I don"t know as even this would have overcome Mrs. Quack"s fears if it hadn"t been for the taste of that good corn in her mouth, and her empty stomach. She couldn"t, she just couldn"t resist these, and presently she was back among the rushes, hunting out the corn and wheat as fast as ever she could. When at last she could eat no more, she felt so comfortable that somehow the Smiling Pool didn"t seem such a dangerous place after all, and she quite forgot Farmer Brown"s boy. She found a snug hiding-place among the rushes too far out from the bank for Reddy Fox to surprise her, and then with a sleepy "Good night" to Jerry and Peter, she tucked her head under her wing and soon was fast asleep.
Peter Rabbit tiptoed away, and then he hurried lipperty-lipperty-lip to the dear Old Briar-patch to tell Mrs. Peter all about Mrs. Quack.
IX
PETER RABBIT MAKES AN EARLY CALL
Peter Rabbit was so full of interest in Mrs. Quack and her troubles that he was back at the Smiling Pool before Mr. Sun had kicked off his rosy blankets and begun his daily climb up in the blue, blue sky. You see, he felt that he had heard only a part of Mrs. Quack"s story, and he was dreadfully afraid that she would get away before he could hear the rest. With the first bit of daylight, Mrs. Quack swam out from her hiding-place among the brown rushes. It looked to Peter as if she sat up on the end of her tail as she stretched her neck and wings just as far as she could, and he wanted to laugh right out. Then she quickly ducked her head under water two or three times so that the water rolled down over her back, and again Peter wanted to laugh. But he didn"t. He kept perfectly still. Mrs.
Quack shook herself and then began to carefully dress her feathers.
That is, she carefully put back in place every feather that had been rumpled up. She took a great deal of time for this, for Mrs.
Quack is very neat and tidy and takes the greatest pride in looking as fine as she can.
Of course it was very impolite of Peter to watch her make her toilet, but he didn"t think of that. He didn"t mean to be impolite.
And then it was so interesting. "Huh!" said he to himself, "I don"t see what any one wants to waste so much time on their clothes for."
You know Peter doesn"t waste any time on his clothes. In fact, he doesn"t seem to care a bit how he looks. He hasn"t learned yet that it always pays to be as neat and clean as possible and that you must think well of yourself if you want others to think well of you.
When at last Mrs. Quack had taken a final shower bath and appeared satisfied that she was looking her best, Peter opened his mouth to ask her the questions he was so full of, but closed it again as he remembered people are usually better natured when their stomachs are full, and Mrs. Quack had not yet breakfasted. So he waited as patiently as he could, which wasn"t patiently at all. At last Mrs.
Quack finished her breakfast, and then she had to make her toilet all over again. Finally Peter hopped to the edge of the bank where she would see him.
"Good morning, Mrs. Quack," said he very politely. "I hope you had a good rest and are feeling very well this morning."
"Thank you," replied Mrs. Quack. "I"m feeling as well as could be expected. In fact, I"m feeling better than I have felt for some time in spite of the sore place made by that terrible gun yesterday.
You see, I have had a good rest and two square meals, and these are things I haven"t had since goodness knows when. This is a very nice place. Let me see, what is it you call it?"
"The Smiling Pool," said Peter.
"That"s a good name for it," returned Mrs. Quack. "If only I could be sure that none of those hunters would find me here, and if only Mr. Quack were here, I would be content to stay a while." At the mention of Mr. Quack, the eyes of Mrs. Quack suddenly filled with tears. Peter felt tears of sympathy in his own eyes.
"Where is Mr. Quack?" he asked.
"I don"t know," sobbed Mrs. Quack. "I wish I did. I haven"t seen him since one of those terrible guns was fired at us over on the Big River yesterday morning a little while before Little Joe Otter told me about the Smiling Pool. Ever since we started for our home in the far North, I have been fearing that something of this kind might happen. I ought to be on my way there now, but what is the use without Mr. Quack? Without him, I would be all alone up there and wouldn"t have any home."
"Won"t you tell me all that has happened since you started on your long journey?" asked Peter. "Perhaps some of us can help you."
"I"m afraid you can"t," replied Mrs. Quack sadly, "but I"ll tell you all about it so that you may know just how thankful you ought to feel that you do not have to suffer what some of us do."
X
HOW MR. AND MRS. QUACK STARTED NORTH
Peter Rabbit was eager to help Mrs. Quack in her trouble, though he hadn"t the least idea how he could help and neither had she. How any one who dislikes water as Peter does could help one who lives on the water all the time was more than either one of them could see. And yet without knowing it, Peter WAS helping Mrs. Quack.
