Then Lulu and Jimmie ran right up to him, and asked him what was the matter.
"Oh dear," he said, "I really can't say. I've lost my glasses, and I can't see very well. All I know is that I was walking in the woods, thinking what a nice day it was, when, all of a sudden, in about a quack and a half, I found myself caught fast. And the worst part of it is that I can't get loose!"
"Let me take a look," said Jimmie.
So he went quite close and looked, and he saw that Grandfather Goosey-Gander's right leg was held in between two sticks. The old gentleman duck was in great pain.
"Is my leg broken?" he asked Jimmie.
"No," answered the little boy duck, "but some of the skin is scraped off."
"I knew it!" cried Grandfather Goosey-Gander. "Now I won't be able to go fishing next week. Oh, I do seem to have the worst luck; don't I?"
"We will get you out," Lulu said to him, and then she and her brother went to the aid of the poor old duck. They pushed this way and that way, and they pulled that way and this way, and they lifted up on the pieces of sticks, and they pushed down on them, but it was no use. Poor Grandfather Goosey-Gander was stuck fast there, and I think it was a shame, but it couldn't be helped. Oh my no, and a bit of peppermint candy besides!
"Well, I guess I will have to stay here and die," said the discouraged old duck, and he felt so badly that he wept. Lulu and Jimmie cried also, they felt so sorry. The three of them cried, and their tears were so many that if they had cried long enough there would have been quite a pond there, and they could have gone in swimming. That is, of course, all but Grandfather Goosey-Gander, and he couldn't swim for he was held fast. But they didn't weep long enough.
"Let's try once more," said Lulu, after a while, and then she and Jimmie tried harder than ever to get grandfather's leg out. But they couldn't.