Elizabeth's Journal Entry, age 7                                       October, 25th 2002 

    The geese alighted in the field one morning when I wasn't even awake. I woke up and went out to the living room and sat down on the love seat. I called, “Mom, look! There's a whole bunch of geese out in the field.” Mom said, “Yes, I wish Eric could see them.” I said, “Wake him up, Mom, wake him up.” “No, no,” she said. “He’ll  only be disgusted because he can't shoot them.”    
   The geese looked like they were doing the tango. You could hear the crunch of the soybeans underneath their squeechy feet. Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp...

      As I gazed upon the many geese I saw the beautiful colors of their feathers: black, white, and gray. The scales on their legs were orange. When all the geese were eating, one of the leaders set a guard to look out for the girls who were in the field. The guards go up to higher places to make sure that there isn’t anything there. 

      Claire wanted someone to let our pet goose Peep-Peep out to see if one of the geese would mate  with  her.  No  one  would let her out of the barn because it was tooo cold. I said, "I will." And they said, "All by yourself?" I said, "Yes, I don't mind."  

      When I went outside the geese looked like statues. They didn’t move. I went into the barn and I heard, “Honk, honk, honk, quack, quack, quack, peep, peep, peep.” I went and let Peep-Peep out and I said to her, “Peep-Peep, we need you for an emergency.” She said, “Honk!” and came right towards me. I grabbed her and pulled her out of her cage. She said, “Honk, honk, hooooooooonk!”

      I clomped out of the barn and set her down. I chased her towards the guards. I wondered what would happen. I hoped it wouldn’t be Peep-Peep’s last breath, and it wasn't! She would not go one step near them. She flapped her wings and ran away as fast as she could. I said, “Peep-Peep you're supposed to go to the curious guards!” She just stood there and looked at me. I chased her into the field of golden brown soybeans.
      Then the marvelous guards flew up into the air as the flock flew away. I felt like it was my fault that they flew away. Mom comforted me and said, “No, God makes them go places, not you.”