"I know why you're such a model drake,—it's because your wife is the only duckess in the barnyard."
"Not at all!" he replied. "The principles for which I stand are absolute. They would be the same if there were a hundred duckesses besides Gertrude!"
"Even a hundred pretty ones?"
"Certainly!"
Clarence chuckled.
"For all your noble principles, I wouldn't trust you with a wooden decoy! No, old angel-wings, I.... Look! as I live, a bewitching broiler! What elegantly slender drumsticks she has! I'll have to make her acquaintance."
Forgetting all about Eustace, he scrambled out of the woodpile (where this conversation was held), and stalked forward jauntily to meet the new arrival.
"Are you looking for anyone?" he inquired gallantly.
"No, I'm a stranger. I just arrived by the latest crate."
"Ah, I see. So you're one of this week's débutantes.—Then may I have the honor of showing you about?"