“WIGGLE-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.

“‘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.