A GOOSE LIFE

Miles Crooks, age 10

    One day a flock of geese flew over and landed in a field. They stayed there a long time. As dusk came they took off to the lake to rest the night there. The next day they flew to a field beside the road. They were not there very long because a truck came by and scared them up. They then flew to a pond. They were still hungry so they took of to a field to eat. They found lots of good things there to eat.

    When they took off they came to a city. As they flew high over it, they were getting tired, but saw no place to land in peace. A goose or two dropped behind the rest of them. When they saw a big pond they landed in it. Some people came to the pond. The geese were too tired to fly away. The people dropped crumbs for the geese to eat. They did not come to eat until the people left them. Some came and ate then. After a rest they took flight. As dusk came along they were out of the city.

    They eeded to sleep someplace. They were about to land when a tractor came by plowing. Quickly they flew higher to get away. Then they saw a lake and landed in it. During the night the wind came up. The waves on the lake were high. They needed to get away.

    One wave hit them hard. After the wave had gone by they quickly flew off before the next wave could hit them. They were tired when they landed on a hill in a field.

    The next day they went to a pasture to feed when a herd of cows came walking up the trail. The geese were quiet, but as the cows came by they flew up sending the herd in different directions. Then they landed in a pond in the pasture. It was deep and there were some fish in it. After the had a swim they went on shore to feed a little. Then they went to a lake to rest the night there. Some ducks landed there too for the night.

    As dawn came the geese took off to a field to eat the grain the farmer had swathed. The farmer saw the geese. He never liked geese in his field so he went and scared them out of his field. The geese went on to another field. When dusk came they could not find a lake for the night so they had to sleep in the field for the night.

    When dawn came they flew to another field where there already was a bigger flock of geese feeding. A little later another flock of geese flew over them. The leader was honking and telling the geese winter will be coming pretty soon. It was time to go south for the winter. Quick as a wink they flew toward the south. They knew winter was coming. They had better hurry before the ponds and the lakes will by frozen. They flew one whole night. They were tired and hungry, but they never stopped going. When the next night came they landed. They were too tired to fly and too hungry. The next morning they took off. The same thing happened day after day. One day they knew their winter home was not much farther. It was getting hotter. When they reached their home for the winter, they got busy building nests to have their goslings.

100 dollars - Canada - 1988