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Title: Six Little Ducklings Author: Katharine Pyle Illustrator: Katharine Pyle Release Date: February 24, 2015 [EBook #48350] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIX LITTLE DUCKLINGS *** Produced by Chris Curnow, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) cover This cover has been created by the transcriber using the title page and is placed in the public domain. Six Little Ducklings Mother Duck in water looking at ducklings on shore The mother looked and stared Title page Six Little Ducklings Written and Illustrated by KATHARINE PYLE Author of “Tales of Two Bunnies,” O “The Christmas Angel,” “In the Green Forest.” New York Dodd, Mead & Company 1915 COPYRIGHT, 1915 BY DODD, MEAD & COMPANY Six Little Ducklings I LD MOTHER DUCK and her six little ducklings lived in a hollow tree down by the river, and here they were all as happy as the day was long. They had the whole of the broad bright river to swim about on, and there was no one to bother them or drive them about. Mother Duck had not always lived in the hollow tree. Once she had lived in a farmyard back in the country and away from the river. But she had not been very happy there. For one thing, there was a very cross old watch-dog in the farmyard. He was kept chained to his dog-house through the day, and never set loose until the other animals had gone to bed, but he used to snap at the ducks and chickens whenever they came near his dog-house, and that frightened them. Then there was no place to swim but in a muddy little duck-pond that almost dried up in the heat of summer. But the worst thing of all at the farmhouse was the way the farmer’s wife used to steal the duck’s eggs. No matter how carefully Mrs. Duck hid her eggs, Mrs. Farmer always found them and took them away. Once she put a number of them in a hen’s nest, and allowed a hen to set on them. After a while the hen hatched out eleven of the cunningest, fuzziest, yellowest ducklings that ever were seen. The hen was just as pleased and proud as though she had laid the eggs herself. But she didn’t in the least know how to bring up a brood of ducklings. Mrs. Duck could see that very plainly. She didn’t even want them to get their feet wet and she almost had a fit when they went into the water one day. Mother Duck pointing out farmhouse to ducklings She pointed with her wing to a farmhouse in the distance After that Mrs. Duck made up her mind she would not stay at the farm any longer. She started off into the wide world early one morning without saying anything to any one, and waddled on and on and on until after a while she came to the hollow tree beside the river. Here she made a nest and hatched out a little brood for herself, and brought them up the way young ducklings should be brought up, and was very happy. II [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] THERE were six of the little ducklings, and their names, beginning with the eldest were, Squdge and Queek, Buff, Pin-Toes and Fluffy, and the littlest and cunningest one of all was named Curly Tail. Buff and Fluffy and Curly-Tail were girls, and the other three were boys. One fine day when the wind was blowing, and the leaves were rustling, and the little wood-rabbits jumping high and kicking their heels for joy, Mother Duck told the little ducklings she was going to take them for a picnic. “Oh, goody! goody!” they cried, and clapped their wings for joy. Ducklings and Mother Duck at home How cosy it was there in the hollow tree Mother Duck got out a little basket of meadow grass that an old muskrat had made for her, and she and the children packed it full of luncheon. There were crisp watercress, and wild celery, and little snails, and all sorts of good things such as little ducklings like to eat. As soon as the basket was packed they started off. The ducklings thought they would probably go down to the river, but instead of that Mother Duck led the way off into the wood, directly away from the water. “Where are we going, mother? Where are we going?” asked the little ducklings. But the mother only smiled and shook her head and would not tell them. After a while they came out of the wood and into a meadow-land where there was a heap of high rocks. “Here’s where we’ll have our picnic,” said Mother Duck. She put down the basket, and unpacked the food, and then she and the ducklings sat down around it, and ate and ate. And how good it all tasted! Just as food always does on picnics. After they had all finished, and could eat no more, Mother Duck said, “Come now; let us climb up to the top of the rocks and see what we can see.” [7] [8] [9] [10] Duckling under gushing downspout So he got right under the rain-pipe where the water spouted hardest That was fun, too—clambering up over the rocks. The