Charles Dickens.
AMRIE AND THE GEESE.
Amrie tended the geese upon the Holder Green, as they called the pasture-ground upon the little height by Hungerbrook.
It was a pleasant but a troublesome occupation. Especially painful was it to Amrie, that she could do nothing to attach her charge to her. Indeed, they were scarcely to be distinguished one from another. Was it not true what Brown Mariann had said to her as she came out of the Moosbrunnenwood?
"Creatures that live in herds are all and every one stupid."
"I think," said Amrie, "that this is what makes geese stupid; they can do too many things. They can swim and run and fly, but they can do neither well; they are not at home in the water, nor on the ground, nor in the air; and therefore they are stupid."
"I will stand by this," said Mariann; "in thee is concealed an old hermit."