There were seven ducklings. The very first thing they did was to go
and tumble into a bucket of water.
"Cluck-cluck-cluck! quaw-aw-awk! cr-r-r!" said the hen-mother. She was
so frightened she made just such a noise as she does when she sees a
hawk.
She thought they would all drown. But they didn't. They swam and dove
and shook the water from their little wings.
One day when they were about a quarter grown, Annie found
Fluffy-dumpty lying on the ground; she was quacking faintly. Her leg
was broken! Annie ran to papa.
"O papa! mend her leg just as you did my arm!" she said.
Papa is a doctor; and when Annie was a _very_ little girl she broke
her arm and papa mended it. So he did up Fluffy-dumpty's leg with a
splinter, and then wound a bandage round it. Annie took care of her.
Mary used to help Annie feed her with a spoon.
Fluffy-dumpty got well very fast. But when she was about three
quarters grown, she met with another accident. She fell down a steep
cellar way.
"Quack-quack! Take me out! Oh, take me out!" cried poor Fluffy-dumpty.
The other six ducks crowded around and looked down at her.
"We can't! we can't!" they cried. "We haven't got any hands. Call a
boy, do!" So Annie called Sam, who took her out.
How thankful Fluffy-dumpty was! She smoothed down her ruffled feathers
and said, "Quack-quack," softly. The other ducks all talked at once.
"What a narrow 'scape you had, Fluffy-dumpty!" said one duck.
"How did you happen to fall into that horrid place?" asked another.
"What a fine boy Sam is!" said a third duck.
"He's almost too good for a boy," said a fourth.