate to the door. It was a sunny day, and my heart was light. The orioles were flaming in the old orchards; the bobolinks were tossing themselves about in the long meadows of timothy, daisies, and patches of clover. There was a scent of new-mown hay in the air. In the distance lay the bay, calm and resplendent, with white sails and specks of boats. Beyond it rose Martha's Vineyard, green and cool and bowery, and at its wharf lay a steamer. I was, as I said, light-hearted. I was thinking of rides over the sandy roads at the close of the long, bright days; of excursions on the bay; of clambakes and picnics. I was hungry, and before me rose visions of Aunt Targood's fish dinners, roast chickens, and berry pies. I was thirsty, but ahead was the old well sweep, and behind the cool lattice of the dairy window were pans of milk in abundance. I tripped on toward the door with light feet, lugging my bundles, and beaded with perspiration, but unmindful of all discomforts in the thought of the bright days and good things in store for me. "Honk! honk!" My heart gave a bound! Where did that sound come from? Out of a cool cluster of innocent-looking lilac bushes I saw a dark object cautiously moving. It seemed to have no head. I knew, however, that it had a head. I had seen it; it had seized me once in the previous summer, and I had been in terror of it during all the rest of the season. I looked down into the irregular grass, and saw the head and a very long neck running along on the ground, propelled by the dark body, like a snake running away from a ball. It was coming toward me, and faster and faster as it approached. I dropped my bundles. In a few flying leaps I returned to the road again, and armed myself with a stick from a pile of cordwood. "Honk! honk! honk!" It was a call of triumph. The head was high in the air now. My enemy moved grandly forward, as became the monarch of the great meadow farmyard. I stood with beating heart, after my retreat. It was Aunt Targood's gander. How he enjoyed his triumph, and how small and cowardly he made me feel! "Honk! honk! honk!" The geese came out of the lilac bushes, bowing their heads to him in admiration. Then came the goslings a long procession of awkward, half-feathered things; they appeared equally delighted. The gander seemed to be telling his admiring audience all about it: how a strange lad with many bundles had attempted to cross the yard; how he had driven him back, and had captured his bundles, and now was monarch of the field. He clapped his wings when he had finished his heroic story, and sent forth such a "Honk!" as might have startled a major-general. Then he, with an air of great dignity and coolness, began to examine my baggage. Among my effects were several pounds of chocolate caramels done up in brown paper. Aunt Targood liked caramels, and I brought her a large supply. He tore off the wrappers quickly. He bit one. It was good. He began to distribute the bonbons among the geese, and they, with much liberality and good-will, among the goslings. This was too much. I ventured through the gate, swinging my cordwood stick. "Shoo!" He dropped his head on the ground, and drove it down the walk in a lively waddle toward me. "Shoo!" It was Aunt Targood's voice at the door. He stopped immediately. His head was in the air again. "Shoo!" Out came Aunt Targood with her broom. She always corrected the gander with her broom. If I were to be whipped I should choose a broom not the stick. As soon as he beheld the broom he retired, although with much offended pride and dignity, to the lilac bushes; and the geese and goslings followed him. "Hester, you dear child," she said to my sister, "come here. I was expecting you, and had been looking out for you, but missed sight of you. I had forgotten all about the gander." We gathered up the bundles and the caramels. I was light-hearted again. How cool was the sitting-room, with the woodbine falling about the open window! Aunt brought me a pitcher of milk, and some strawberries, some bread and honey, and a fan. While I was resting and taking my lunch, I could hear the gander discussing the affairs of the farmyard with the geese. I did not greatly enjoy the discussion. His tone of voice was very proud, and he did not seem to be speaking well of me. I was suspicious that he did not think me a very brave lad. A young person likes to be spoken well of, even by the gander. Aunt Targood's gander had been the terror of many well-meaning people, and of some evildoers, for many years. I have seen tramps and pack peddlers enter the gate, and start on toward the door, when there would sound that ringing warning like a war blast, "Honk, honk!" and in a few minutes these unwelcome people would be gone. Farmhouse boarders from the city would sometimes enter the yard, thinking to draw water by the old well sweep; in a few minutes it was customary to hear shrieks, and to see women and children flying over the walls, followed by air-rending "Honks!" and jubilant cackles from the victorious gander and his admiring family. Aunt Targood sometimes took summer boarders. Among those that I remember was the Rev. Mr. Bonney, a fervent-souled Methodist preacher. He put the gander to flight with the cart whip, on the second day after his