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THE GOOSE AND THE GOLDEN COINS by Lorinda Bryan--Adapt & Illus. Cauley

THE GOOSE AND THE GOLDEN COINS

By

Pub Date: March 1st, 1981
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Based on an earthier precursor to ""The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg,"" but told in a stiff, stale manner, this concerns a goose that drops gold coins instead of natural droppings. The goose belongs to sisters Lilla and Lolla, two poor ""maidens"" whose ""gentle hearts"" moved them to buy and keep it. As the gold coins drop the sisters begin to step out in fancy clothes--which, in Cauley's heavily colored pictures, make them look even harsher and less gentle than they did in their earlier rags. To be fair, though, the town ""gossips"" who discover the truth and borrow the goose are even more jaded and repulsive-looking. Anyway, the goose fails to perform for the gossips; they twist its neck and toss it out the window; and in anger over such treatment the goose bites the passing prince ""from behind,"" refusing to let go. No one in the kingdom can pry it loose until Lolla shows up; and when the prince hears the story he marries Lolla--and, for a happy ending for all, ""married Lilla to a duke."" The story could indeed be robustly funny, but Cauley's lifeless telling and leaden, purple-patched pictures are at odds with its barnyard spirit.