ducklings scrambled and slipped and queeked, and their mother helped them; so after a while they found themselves on the very tip top of the highest rock of all, and oh, how the wind did blow up there. “Now look!” said Mother Duck. “Do you see over there?” and she pointed with her wing to a farmyard in the distance. “That is where I used to live.” “Why, mother,” cried the ducklings, “we thought you’d always lived down by the river in our tree!” “No, indeed; I lived right there in that farmyard,” answered their mother; and then she began to tell them about it, and of her life there, and of how if she had stayed there they might have had a hen for their mother instead of her. That seemed a horrible thing to the little ducklings—that they might have had some other mother instead of their own. They wanted to know what a hen was, because of course they had never seen one, living where they did. Their mother tried to tell them, but they could not understand very well. “I wouldn’t like a hen for a mother,” cried Squdge; “but I would like to see a farmyard, and to hear a dog bark, and a cow moo. Do they make as big a noise as thunder? Will you take me there some time, mother?” But Mother Duck told him, no indeed. It would be very dangerous to go back to the farmyard. If the farmer and his wife saw the ducklings they might catch them and shut them up in a coop, and never let them get away again. The thought of that frightened the other ducklings—only Squdge said stoutly, “She couldn’t catch me! I can peck too hard and run too fast, and I wish you would take me there some time, mother, just to see it all.” Mother Duck made no answer, for looking up she saw that rain-clouds were gathering over head. “Hurry, children, hurry,” she cried. “There’s going to be a storm, and we must get home before it begins.” Down they scrambled in a great hurry, and started off through the woods as fast as they could, and they made such good time that they reached the hollow tree just as the first great drops began to fall. They were all out of breath and rather tired, especially Curly-Tail, but as their mother said, that did not really matter as long as they had escaped a wetting. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] H Duckling pulling on grass Pinching it tight he began to pull III OW cosy it was there in the dry hollow of the tree, with the rain beating harder and harder outside and streaming down the tree trunks. After a while the ducklings got out their play-things and began to play with them, but soon they tired of this, and nestling down about their mother they begged her to tell them a story. “A story?” said Mother Duck. “Very well. What shall it be about?” “Tell about Wiggle-Waggle-Wisk-Tail!” cried Squdge and Queek. “No, no; don’t tell about that,” begged Curly-Tail, almost in tears. “That’s too sad a story, mother. It always makes me cry.” “Pshaw! I wouldn’t be such a baby as to cry over a story,” cried Squdge. “Go ahead, mother! Tell it, won’t you?” The other four little ducklings wanted to hear it, too, so Mother Duck told Curly-Tail if she didn’t want to listen she could run over in the corner and play by herself for awhile, and when that story was finished she could come back and choose another one—any one that she liked, and her mother would tell it next. So Curly-Tail, who was always sweet and obedient, went over in the corner and got out her doll, and began to play, while Mother Duck told the others the story. And this is the sad tale of Wiggle-Waggle-Wisk-Tail. [16] [17] [18] [19] “W Ducklings fallen over without grass They fell over backward on the ground IV IGGLE-WAGGLE-WISK-TAIL was a very naughty little duckling. He quarrelled with his brothers and sisters, and he always wanted the best of everything for himself, and, worst of all, he was often disobedient to his dear good mother. Sometimes his mother hardly knew what to do, it worried her so to have him so naughty. “Over and over again Wiggle-Waggle’s mother had told him that he must never go out of doors when it was raining. (You know I have often told you that myself, my dears,” said Mother Duck. “It is very, very bad for little ducks to go out in the rain. Flat water, like ponds and puddles and rivers, is good for them, but when water comes down from overhead like rain, or water-falls, it is very bad for them. Sometimes they get drowned in it.) “One day it began to rain and rain and rain around Wiggle-Waggle-Wisk-Tail’s house. “His mother was very busy that day. She did not have time to watch over the children, but she never thought any of them would be foolish enough to go out in the rain. She had told them too often about the danger of it. “But Wiggle-Waggle-Wisk-Tail would not believe anything that any one told him. He waited until his brothers and sisters were busy over their play, and then he slipped away very quietly, and out into the rain. “Oh, how good it felt. He raised his bill and caught greedily at the drops as they fell. “‘It’s wet’, said Wiggle-Waggle-Wisk-Tail to himself, ‘but it isn’t wet enough.’ “Just around the corner a rain-pipe came down from the roof of the farmhouse. The rain roared down it and spouted out like a waterfall. [20] [21] [22] [23] Ducklings laughing at Mrs. Muskrat swimming away Out from under the bank swam old Mrs. Muskrat “‘Whew! This is the wettest thing I ever saw!’ cried Wiggle-Waggle. ‘I guess this is the place for me!’ “So he got right under the rain pipe where the water spouted hardest. It felt good on his back, and he held up his head, and opened his beak, and swallowed the water as fast as he could. Then he was wet inside as well as out—wet enough at last. “‘If only mother could see me now,’ he giggled to himself. “So he swallowed, and swallowed, and SWALLOWED until after awhile he was so full of water that he burst, just like a balloon that has been blown too full of air; and that was the end of him. “Not till the rain was over did his mother find he was not at home. Then she came out to look for him, but she could not find him. She called and called him but he did not answer and he did not come. He never came home. “Then his mother wept for him, and his brothers and sisters wept for him, but they never saw Wiggle-Waggle-Wisk- Tail again, because he was lying under the rain pipe all burst.” That was the sad story of Wiggle-Waggle-Wisk-Tail that always made Curly-Tail cry. Not until it was ended would she come out of the corner, but when she did come and it was her turn to choose a story she chose a very different sort of one for her mother to tell—for she chose a funny story that made all the little ducklings laugh and laugh. But the mother liked to tell them about Wiggle-Waggle-Wisk-Tail every now and then. She thought the story was a good lesson for them. [24] [25] [26] [27] T Toad moving to new home He determined to come up and live in the wood where it was dryer IV HE rain rained itself out in the night, and the next morning, when the little ducklings awoke, they found, to their glee, that the sun was shining bright and clear. That meant they could go down to the river for a swim as usual. Very soon after breakfast the whole family started for the river. The ducklings ran ahead, while Mother Duck waddled after them. Only Curly-Tail stayed by her mother’s side, walking beside her, and holding to a fold of her skirt. She always liked to be close to mother. “Don’t go in the water until I get there, children,” Mother Duck called after the others as they ran ahead. “No, mother, we won’t,” answered the ducklings. Squdge was a large, stout, active duckling. He could run faster than any of the others, and so he was the first to reach the river bank. There he began looking about for any tid-bits he could find in the way of a fat beetle, a grass- hopper or a tadpole. He was a very greedy duckling. Often and often his mother was obliged to tell him not to be so greedy, but to share things with his little brothers and sisters, but he was not always willing to do this. Now as he peered about with his bright black eyes he suddenly espied near the mud-bank a little round hole, and just showing over the edge of the hole was what looked like the tail of a particularly fine, fat worm. “Oh, ho!” thought Squdge to himself. “Here’s a fine fat morsel. I’ll just pull it out and eat it before any of the others come to share it with me.” With his broad little beak he made a dive at the tail, and pinching it tight he began to pull. [28] [29] [30] [31] Mrs. Muskrate sharing with two ducklings She gave one to Fluffy and one to Curly-tail Now the tail did not belong to a worm at all, but to a little brown snake that had been lying there in the hole (which was its home) fast asleep. When it felt some unseen thing nipping its tail and holding it, it was terribly frightened. It began to pull and struggle, trying to get loose, and Squdge kept pulling and trying to get it out. It must be a wonderfully fine fat worm to pull so hard, he thought, and the more it pulled the more determined he was to have it. Before he could get it out, however, Queek and the others saw him, and up they ran, eager for a share of anything he might have caught. They, too, seized hold of the tail and began to pull. All of them together were too strong for the snake. It had to come. Out they dragged it, out and out, longer and longer. Last of all its head slipped out from the hole. Then it twisted around, hissing with fright. When the ducklings saw what they had caught—that it was not a worm but a SNAKE—they were so terrified that they fell over backward on the ground and lay there, afraid to move. They dared not even look to see