Mrs. Allen stayed to supper, and very soon after Mrs. Horton said that Sunny Boy looked sleepy and must go to bed. He seldom took a nap any more, and as he woke up early in the mornings, his mother said it was certain that he must go to bed earlier to make up for it.
All the time Mother was helping him undress, Sunny Boy was very quiet, and after she had kissed him and tucked him in bed he did not ask her for a story as he usually did.
“You’ve been playing too hard, I think,” said Mrs. Horton. “Good night and pleasant dreams, dearest.”
Sunny Boy waited till she had closed the door. Then he hopped out of bed and pattered over to another door that led into Grandma’s room. When he came back he had two baby ducks in his hands.
“There now, you can sleep in my bed,” he told them, putting them down under the sheet.
But the baby ducks did not like the soft, clean bed. They made funny little peeping noises, and as soon as Sunny Boy climbed into bed, one of them fell out and ran across the floor. Sunny Boy chased it under the bureau, and then he heard Mother calling.
“Sunny!”
He opened the door a crack.
“Yes, Mother?”
“I hear you running around up there. You don’t want Mother to have to come up and punish you, do you? Go back to bed and go to sleep like a good boy.”