He was giving her his sympathy, and sympathy often helps others a great deal more than we even guess. It sometimes is a very good plan to tell your troubles to some one who will listen with sympathy.
It was so with Mrs. Quack. She had kept her troubles locked in her own heart so long that it did her good to pour them all out to Peter.
"Mr. Quack and I spent a very comfortable winter way down in the sunny Southland," said she with a far-away look. "It was very warm and nice down there, and there were a great many other Ducks spending the winter with us. The place where we were was far from the homes of men, and it was only once in a long while that we had to watch out for terrible guns. Of course, we had to have our wits with us all the time, because there are Hawks and Owls and Minks down there just as there are up here, but any Duck who can"t keep out of their way deserves to furnish one of them a dinner.
"Then there was another fellow we had to watch out for, a queer fellow whom we never see anywhere but down there. It was never safe to swim too near an old log floating in the water or lying on the bank, because it might suddenly open a great mouth and swallow one of us whole."
"What"s that?" Peter Rabbit leaned forward and stared at Mrs. Quack with his eyes popping right out. "What"s that?" he repeated. "How can an old log have a mouth?"
Mrs. Quack just had to smile, Peter was so in earnest and looked so astonished.
"Of course," said she, "no really truly log has a mouth or is alive, but this queer fellow I was speaking of looks so much like an old log floating in the water unless you look at him very sharply, that many a heedless young Duck has discovered the difference when it was too late. Then, too, he will swim under water and come up underneath and seize you without any warning. He has the biggest mouth I"ve ever seen, with terrible-looking teeth, and could swallow me whole."
[Ill.u.s.tration with caption: "Some folks call him Alligator and some just "Gator."]
By this time Peter"s eyes looked as if they would fall out of his head. "What is his name?" whispered Peter.
"It"s Old Ally the "Gator," replied Mrs. Quack. "Some folks call him Alligator and some just "Gator, but we call him Old Ally. He"s a very interesting old fellow. Some time perhaps I"ll tell you more about him. Mr. Quack and I kept out of his reach, you may be sure.
We lived quietly and tried to get in as good condition as possible for the long journey back to our home in the North. When it was time to start, a lot of us got together, just as we did when we came down from the North, only this time the young Ducks felt themselves quite grown up. In fact, before we started there was a great deal of love-making, and each one chose a mate. That was a very happy time, a very happy time indeed, but it was a sad time too for us older Ducks, because we knew what dreadful things were likely to happen on the long journey. It is hard enough to lose father or mother or brother or sister, but it is worse to lose a dear mate."
Mrs. Quack"s eyes suddenly filled with tears again. "Oh, dear,"
she sobbed, "I wish I knew what became of Mr. Quack."
Peter said nothing, but looked the sympathy he felt. Presently Mrs.
Quack went on with her story. "We had a splendid big flock when we started, made up wholly of pairs, each pair dreaming of the home they would build when they reached the far North. Mr. Quack was the leader as usual, and I flew right behind him. We hadn"t gone far before we began to hear the terrible guns, and the farther we went, the worse they got. Mr. Quack led us to the safest feeding and resting grounds he knew of, and for a time our flock escaped the terrible guns. But the farther we went, the more guns there were." Mrs. Quack paused and Peter waited.
XI
THE TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE GUNS
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Not a feather spare! Kill! Kill! Kill!
Wound and rip and tear!"
That is what the terrible guns roar from morning to night at Mrs.
Quack and her friends as they fly on their long journey to their home in the far North. I don"t wonder that she was terribly uneasy and nervous as she sat in the Smiling Pool talking to Peter Rabbit; do you?
"Yes," said she, continuing her story of her long journey from the sunny Southland where she had spent the winter, "the farther we got, the more there were of those terrible guns. It grew so bad that as well as Mr. Quack knew the places where we could find food, and no Duck that ever flew knew them better, he couldn"t find one where we could feel perfectly sure that we were safe. The very safest-looking places sometimes were the most dangerous. If you saw a lot of Rabbits playing together on the Green Meadows, you would feel perfectly safe in joining them, wouldn"t you?"
Peter nodded. "I certainly would," said he. "If it was safe for them it certainly would be safe for me."
"Well, that is just the way we felt when we saw a lot of Ducks swimming about on the edge of one of those feeding-places. We were tired, for we had flown a long distance, and we were hungry. It was still and peaceful there and not a thing to be seen that looked the least bit like danger. So we went straight in to join those Ducks, and then, just as we set our wings to drop down on the water among them, there was a terrible bang, bang, bang, bang! My heart almost stopped beating. Then how we did fly! When we were far out over the water where we could see that nothing was near us we stopped to rest, and there we found only half as many in our flock as there had been."
"Where were the others?" asked Peter, although he guessed.