IV
WAS IT JUDY?
For a week or two after Polly White had begun to sit on the ducks’ eggs, Lucy asked every day,—
“Where’s my little duckies?”
And then she forgot all about them.
But Polly White was still sitting. It takes only three weeks to hatch chickens; but it takes four weeks to hatch ducklings, and poor Polly did not understand it, and was growing very tired. To keep up her spirits John and Vendla gave her all sorts of nice things to eat.
At last one day the ducklings began to peck out of the shell. And when they fairly came out how funny they looked! Very large and yellow, with round bills and yellow, flat feet; and when they tried to walk they waddled.
Polly looked surprised. Were they all lame? Had they all sprained their ankles? She had never seen any ducklings before; but she clucked just as proudly for all that.
“See my children! Aren’t they beauties? That’s a new style of walking. Isn’t it sweet?”