Children's stories, American; Fairy tales -- United States; Fantasy literature; Short stories
“Hoo hoo,” sang Hoo Hoo. “Hoo hoo.”
And while Hoo Hoo kept on calling a soft, low coaxing hoo hoo, Yang Yang
kept on crying a hard, noisy nagging yang yang till everybody in the
house upstairs and down and everybody in the neighbor houses heard her
yang-yanging.
The shadow of the goose lifted its left wing a little, lifted its right
foot a little, got up on its goose legs, and walked around and around in
a circle on its goose feet. And every time it walked around in a circle
it came back to the same place it started from, with its left foot or
right foot in the same foot spot it started from. Then it stayed there
in the same place like a picture put there to look at, only it was a
living picture with its neck sometimes sticking up straight in the air
and sometimes bending in a long curving bend.
Yang Yang threw the bed covers off, slid out of bed and ran downstairs
yang-yanging for her mother. But Hoo Hoo sat up in bed laughing,
counting her pink toes to see if there were ten pink toes the same as
the morning before. And while she was counting her pink toes she looked
out of the corners of her eyes at the shadow of the goose on the wall.
And again the shadow of the goose lifted its left wing a little, lifted
its right foot a little, got up on its goose legs, and walked around and
around in a circle on its goose feet. And every time it walked around in
a circle it came back to the same place it started from, with its left
foot or right foot back in the same foot spot it started from. Then it
stayed there in the same place where it put itself on the wall like a
picture to look at, only it was a living picture with its neck sticking
up straight in the air and then changing so its neck was bending in a
long curving bend.
And all the time little Hoo Hoo was sitting up in bed counting her pink
toes and looking out of the corners of her eyes at the shadow of the
goose.
By and by little Hoo Hoo said, “Good morning—hoo hoo for you—and hoo hoo
again, I was looking at the window when you came in. I saw you put
yourself on the wall like a picture. I saw you begin to walk and come
back where you started from with your neck sticking straight up and your
neck bending in a bend. I give you good morning. I blow a hoo hoo to
you. I blow two of a hoo hoo to you.”
Then the shadow of a goose, as if to answer good morning, and as if to
answer what Hoo Hoo meant by saying, “I blow two of a hoo hoo to you,”
stretched its neck sticking up straight and long, longer than any time
yet, and then bended its neck in more of a bend than any time yet.
And all the time Hoo Hoo was sitting in bed feeling of her toes with her
fingers to see if she had one toe for every finger, and to see if she
had one pink little toe to match her one pink little finger, and to see
if she had one fat flat big toe to match her one fat flat thumb.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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