“Yes, but if it hadn’t been for my children they wouldn’t have been out there at all,” replied the duck.
She wanted the hen to bring the chickens up to the hollow tree to rest and get dry, but this the hen would not do. There was nothing she wished so much now as to get her chicks safe home again. She made up her mind that never, never would she venture away from the farmyard again—at least until the chicks were old enough and big enough to take care of themselves.
So the two fowls said good-bye to each other and parted, and then Mother Duck took her children home again without allowing them to go in for another swim. They had indeed been very naughty and disobedient little ducklings, and Mother Duck told them that for a punishment they would not be allowed to go down to the river again for three whole days.
That was indeed a sad thing for the little ducks. They almost cried over it. But then it might have been worse. She might have told them they couldn’t go back again for a week. They had been naughty enough almost to deserve even that.
With a bound and a roar he was up and at the chicken