"Oh, what fun!" said Julia.
"Did Mrs. Clark lend it to you?" asked Alice.
"No, I didn't ask her, she's so cross," answered Mabel; "but it wasn't any harm, for the duckling had come away from its mother, anyhow. I found it under the currant bushes, and I expect it will do it a great deal of good to teach it to swim. Mrs. Clark ought to be very much obliged to us."
"Perhaps the poor little thing had run away to see if it could find any water," said Julia. "Ducks always want to swim, I believe, and this one had no mother duck to teach it."
"Yes; so you see it's quite a kindness," said Mabel.
"Let's see it," said Alice.
"Presently, when we are at the rock where the pool is," said Mabel. "I don't want to take him out now for fear he begins to wiggle again before I get him in the water, and he knows what we are going to do with him. Won't he be glad?"
"Yes," said Julia. "Does he wiggle much?"
"Not now," said Mabel. "At first he wiggled dreadfully, but I held him tighter, so he couldn't; and he made a little noise, too, but I shut up his bill close, so he couldn't. He's very quiet and good now."