Three Good Deeds Read Free Page B

her feel better is."
    Howard considered that notion while the witch reached into her basket and threw out more crumbs. So the bubbly feeling was the boy-into-goose spell starting to come apart. He wondered if he would look one-third boy and two-thirds goose, because that would be very weird—though it might make doing the remaining two good deeds easier.
    But, no. He still looked entirely goose.
    Other geese had heard the happy honking and splashing of Sunset-Dances-Like-Flames-on-Her-Feathers and the other goose and were beginning to swim their way.
    Howard took a deep breath. Then another. Then he said to the old witch, "Have I mentioned what lovely eyes you have?"
    He waited for the bubbly feeling to indicate the spell loosening up further.
    Nothing.
    "Nice try," the old witch said, with a very unlovely snort. "A certain amount of sincerity might help. Want some bread?" She tossed a crust at his webbed feet.
    Howard prodded the bread with his toe and found it as hard as the stone it had landed by. "This stale old thing?" he scoffed. His mother would never let bread go that stale. She'd toss it out to the animals rather than feed it to her family.
    Oh,
Howard thought, realizing the old witch was doing just that.
    She suggested, "Dunk it in the water."
    The water was muddy and had geese swimming in it.
    Howard heard Sunset-Dances-Like-Flames-on-Her-Feathers getting introduced as more and more geese gathered. Howard heard the geese-honks for "one of a kind" and "beautiful" and "interesting." Geese did not strike him as being very original thinkers.
    "Your bread probably has weevils in it," Howard said to the old witch. She wanted a sincere compliment? He didn't need to compliment her at all when there was a whole pond full of gullible geese nearby. "Besides, I'm not going to be a goose long enough to get hungry."
    The old witch shrugged, and Howard eased himself into the pond. He planned to
wade in only as far as his short legs would permit since he didn't know how to swim; but as soon as his goose body hit the water, his goose instincts took over. His feet began paddling and in moments he was gliding away from the shore.
    He swam up to Sunset-Dances-Like-Flames-on-Her-Feathers and said, "Wow! You look even better in the full sun than you did back there in the shadow of the weeds."
    "Thank you," she said to him between mouthfuls of watery bread.
    Howard watched the water squish out from her beak and waited for the spell-loosening sensation to start.
    Nothing happened.
    Maybe a compliment only worked once for each ... complimentee?
    Howard swam up to another goose. "You have very soft-looking feathers."
    "Thank you," that one said, though she sounded a bit timid, as though distrusting why he'd come up to her to say this.
    Still nothing. Maybe the compliment wasn't good enough.
    To another goose, Howard said, "The sparkles in the water cast sparkles in your eyes. Very becoming."
    "Thanks," said that goose, but she backed away from him warily, as though he made her nervous.
    "My, you're such a good swimmer," Howard said to yet another goose. "I bet you could teach all of us a thing or two about swimming."
    The goose ignored him.
    "Love the shade of orange of your beak," Howard called out to another.
    That one lowered it's head and hissed, a hiss Howard understood as "Keep your
distance, new youngling." Now it was Howard's turn to back up.
    He backed into Sunset-Dances-Like-Flames-on-Her-Feathers, who stopped in her bread-gobbling to warn Howard, "That's Mighty-Beak/Bone-Crusher. You probably don't want to get on his bad side."
    Mighty-Beak/Bone-Crusher?
    Did someone with a name like that
have
a good side?
    This wasn't fair. Howard was trying to be sincere.
    He returned to the shore, to see if that crust of bread was still there because maybe he was going to be stuck as a goose for a little longer than he'd hoped.
    But both witch and bread were gone.

6. Pond Life
    Now that the bread was gone, the geese began to