13. After a good deal of driving and shrieking to them, she got her brood into a small crowd, to see if they were neat. She smoothed their downy heads, she plumed their soft wings with loving care.
14. Then she said, "My dears, you are all as tidy as you can be made. I am now going to take you on a visit to your own mother, whom you have never yet seen.
15. "Behave well, and give me no cause to feel shame when she sees how I have brought you up. Now, Forward! March!"
Write: The young ducks had never seen a pond. Their foster-mother made them tidy. She wished to take them into the world and show them their mother.
Questions: 1. What did the other hens say of Betty and her brood? 2. What did the gander say? 3. What bird came to pick up wheat with the fowls? 4. What did the turkey-cock do? 5. What did Betty say to her ducklings before taking them into the world? 6. To whom did she wish to show them?
12. THEIR OWN MOTHER.
1. And where was Snowdrop to be found? At the pond, of course, swimming round and round with half-a-dozen other ducks and drakes as happy and careless as herself.
2. She swam towards the brink when she saw Betty coming. The ducklings waddled as fast as they could lay their flat feet to the ground, as soon as they caught sight of the pond.
