A LITTLE LAME DUCK
“I wish Sardis could go to that place where the lovely ducks are,” said
Dolly Merrifield the next morning.
“You’ll have to tell him about it,” advised Polly.
“That won’t be seeing,” sighed Dolly.
Polly’s eyes widened with a sudden thought, then narrowed as a plan
began to form.
“If your brother will stay over until to-morrow, we will drive up to
Lairnie Lake and have our lunch there.”
“To-day?” cried Dolly ecstatically.
Polly nodded.
“It is a small pleasure resort,” she explained to the young man, “some
forty-five miles to the north.”
“Oh, Sardis!” exclaimed the little one, her blue eyes begging for the
answer which he hesitated to give.
“I ought not,” he began, and then smiled down to the small girl on his
knee.
“Are the web-footed swimmers on Lairnie Lake very different from those
elsewhere?”
“Oh, ever so different!” she laughed. “But I’m not going to tell you
one word more. He’ll stay, Miss Dudley! I know by his eyes--they are
full of nice twinkles.”
It was decided that Polly and Lilith, Dolly and her brother, and Dr.
Abbe should take a flying trip to the lake which a number of them had
visited a week or two previous.
Dolly, in an ecstasy of joy, kept things lively until the start. After
being dressed for the little journey she was put in her wheel-chair
which stood near the edge of the piazza, and, bubbling over as she
was with eager delight, she twisted this way and that until Polly was
startled by one of her sudden turns.
“Oh, Dolly!” she cried, “do sit still! I thought you were going over!”
She crossed the piazza and moved the chair back a bit.
“I shall not fall,” laughed the child happily.
“Wis’ she would!” piped up a little voice three chairs away, “wis’ she
would, and be all deaded!”
“Why, Marmaduke Bill!” Polly’s voice was shocked. “What a wicked wish!”
“Don’t care!” retorted the little boy. “Wis’ she would!”
Polly walked over to Little Duke and turned his chair so that it faced
the house.
“I am sorry that you have such naughty thoughts,” she said in a soft
voice. And she left him without the smile or the loving pat with which
she was used to delight his heart.
“My don’t care! My don’t care!” he pouted.
The other children looked on with frightened, wondering eyes. It was
seldom that Polly dealt out punishment even in this mild fashion.
Presently, after she had gone upstairs, Sardis Merrifield came across
from the Study, and taking a book from his pocket began to read.
Little Duke had been humming to himself in a loud, disagreeable way,
and now, he opened his mouth and uttered a series of unintelligible
sounds.
The young man looked over to the chair with its face to the wall.
“Not quite so much noise, please!” His voice was kind.
The clamor went on.
“Little boy, did you hear what I said?”
“Yep!” And the shouts continued.
The children sat breathless, open-mouthed and wide-eyed.
“Will you stop that screaming?” the man said quietly.
“Did Mi’ Duddy say My must stop?” piped the little offender.
“No, but I say so,” was the firm answer.
“Does My have to mind you, too?”
“Surely you do.”
Dolly snickered noiselessly into her hand; but not a sound came from
Little Duke.
Upstairs Polly had heard and had hastened her dressing, standing poised
at the head of the stairs when the last of the conversation floated up
to her. She waited a moment. The veranda was hushed, and with a smile
she returned to her room. She was not needed to keep the peace as long
as Sardis Merrifield was there. The White Nurse and Lilith had had more
than one battle with strong-willed Little Duke when it had been needful
to summon Polly before the lovable little rogue could be subdued.
When the party assembled on the veranda Polly noticed that the boy’s
chair had been wheeled about, and as she glanced that way he spoke.
“Mi’ Duddy, My thought you could take a joke.”
“So I can, Little Duke. Good-bye and a happy day to you!”
He grinned gleefully, and she explained to Sardis Merrifield as they
drove away, “That is his apology. He never fails to have it ready on
time.”
Not far from noon they arrived at the pleasure ground.
“Oh, dear!” cried the little girl, “the ducks are not any of them here!”
“They are up at the other end of the lake.” Polly pointed across the
water.
“But that isn’t here,” mourned the child.
“If they won’t come to us, we shall have to go to them,” her brother
replied.
“They will be here soon enough,” laughed Lilith.
Yet Dolly saw no hope; her longing eyes were fastened upon those
far-away birds.
