"All right!" said my eldest brother; "no fear: here we are as jolly as sandboys! You may as well come. It's capital. Here goes for a dive!" And, so saying, under he went, and soon came up again, laughing, "Quack, quack! oh, it's so jolly!"
But poor mother-hen did not see any thing jolly about it, and was always in fear when we went to the pond, into which she would never go herself.
In time we grew up, and found that we could actually fly in the air. Oh, capital! When that horrible monster with four legs, which they called "a dog," ran after us, we opened our wings, and flew over the lawn to the pond. And there stood the stupid dog bawling out, "Bow, wow! bow, wow!"
One day our ideas were again expanded by our being driven through a gate. We then found that the world was much larger than we had thought; for beyond our wall was a broad ploughed field, as well as a vast forest, the edges of which touched the distant sky. Wonderful discovery! How grand a duck feels when gaining useful knowledge!
Every thing went on pleasantly enough, until a great awkward giant, named Bob, came and looked very hard at us. At first we did not like him; but he was really very kind, and called us "Ducky, ducky, ducky!" and threw us handfuls of barley. He then seized two or three of my fattest brothers and sisters, and frightened them so much, that they called out, "Quack, quack! don't, don't!" But they need not have made such a fuss, as he put them safely in a basket with a lid to it to keep off the rain, and took a great deal of care of them indeed.
How kind of him to take the trouble to carry them in this basket on his arm, instead of leaving them to waddle along the road! In this way he has taken all my brothers and sisters away with him, except myself and my brother little Jack Drake. I dare say he will soon take us with him in his nice basket.
Certainly it is a good thing to have men to attend to us so well. I am sure they must be very fond of ducks to take such care of us. And so I said to Jack Drake; but all he said in reply was, "Quack, quack! quack, quack!"
T. C.