arrival, and seemingly to aunt's great grief; but he never was troubled by the feathered tyrant again. Young couples sometimes came to Father Bonney to be married; and one summer afternoon there rode up to the gate a very young couple, whom we afterward learned had "run away," or rather, had attempted to get married without their parents' approval. The young bridegroom hitched the horse, and helped from the carriage the gayly dressed miss he expected to make his wife. They started up the walk upon the run, as though they expected to be followed and haste was necessary to prevent the failure of their plans. "Honk!" They stopped. It was a voice of authority. "Just look at him!" said the bride. "Oh, oh!" The bridegroom cried "Shoo!" but he might as well have said "Shoo" to a steam engine. On came the gander, with his head and neck upon the ground. He seized the lad by the calf of his leg, and made an immediate application of his wings. The latter seemed to think he had been attacked by dragons. As soon as he could shake him off he ran. So did the bride, but in another direction; and while the two were thus perplexed and discomfited, the bride's father appeared in a carriage, and gave her a most forcible invitation to ride home with him. She accepted it without discussion. What became of the bridegroom, or how the matter ended, we never knew. "Aunt, what makes you keep that gander year after year?" said I one evening, as we were sitting on the lawn before the door. "Is it because he is a kind of watchdog, and keeps troublesome people away?" "No, child, no; I do not wish to keep most people away not well-behaved people nor to distress nor annoy any one. The fact is, there is a story about that gander that I do not like to speak of to every one something that makes me feel tender toward him; so that if he needs a whipping I would rather do it. He knows something that no one else knows. I could not have him killed or sent away. You have heard me speak of Nathaniel, my oldest boy?" "Yes." "That is his picture in my room, you know. He was a good boy to me. He loved his mother. I loved Nathaniel you cannot think how much I loved Nathaniel. It was on my account that he went away. "The farm did not produce enough for us all Nathaniel, John, and me. We worked hard, and had a hard time. One year that was ten years ago we were sued for our taxes. "'Nathaniel,' said I, 'I will go to taking boarders.' "Then he looked up to me and said oh, how noble and handsome he appeared to me: "'Mother, I will go to sea.' "'Where?' asked I, in surprise. "'In a coaster.' "I turned white. How I felt! "'You and John can manage the place,' he continued. 'One of the vessels sails next week Uncle Aaron's; he offers to take me.' "It seemed best, and he made preparations to go. "The spring before Skipper Ben you have met Skipper Ben had given me some goose eggs; he had brought them from Canada, and said that they were wild goose eggs. "I set them under hens. In four weeks I had three goslings. I took them into the house at first, but afterward made a pen for them out in the yard. I brought them up myself, and one of those goslings is that gander. "Skipper Ben came over to see me the day before Nathaniel was to sail. Aaron came with him. "I said to Aaron: "'What can I give Nathaniel to carry to sea with him to make him think of home? Cake, preserves, 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. "I heard the geese cackle. "'Honk! honk! honk!' "I got out of bed and lifted the curtain. It was almost as light as day. "Instead of two geese there were three. Had one of the neighbours' geese stolen away? "I should have thought so, and should not have felt disturbed, but for the reason that none of the neighbours' geese had that peculiar call that hornlike tone that I had noticed in mine. "I went out of the door. "The third goose looked like the very gander I had given Nathaniel. Could it be? "I did not sleep. I rose early and went to the crib for some corn. "It was a gander a 'wild gander' that had come in the night. He seemed to know me. "I trembled all over as though I had seen a ghost. I was so faint that I sat down on the meal chest. "As I was in that place, a bill pecked against the door. The door opened. The strange gander came hobbling over the crib stone and went to the corn bin. He stopped there, looked at me, and gave a sort of glad 'Honk' as though he knew me and was glad to see me. "I was certain that he was the gander I had raised and that Nathaniel had lifted into the air when he gave me his last recognition from the top of the hill. "It overcame me. It was Thanksgiving. The church bell would soon be ringing as on Sunday. And here was Nathaniel's Thanksgiving dinner and Brother Aaron's had it flown away? Where was the vessel? "Years have passed ten. You know I waited and waited for my boy to come back. December grew dark with its rainy seas; the snows fell; May righted up the hills, but the vessel never came back. Nathaniel my Nathaniel never returned. "That gander knows something he could tell me if he could talk. Birds have memories. He remembered the corncrib he remembered something else. I wish he could talk, poor bird! I wish he could talk. I will never sell him, nor kill him, nor have him abused. He knows!"