“Good morning, Duckiedaddles, Cockielockie, Hennypenny,” said she, bowing very politely at the same time.
“My name, madam,” said the unlucky Peck, taking care to answer before the others, “my name is Miss Peck; but you are quite correct as to my two companions, Mr. Cockielockie and Mrs. Duckiedaddles, who have had the kindness to accompany me on a journey of great importance, which it has been my duty to undertake. And I am sure, unused as I am to travelling alone, I do not know what I should do without the support of their society. Will you allow me to ask, Mrs. Goosiepoosie, where you are going to so early in the morning?”
“I am going,” answered Mrs. Goosiepoosie, putting on an air of great importance, “to make an early visit to Her Majesty the Queen, on very pressing business.”
“To the Queen!” they all exclaimed at once. “Pray, madam, do us the favour to tell us your errand?”
“Why, to tell the truth,” replied Goosiepoosie, “it is a secret known only at present to my own family, but I have no objection to mentioning it so to such respectable people as yourselves, as I am sure you are quite to be trusted. You are aware that I and all my family have been accustomed from generation to generation, to dress in white, and have hitherto allowed our young ones to wear coats of the same colour as soon as they are old enough to take care of them. But at last we have quite grown tired of this style of dress. It was very well for our grandfathers and grandmothers, but now it looks old-fashioned and dowdy, and, besides requires a great deal of washing, which makes it expensive; and so I am going to beg the Queen to give an order for our having in future black coats, which will be much more becoming, and will entitle us to as high a place in society as the Turkey family, who now give themselves such airs and graces over us—as if an old-fashioned British goose, whose family has belonged to the country and supported the state in all times, and has led an honest and quiet life from father to son, were not much more respectable than such upstarts as themselves, who half ruin all their friends, and cannot speak English so as to be understood.”
“Very true, madam,” exclaimed Cockielockie, “your observations have a great deal of weight, only I almost wonder that you should wish to adopt any imitation of the dress of these foreigners, instead of retaining that which your grandfathers and grandmothers seem to have found the most comfortable and convenient, and, I am sure, would never have changed for the sake of making themselves more like the Turkeys. If you are tired of white, why do you not ask leave to wear brown and red coats like ours, which have always been very much admired, and are so much handsomer than black ones?”
“Why, sir,” rejoined Mrs. Goosiepoosie, “I do not see that your coats are any better than our own; and it is not very likely that Father Gander and all the heads of the family would have sent me off on such a long journey to Her Majesty just to ask her leave to change our dress, for no reason at all.”
“I thought you said, madam, just now,” replied Cockielockie, rather slyly, “that you found your old white coats dowdy and expensive. I much fear, however, that you will be obliged to wear them some little time longer yet, for as you are going exactly the wrong way, it is not probable that you will ever reach the palace of Her Majesty the Queen.”
“I beg your pardon,” replied Goosiepoosie, “but as I consulted old Father Gander before I started, and have carefully attended to his directions, which were to keep straight on, without turning to the right leg or to the left, I cannot possibly have gone wrong.”
“Well,” exclaimed Miss Peck, rather sharply, “I can only tell you, madam, that we are now on our way to the residence of Her Majesty, on very important business indeed, and as we have already travelled some distance, we expect very shortly to arrive there. It is not likely that persons of our rank in life should not know where our gracious Sovereign lives, having, of course, often heard the bells ring on her birthday, and also assisted Betsy Chopper in clearing away the crumbs, after a feast that was given us in honour of it, on a large table, under the chestnut trees, not very long ago. There were a great many cakes and curious things to eat, but the naughty children came swarming round the table, and stole them, before we knew of it, though they were all intended for us; so even Cock-a-doodle got nothing better than crumbs—and good enough for him, too. He gave Miss Spangle one of the largest he found, and never offered me a bit, although I was leaning against one leg of the table, close to him, at the time, and suffering agonies of pain from a sudden attack of cramp in my poor leg. But such is the way I have always been treated. However, madam, I can assure you that you had much better attend to what we say, and not go on in this direction, or you will never get to your journey’s end.”