e was a new wonder to Betty. Though a shower of rain soaked all
her fine feathers through, and made them limp as old rags, Snowdrop
came out of the pond dry and warm, her plumes crisp and neat.

15. Not a trace of water was to be seen on her. Well, to be sure! Betty
could not make it out. After all there must be a thing or two which
even the wisest hen does not know.

16. "I advise you to carry oil in your feathers when you learn to
swim," said Snowdrop, as she skimmed off again over the pond. "That is
my plan, but ducks are too wise to boast about it."

* * * * *

_Write:_ Betty went to see the duck. She felt much surprise at seeing
her swim and dive. But she still thought that water was not good for
ducklings.

Questions: 1. Where did Betty find Snowdrop? 2. What did
Betty say to her? 3. What did the Bantam hen say? 4. What
did Snowdrop do to show Betty? 5. What did Betty still think
about ducklings? 6. How was it that the duck's feathers were
not wet?

9. SNOWDROP'S NEST.

1. Weeks went by. Snowdrop thought that it was time for her to bring
some more little ducklings into the world, instead of those which she
had lost.

2. So, down among the green rushes at the very brink of the pond, she
made a nest. It was not much more than a bundle of straws which the
wind had swept into that place but it did very well.

3. Snowdrop had poked the straws into a heap with her beak. She trod
them down with her feet, made a round hole with her breast in the
middle, and put a few feathers inside.

4. In this rough nest she laid seven pale green eggs, and very pretty
they looked. Betty no sooner heard of this, than she ran as fast as she
could to the spot. She had a kind thought in her head.

5. She had now no little ones of her own; and somehow, though she laid
an egg each day in the wicker nest, it was always gone before night. So
she had nothing to sit on.

6. And so it had come into her good heart that she would offer to sit
on Snowdrop's eggs for her. "I promise you to do it well," said she to
the duck.

7. "If you trust me with your eggs I will treat them just as if they
were my own. And when the young are hatched I will nurse the dear
little things, teach them, and bring them up better than you could do
yourself."

8. The duck, who just then saw her drake bowing his head to her as he
swam along, thought that she would like to join him on the pond.

9.