The morning is bright and sunshiny as MaLizze 
MaGoose shakes the water from her feathers and 
waddles up the path to her coop. 
MaLizze should be happy, but something is 
bothering her. 
That something is the way other animals 
talk about geese. "Don't be a silly goose!" 
Chanty, the rooster told his wife. "You're 
noisier than a goose!" Rover told his son 
as he barked and growled at the woodchuck. 
"The ducks are all goose-toed!" Blue Jay 
cheerfully chirped while picking on the 
ducks, Huff'n'Puff and Squeak. 
MaLizze slides around the corner of her 
coop and nestles in the fresh clean straw 
some human has put there. She hides her 
head as the cat passes by with a mouse for 
her kittens. She pretends not to hear Chanty, 
the mighty rooster, as he crows telling the 
world about a probable weather change. MaLizze 
tries to make herself as small as possible. 
MaLizze wishes she was someone else. A chicken 
would be nice but chickens are silly and rather 
dumb. What about a cow? Definitely not. Cows 
have to be milked every morning and every night 
and MaLizze wouldn't like that. Besides, no matter 
how hard she tries she can't say MOOO. 
She could be a cat, but somehow cats don't 
interest her. What would she like to be? All at 
once she knows. She wants to be a ----------- 
GRANDFATHER. 
Grandfathers are good and kind. They bring 
everyone presents and ice cream. They sit in 
comfortable chairs and bounce babies on their 
knee. They go walking in meadows and always 
discover the most exciting secrets hidden in 
the grass. And, no one, absolutely no one, ever 
says naughty things about Grandfathers. 
If MaLizze is going to be a Grandfather, she 
will need to look like a Grandfather so she 
gets a Grandfather's hat, a Grandfather's jacket, 
some Grandfather's house slippers, and puts 
them all on. Then, she puts a Grandfather's 
pipe in her mouth and sits in a Grandfather's 
rocking chair. 
As Grandfather MaLizze sits in her comfortable 
Grandfather's rocking chair, the cat, parading 
her kittens behind her, comes walking past. 
Of course, the kittens stop in front of MaLizze 
because they like Grandfathers and want to be 
bounced on Grandfather MaLizze's knee. She bounces 
them. When they are gone she decides to go to the 
meadow and discover some secrets hidden in the grass. 
She watches an ant hill. She discover some 
rabbit tracks. She sees some fluttery butterflies. 
She sees a green snake that sticks out its tongue 
at her. She finds a meadow lark's nest and she hears 
a swarm of bees in the apple tree. Then, she comes 
to the stream and decides she would like to take 
a swim. 
She stops! Her head droops! She has never seen 
any Grandfather take a swim in a stream. They only 
sit on the bank of the stream and watch the water 
or try to catch a fish. She quickly hurries back 
to her Grandfather's chair. 
She sits down and starts rocking. The longer she 
sits the more she thinks about the swim in her 
stream. However, she is a Grandfather and 
Grandfathers don't swim in streams. She sits and sits 
and thinks and thinks. Finally, she decides 
what she must do. She takes off all her Grandfather's 
clothing. She hurries off to her stream. She realized 
she would much rather be a goose than a Grandfather 
because a goose can swim in small streams and 
Grandfathers can't. 
 

    




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Grandfather MaLizze (book 6)