whether the snake had gone or was making ready to swallow them. If they had only known it, it had been just as much frightened as they, and as soon as it was free it had slipped away into the water to nurse its pinched tail in quiet. They were still lying there when their mother and Curly-Tail reached the place. At first Mother Duck did not know what had happened to them; she was afraid they were hurt or sick. But when she had helped them to their feet, and found they were only frightened and not hurt at all she began to laugh at them. “But now you see, children,” she said more seriously, “what comes of being greedy. If you hadn’t been in such a hurry to catch the worm and gobble it down you would have waited till I came, and I could soon have told you it was not a worm you had found, but a snake.” [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] W Duckilings by burdock meeing Chicken Around from the other side of the burdock came a great grey feathery creature The little ducks felt quite ashamed of themselves. They felt they had acted in a very silly and greedy manner. Moreover, they felt quite sad, for their mother said they were so hot and frightened she could not allow them to go into the water just yet. They would have to sit on the bank for a while and cool off. Then she took Curly-Tail down to a shallow place in the river and caught a nice little tadpole for her, while her brothers and sisters had to sit in a row along the bank and look on. It was not very long, however, before their mother called to them that they could come, and the little ducklings ran joyously down the slope and slipped off into the water. There they paddled up and down, and stood on their heads, and ran water races with each other as merrily as ever, their adventure with the snake quite forgotten. V HEN the ducklings stayed at home instead of going to the river (that was when it was too cold and stormy for them to swim) they had a number of toys to play with. Squdge and Queek had a little cart, and they had a tame beetle that they had trained to pull it. Sometimes they gave the dolls a ride in the cart. There were two dolls; one belonged to Fluffy, and one belonged to Curly-Tail. Mrs. Muskrat had made the dolls for them;—the same old muskrat who had made the picnic basket for their mother. The dolls were made of two old gnarled pieces of root that Mrs. Muskrat had gnawed and shaped with her sharp teeth until they looked just like two little wooden ducklings. Mrs. Henny Penny and Mother Duck and their families meet The two fowls were pleased to see each other [38] Fluffy and Curly-Tail loved these two little duckling dolls better than anything they had; they dressed and undressed them, and took them to bed with them at night, and sometimes even took them down to the river with them. The other ducklings often wished they had dolls, too, but Mrs. Muskrat had only made the two, one for Fluffy, and one for Curly-Tail. The way she had happened to make the dolls for them and not for the others was this: One day the duck family had gone down to the river for their usual swim, and afterward Mother Duck felt very sleepy. She sat down on the bank in the warm sun, and all the little ducklings sat around her, and blinked and blinked, and after a while they all went to sleep. The ducklings were the first to waken. They opened their eyes and stirred about, and presently they said, “Mother, may we go up the river bank a little way?” For they were tired of staying in one place. Mother Duck was too sleepy to do more than open her eyes a tiny crack. “Yes; only don’t go too far, and don’t go in the water.” The little ducks promised they wouldn’t, and then they ran merrily away together. Soon they came to a place where the bank was quite high and overhung the water. Here they began to amuse themselves by pushing bits of mud and pebbles over into the water to make a splash. Presently they heard something stirring and rustling down there beneath. They stopped and listened and looked. Squdge and Pin-Toes even crept to the edge of the bank and leaned far over trying to see what was there. Fluffy was afraid if they did not take care they might fall into the river. Ducking and chicks Instead of taking it Bright Eyes looked quite disgusted Suddenly out from under the bank swam old Mrs. Muskrat. Her house was just exactly under where the ducklings were standing, though they had not known it. She had been busy finishing her housework and now she was starting out on some errand she had down the river. She always swam when she wanted to go anywhere. She could go more quickly and safely that way than by land. She had on a calico dress and a white apron, and a pair of big spectacles were on her nose. (All her clothes were waterproof, and shed off the water just the way a duck’s feathers