Then Grandmother added, "To be sure you may have them, Mary Jane. Those are ducks, and I put in six eggs so we could have a bit of roast duck, come winter. They'll be sure to get into trouble with the chickens and I would be so glad if you'll make them your family and look after them for me. Here, Father," she said to her husband, "let's take them out for her first." So Grandfather got the basket Mary Jane and her grandmother had brought out with them and then he held up the glass cover while Grandmother tenderly lifted the tiny ducks, one by one, and set them inside. Then she covered them all over with a thick cover.
"But Grandmother," cried Mary Jane in dismay, "they can't breathe! They'll die!"
"Not they," laughed Grandmother. "Run along now, and set the basket in the sun by your rabbit box. I'll be right out and fix them up for you."
So for the second time that day, Mary Jane found herself carrying a basket of living creatures. "Wouldn't Doris like to be here!" she said to herself as she thought of her little friend back home, "and wouldn't I like to show her my family!" She walked slowly and carefully so as not to tip the baby ducks and it was with a sigh of relief that she finally set them down by the rabbit box.
Fortunately, Grandmother came along in just a few minutes so Mary Jane didn't have time to worry about the "peeps" that were coming more and more loudly from the basket.
Grandmother took the ducks one by one from the basket and set them on some soft bits of old wool in the corner of the box. "We don't need a cover for this box," she said, pulling at the screen Grandfather had tacked on, "till they get bigger. We'll take it off so you can take care of them easier. There now!" she added as the screen came off, "we'll cover them up so," and she laid the soft cloth that had been on the basket over the little ducks; "now we'll let them be for a while."
"But we didn't feed them, Grandmother," objected Mary Jane.
"To be sure not," laughed Grandmother. "They don't want anything to eat just yet. Not to-day. All they want is to be warm and cozy."
"Don't they want anything to drink either?" asked Mary Jane.
"No," replied Grandmother, "nothing to drink either. To-morrow you can fix them a drinking dish and I'll show you about their food, but now, we'll just let them be. Listen! What's that?"