Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble

by Howard Roger Garis

So those three Wibblewobble children did, and pretty soon, Alice and Jimmie had as much as they could eat, and raised their heads. Then they saw that Lulu still had her bill down under the water.

"She must be getting lots more than we did," spoke Alice.

"Yes, indeed," replied Jimmie. "I wonder how she can hold her breath so long?"

Just then, what should happen but that Lulu began to wave her feet in the air, and she flapped her wings until the spray went up in a regular shower, just like at Asbury Park.

"Oh, my goodness me sakes alive, and three teaspoonsfull of corn meal with pepper in!" cried Grandfather Goosey-Gander. "Lulu is stuck in the mud! We must pull her out. Quick!" That's just the way he said it.

And, would you believe me, Lulu was held fast in the mud by her dear little bill! Oh, how terribly frightened Jimmie and Alice were. They squawked and they quacked, and they tried to pull Lulu out, but she was stuck too fast.

Then all the other ducks came swimming up to see what the trouble was, and they tried to pull her out, but they couldn't, and, all the while her feet were wiggling as fast as they could wiggle, almost like Sammie Littletail's nose.

Then Grandfather Goosey-Gander called out: "What ho! Make way there! I will save her!" And with that, what do you think he did? Why, he dived right down under the water, yes, sir, right down in the mud, and he pushed, and he pulled, and he hauled and he splashed, and he yanked, and he rooted, and he twisted, and he turned, and he shoved, and then, all alone, brave old grandfather that he was, he got Lulu up from the mud, where she had been stuck by her little bill!

And it was almost time, too, let me tell you, for her breath was nearly gone. But she soon got better, and she never put her head so far down under water again.

Then all the ducks said: "Quack, Quack, Quack!" three times, they were so glad, and they swam around in a circle, and the old rooster stood on the bank and crowed, just as if he had done it all! Oh, how glad Papa and Mamma Wibblewobble were that Lulu was saved!