do.) She looked so funny with her nose almost under water and her dress bunching up, and her tail dragging behind her, that some of the ducklings began to laugh. “Oh don’t laugh,” begged Fluffy, who was a very polite little duckling. “She might hear you.” “No she won’t; she can’t hear us down there,” said Queek. “I don’t care whether she does or not,” cried Squdge, “she’s so funny looking.” And he laughed till he almost fell over. Then all the other ducklings began to laugh, too;—all except Fluffy and Curly-Tail. Fluffy and Curly-Tail did not laugh. They were troubled to think their brothers and sister could behave so rudely, and to an older animal. To be sure Mrs. Muskrat never looked round to see who they were, and that was some comfort. Now as it happened the old muskrat did not have to look round in order to see them, though the ducklings did not know that. When the light shone on her spectacles it made them just like looking-glasses, and she could see in them what was happening behind her. She saw, in her spectacles, that Squdge was laughing and pointing at her. She saw the [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] others laughing, too, all except Fluffy and Curly-Tail, and she saw that those two did not laugh, but looked worried and sorry. She saw all this, but she did not take any notice of it. She just swam quietly on down the river and out of sight. But two or three days afterward an old toad knocked at the hollow tree and said he had a message for Mrs. Duck. Chicks on leaf in water with ducklings The chicks huddled together on the leaf while the ducklings pulled it This toad had been living down by the river for some time, but it was so damp there that it had given him rheumatism, so he had determined to come up and live in the wood where it was dryer. Mrs. Muskrat had heard of this, and so she asked him, as he would be going past the hollow tree to leave a message there for her. This was the message. She wanted Mother Duck to send the two little ducklings who hadn’t laughed at her the other day down to see her. It was about something very important. “That’s me and Curly-Tail, mother! We were the ones who didn’t laugh,” cried Fluffy. “But what do you s’pose she wants with us, mother?” “I don’t know, but you had better go and see.” The two little ducklings were not very anxious to do this. They felt very shy about going all alone down the river to make a visit. “I’ll go,” said Squdge. “I don’t mind.” “No indeed you won’t go,” said the mother. “You’ve been too naughty. Mrs. Muskrat doesn’t want to see any little duckling that has been as rude to her as you have been.” At last she told Fluffy and Curly-Tail that she herself would go part of the way with them. She took them down within sight of the muskrat’s house, and then she sent them on alone. Fluffy and Curly-Tail walked on very slowly, often stopping to look back at their mother as she stood there watching them. “Will you knock when we get there, Curly-Tail?” asked Fluffy. “No, you knock.” “No, I don’t like to; you knock.” But as it turned out neither of them had to knock at Mrs. Muskrat’s door, for when they reached her house she was on the lookout for them. She came out smiling, and looking quite friendly and pleasant in spite of her long rat teeth. [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] Unhappy chicks The ducklings stood looking on in dismay “So you are the two little ducklings who didn’t laugh at me the other day,” she said. “That’s right! That’s right! I like little animals when they are polite and respectful. Now I have a present for you that I think you’ll like.” She went back into the house, and when she came out again she carried the two little duckling dolls. “Here; these are for you,” she said, and she gave one to Fluffy and one to Curly-Tail. The little ducklings could hardly believe their eyes. They had never seen anything so cunning and pretty before. “But they’re not for us?” they cried. “Not really?” “Yes they are,” said Mrs. Muskrat, smiling, and looking almost as pleased as they. The two little ducklings hardly knew how to thank her enough. Then they were eager to show the dolls to their mother. They said good-bye to the muskrat, and ran back to where Mother Duck was waiting for them, “Look, mother! Look! Look!” they cried. Mrs. Duck took the dolls and examined them. “Why, yes, they are very beautiful,” she said. “Wasn’t Mrs. Muskrat good to give you such wonderful presents. You must be very careful not to break them.” “Oh, yes, we will! We will!” cried the happy little ducklings. When they got back to the tree, and the others saw the beautiful presents Mrs. Muskrat had given them they wished they hadn’t laughed at her either; then perhaps she would have given them dolls too. But it was too late for wishing that now. [52] [53] [54] [55]