Tiktumu’s letter

Press, 2 September 1980, Page 18

Tiktumu’s letter

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Most of you will have fond memories of the Mother Goose rhymes you i loved to listen to when you were .very young. Later you may have laughed your way through several stories about a silly goose named Petunia, and sympathised with Borka, the goose who was born without feathers and wore a close-fitting woollen jersey instead. Traditionally the farmyard goose seems to he a forgetful and rather trivial bird in story books, but not so the wild geese of the ...Northern Hemisphere which migrate to a warmer climate to escape the bitter winters of the far north.

Poets as well as authors have appreciated the grace and beauty of these powerful birds.

In 1941 a .. well-known author, Paul Gallico, wrote a story “The Snow' Goose,” described by a competent critic as being one of the best bird stories in English literature. It is also regarded as being a minor classic of the War years.

The white wings of the Canadian snow goose dominate the story from its beginning in an abandoned lighthouse on the East Coast of England to its end near Dunkirk on

the coast of France where many thousands of British soldiers were stranded after the German victory When the story began, the snow, goose lay wounded and near death in a grassy swamp on the sea coast of Essex. It was found by Frith a village girl whd’loved birds. Frith carried the wounded snow goose to an old lighthouse,., the-home of a man whom the village people believed had magic power to heal injured creatures. Frith was only 12 years old. She was terrified of the stranger who was said to be an ogre because of his strange appearance and unsociable ways. The man, Philip Rhayader, had a deformed back and a shrunken crippled left arm. He wds really very kind-hearted and had a deep love of animals, as Frith learned when she asked him to help the injured bird. Philip was enchanted with the beautiful stranger from Canada. He called it the lost princess. While he deftly fitted splints and bandaged the shattered leg and damaged wing, he chatted to Frith about the birds he fed in an enclosure during the winter. When summer came the snow goose, by now fully recovered, left the mar- ■ shes to return to its native land. Frith and Philip were sad to see the “princess” leave, but overjoyed when it came back

the following winter As the years passed the snow: goose stayed away for shorter periods and finally it did not go at all. The bird became so tame that it followed Philip about and even came indoors One June day when Frith went to the lighthouse to see the snow goose .she found Philip loading supplies into his sailing boat. He told her that the government had called for people withboats to sail* for the coast \ of France where British soldiers were stranded on beaches unable to reach, transport waiting off--shore in deeper water Philip sailed that evening. As Frith watched the small boat moving into the night she heard a swish of wings overhead, and saw the snow goose flying towards the white sail. It was a long time before they disappeared, from sight: two white specks,,the. last Frith was to see, except when the snow goose made a brief, return and she knew she would never see Philip again. That was not quite the end of the story because Philip did brave things and saved many lives, but you should read the full story’, which is said to be partly true. ’ ' ' XJibiw