But when she went the next day to her best friends and told them about her plan, most of them only made fun of her, and all of them turned their backs on her. No one would listen!
But Mamma Goose was not to be talked out of it. If the others wished to sit still and let the fox carry them away one at a time, that was one thing, but for her to do nothing to keep her little goslings safe,--that was quite another.
So every night Mamma Goose led her babies into Fido's house, and every morning brought them out again safe and whole. But always a little chick was missing!
Then one night when the sun was sinking low, the big white cock flew up to the top of the fence and crowed. All the chickens listened then, while he told them that they were every one to go into old Fido's house that night with Mamma Goose; for that was the only way to keep the fox from carrying them all away.
But the next morning when the farmer's boy came to scatter the corn for breakfast, he looked at the empty roost and did not know what to think!
By and by, however, he found them and at first he only laughed, but after he had seen that no little chick was missing, he looked as if he were thinking, too. And that evening, when the sun had gone down behind the hill, the farmer's boy came back, and who do you think was with him?--old Fido, wagging his tail, and looking as if he were very glad to get back!
The big white cock and all the chickens were just as glad as he was, for now they knew that the fox would never come any more. Mamma Goose, too, was just as glad as the rest, for now she knew that she would never need to bother herself to think about the goslings again.