"Already, Anna," I cried, joyously, "already I smell the stuffing!"
"I don't deny it; I am fond of good cooking. It is nothing to be ashamed of; we were sent into the world to eat, as well as to do other things, and it is right that we should enjoy it."
"It is not the goose that has put me in a fever," said Anna, "it is Gideon Wolf."
I pricked up my ears. "Has he been behaving rudely to you, Anna?"
"What!" she screamed, in a voice so shrill that I jumped in my chair. "He! A lamp-post like him! If he dared, I'd box his ears till I set them on fire!"
I laughed quietly; I could not help it, her indignation was so comical. "Well, then," I asked, wiping my eyes, for I had brought the tears into them, "what has he done?"
Her reply was brief and startling: "Gideon Wolf is courting."
"It is not possible," I cried; "you must be dreaming."
"I don't dream," said Anna, "with my eyes wide open. This very evening, not ten minutes ago, as I was coming home, after buying the goose, I saw him with his arm round her waist."
"Bound the goose's waist!" I exclaimed, for really she was beginning to confuse me.