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. Snowdrop loved pleasure. Why should she sit cooped up on a nest for
four weeks, when she might be having fun on the pond? Betty was willing
to do it for her.
10. She liked hunting for slugs and worms, or swimming races with her
drake, better than sitting still. So she said "yes" to Betty's offer
and marched off.
11. The good little hen climbed as well as she could on to the nest;
but she did not half like the look of it. Why, the eggs were ready to
roll out at the sides! And her body was not so big as that of Snowdrop,
neither were her wings so wide.
12. It was a great job for her to keep the large eggs under cover at
all, but she shook out her feathers and spread out her wings as far as
they would go, though it made them ache.
13. Then she felt nervous because the pond was so near. "It is bad for
eggs to get damp!" she said to herself. "What could make that foolish
Snowdrop choose such a place? And I dare say that I shall get the cramp
too."
14. But she sat on bravely for all that. Betty never left the eggs of
which she was taking care, except for a few moments when she was forced
by hunger to run to the yard.
15. The good farmer's wife saw her racing there one day. She watched
her pick up some corn in a great hurry and then rush off. She went
after Betty and saw her get into the nest of the duck, to sit there
after her hasty meal.
* * * * *
_Write:_ The hen wished to sit on the eggs of the duck. She did not
leave them except to get food when she was hungry. The wife of the
farmer found the eggs.
Questions: 1. What did Snowdrop make among the rushes? 2.
How many eggs did she lay? 3. What did the hen offer to do?
4. What did Snowdrop say? 5. How did Betty get food? 6. Who
saw her running back to the eggs?