THE HUNTER COULD NOT BELIEVE HIS EYES.
“Ah, I will have some of these geese to take home.” And he drew an arrow out of his quiver.
But before he had laid the arrow across the bow he saw a strange sight. The geese began to take off their feathers. They took them off like dresses, folded them up neatly and laid them on the shore; and as each one laid aside her downy dress she turned into a beautiful girl, and ran into the water and began to splash and swim about.
The hunter could not believe his eyes. He rubbed them hard and looked again. The girls were all in the water now having a good time. Was it possible they had flown over like geese? He did not know what to make of it, but finally he decided they were girls dressed up as geese, and he thought to himself:
“One trick deserves another; and here is a fine chance for me to play a joke.”
So he crept along very carefully without making the slightest noise till he got near enough to suddenly leap up and rush and seize their feathery dresses. When they saw him do this all the girls cried out. But the hunter only laughed and ran away. Then they called and called to him to come back and give them their clothes; they cried and pleaded. And a great number of wild geese came flying overhead, calling—calling. The sky was quite dark with them till the youth grew afraid and ashamed and brought back their feathers. As he handed each dress to its owner she slipped into it and was instantly a goose again, and flew away to seaward with a flock of the wild birds. The hunter, who couldn’t make it out at all, stood staring after each one; while the girls who were left waited crying for their clothes, and wild wings beat overhead.
When it came to the last girl, she was so beautiful the youth decided he could not let her go.
She begged and prayed: “Oh, do let me fly away with my friends! Do let me go—do let me go!”
But the hunter said: “No. You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen, and you must stay and be my wife.”