Jeffery the Goose

One day Jeffery and some of his friends had sneaked out of their pen and were quite happily eating grass on the river bank, when two huge dogs who were out for a walk with their master, came charging toward the geese at a tremendous speed. They were going so fast that they slipped on the dew-covered grass and skidded straight into the river scattering the geese as they went. As they hit the river a duck shot straight up in the air and flew out into the centre of the river landing in the water trying hard not to show his disgrace at being caught off guard.

With this Jeffery and his pals burst out laughing--they laughed so hard that they almost split their sides and in doing so they didn't notice the dogs pulling themselves out of the river and shaking themselves dry. The geese only just made it home as the now recovered dogs flew headlong at them, but yet again they skidded and this time crashed into the wire fence and caused such a commotion that the farmer came to see what was happening.

The farmer was cross at the geese for getting out of their pen but he was more cross at the dogs' owner for not keeping them under control. The farmer yelled at the man that he should respect the country code, it was there for a reason not just for the sake of it. With this he fired his shot gun in the air which scared the dogs who ran back to their master with their tails between their legs.

The farmer went back into the house in a huff only to return several minutes later with the feeding pail. As he proceeded to feed the geese and other poultry, Jeffery whispered to his friends, "When he goes in again, how about some of that grass out there for afters?" "No way!" the others cried, as they were too scared the dogs would return.

Jeffery wasn't too upset as that meant all the more grass for him. To which the others said, "he is mad!" They all knew that the last bird who broke the rules too often ended up locked up in the small coop. Jeffery continued to break all the rules and within the week he was locked up in the smallest coop all by himself.

James

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