WHEN 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.

Fluffy and Curly-Tail loved these two little[39]
[40]
[41] 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.

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[43]
[44]
[45] 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 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.

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.

“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.