“The ducks!” repeated Mary Jay; “where did you see them? Down in the brook?”
“Yes,” said Lucy, “a duck, and six little ducklings.”
“Why, Lucy,” said Mary Jay, apparently much surprised, and starting up to take her crutches. “Then my ducklings are hatched out.”
“Didn’t you know it?” said Lucy.
“No,” said Mary Jay; “let us go and see.”
So Mary Jay and Lucy hastened out into the yard. From the yard they passed into the garden, and from thence over the stile. They followed the path down, until they came to the water; and here Mary Jay seemed to be even more pleased than Royal and Lucy had been, to see her little ducklings.
“I didn’t know that they were hatched,” said Mary Jay; “the duck has been sitting for some time, but I didn’t think that she could find her way down here alone, with all the little ducklings. Let’s see—how many are there?”
“Six,” said Lucy; “Royal and I counted them.”
“One, two, three, four, five,—and that little black one on the bank makes six,” said Mary Jay. “But there ought to be seven.”
“Why?” said Lucy.