t is the way a Duck takes to water." And she gave a dainty lurch and
was among her brood.

[Illustration: THEY HAD A GOOD SWIM.]

"Well!" exclaimed the Dorking Cock. "I thought the little Dorkings were
as bright as children could be, but they didn't know as much as that. I
must tell them." He stalked off, talking under his breath.

"They know more than that," said the Drake. "Did you see how they ran
ahead of us when we stopped to talk? They knew where to find water as
soon as they were out of the shell. Still, the Cock might not have
believed that if I had told him."

They had a good swim, and then all stood on the bank and dried
themselves. This they did by squeezing the water out of their down with
their bills. The Drake, the mother Duck, the five aunts, and the nine
Ducklings all stood as tall and straight as they could, and turned and
twisted their long necks, and flapped their wings, and squeezed their
down, and murmured to each other. And their father didn't tell the
little ones how, and their mother didn't tell them how, and their five
aunts didn't tell them how, but they knew without being told.

The Ducklings grew fast, and made friends of all the farmyard people.
Early every morning they went to the brook. They learned to follow the
brook to the river, and here were wonderful things to be seen. There was
plenty to eat, too, in the soft mud under the water, and it was easy
enough to dive to it, or to reach down their long necks while only their
pointed tails and part of their body could be seen above the water. Not
that they ate the mud. They kept only the food that they found in it,
and then let the mud slip out between the rough edges of their bills.
They swam and ate all day, and slept all night, and were dutiful
Ducklings who minded their mother, so it was not strange that they were
plump and happy.

At last there came a morning when the eldest Duckling could not go to
the brook with the others. A Weasel had bitten him in the night, and if
it had not been for his mother and the Drake, would have carried him
away. The rest had to go in swimming, and his lame leg would not let him
waddle as far as the brook, or swim after he got there.

"I don't know what to do," he said to his mother. "I can't swim and I
can't waddle far, and I've eaten so much already that I can't eat
anything more for a long, long time."

"You might play with the little Shanghais," said his mother.

"They run around too much," h