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"I don't know what human beings have named it," said Dunfin. "We gray geese call it the 'City that Floats on the Water'." Dunfin had two sisters, Prettywing and Goldeye. They were strong and intelligent birds, but they did not have such a soft and shiny feather dress as Dunfin, nor did they have her sweet and gentle disposition.
Nothing is so unreal as the bite of the goldeye when it is not there. It brings to mind the lights in the sky of winter, which dance and shoot and yet they are not. Hi! ho! I have him. I was mistaken. I thought the fish was not but it was." While speaking La Certe sent a small fish with bursting violence on the grass behind him.
At first the old goose-parents could not quite make out what they saw, but when they recognized Dunfin they were absurdly happy, of course. While the wild geese and Morten Goosey-Gander and Dunfin were chattering excitedly, trying to tell how she had been rescued, Prettywing and Goldeye came running.
"You shall have another goldeye into the bargain six goldeyes for the five shillings and a whole catfish for the box and snuff voila!" The poor Switzer still hesitated. "It is a great deal to give for so little," he said. "That may be true," said the other, "but I would not see my family starve for the satisfaction of carrying a snuff-box and five shillings in my pocket."
"I would rather see him dead than to go about here the entire summer thinking of Dunfin's capturing a white goosey-gander!" pouted Prettywing. However, the sisters continued to appear very friendly toward Dunfin, and in the afternoon Goldeye took Dunfin with her, that she might see the one she thought of marrying. "He's not as attractive as the one you will have," said Goldeye.
"It can't be possible that it is she! How did she manage to get in with people of that class? Why, we left her at Öland to freeze and starve." "The worse of it is she will tattle to father and mother that we flew so close to her that we knocked her wing out of joint," said Goldeye. "You'll see that it will end in our being driven from the island!"
While Prettywing and Goldeye were talking in this strain, the wild geese had been standing on the strand, pluming their feathers after the flight. Now they marched in a long line up the rocky shore to the cleft where Dunfin's parents usually stopped. Dunfin's parents were good folk. They had lived on the island longer than any one else, and it was their habit to counsel and aid all newcomers.
"He is a tame goose, of course." "He brings with him one who is bewitched," said Goldeye, "and, under the circumstances, he too must be bewitched. Are you not afraid that he may be a black cormorant?" She was a good talker and succeeded in frightening Dunfin thoroughly. "You don't mean what you are saying," pleaded the little gray goose. "You only wish to frighten me!"
From the time they had been little, yellow goslings, their parents and relatives and even the old fisherman had plainly shown them that they thought more of Dunfin than of them. Therefore the sisters had always hated her. When the wild geese landed on the cliff island, Prettywing and Goldeye were feeding on a bit of grass close to the strand, and immediately caught sight of the strangers.
The labour of this occupation consisted chiefly in staring at his line, while he sat on a mud-heap on the river bank, and smoked in the pleasant sunshine. Occasionally he roused himself to haul out a goldeye. Wildcat assisted him ably in his labours, and still more ably in the after consumption of the goldeyes.
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