As time was precious and the long ride had made them hungry, Polly
proposed luncheon at once, and selecting a pleasant spot they arranged
seats and began to take out sandwiches. Dolly was so interested in the
preparations that for the moment ducks were forgotten.
“Look!” bade Sardis. “See that big V!”
“Oh!” exulted Dolly, “it’s a duck--and he’s coming this way!” She
watched the rippling V, and then said softly, as if half afraid to
utter so beautiful a thought, “Do you s’pose he saw me and--knows me?”
“He saw you, no doubt; but recognition would hardly be possible at that
distance, would it?”
Dolly sighed a little. “No, of course, he couldn’t,” she answered. Then
she chuckled joyously. “He’s steering straight for me!”
It did seem so, and climbing up the grassy bank, the duck waddled
directly to the little girl’s side.
“Oh, you dear ducky-darling!” she exclaimed. “And you’re the little
lame one I fed the other day, aren’t you? See, Sardis! he’s lame just a
wee bit when he walks.”
“Quack! quack!” said the duck.
Dolly gave up the greater part of her sandwich, for the bird had a
holiday appetite, and as soon as one morsel was down he quacked for
more.
“Isn’t his neck a lovely green!” the child cried. “And isn’t he tame
and beautiful!”
Sardis and the others admired and marveled to Dolly’s content. And
then, she suddenly gave a shout of joy.
“Oh, the rest are coming! Look at the V’s! One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight! Eight ducks more! And there is the great goose!” as
a big bird swam out to join his comrades.
They were all counting on their noon luncheon.
“It is well we brought a good supply,” laughed Lilith.
“We’ll need it--look!” Dr. Abbe pointed his thumb backward.
“O-h!” screamed Dolly, “the dear little doves!”
A small flock of pigeons had alighted near.
They were tamer than the ducks. They fluttered about the child. One
bird perched on her shoulder, another on her knee; the most venturesome
flew to her wrist and reached for a bit of the bread in her hand. Dolly
sat breathless, her little face radiant.
“I wish I had my camera,” whispered Lilith.
Dolly suddenly turned towards her brother whir-r-r-r! The child stared
in wonderment.
“What made them fly away?” she asked.
“Which do you like best,” questioned Lilith, “pigeons or ducks?”
“My little lame duck!” answered Dolly promptly, bestowing upon the bird
a generous bit. “Oh, the naughty thing!” she cried, as another duck
caught up the dainty and then pecked and chased away the afflicted one.
But Dolly’s pet returned, and with the aid of Sardis the child gave it
a good meal.
The half-circle of quacking beggars became vociferous, and Dolly fed
them until her sandwiches must needs be often replaced, and the giver
herself would have been in danger of going hungry if some one had not
given out food with a prodigal hand.
Finally the luncheon was over, and the little girl--with a flourish of
her small hands--told the birds that they could have no more. Promptly
the ducks started off. Only the little lame one seemed reluctant to
leave.
“He loves me--that’s why,” announced Dolly. “All the rest care for is
something to eat.”
The child’s eyes followed the birds as they swam out from shore. Then
she gave a little scream.
“Oh, he’s drowning! he’s drowning!” she cried, as a big duck appeared
to be standing on his head in the water.
“Watch!” was all Sardis said.
“Oh, my! he’s eating!” gasped Dolly. “He’s catching bugs! How funny!”
They were all at it, excepting the lame duck that had squatted at the
child’s feet for a nap, and Sardis carried his sister nearer the shore
where she watched the birds delightedly, stopping now and then to give
her pet a tiny pat, for he had promptly followed her.
Sardis had a moment’s talk with Polly and then disappeared. He was away
so long that Dolly made inquiries. Nobody seemed to know anything of
him, unless it were Polly, and her answers to the child’s questions
were unsatisfactory. Then, suddenly, she was gone, too.
“Sardis came over the knoll and beckoned to Miss Dudley,” explained
Lilith, “and they went off together towards the street. That’s all I
know about it.”
“I don’t care, if he’s with Miss Dudley,” returned Dolly. “I was afraid
he was lost.”
Which made Dr. Abbe laugh so heartily that the little girl wondered
what he had seen that was funny.
After a while the runaways returned, and then it was time to start
for home. Before that, however, Polly took Lilith and Dolly for a
short drive around the beautiful Loch Lairnie, which Dolly enjoyed
talkatively every moment of the way. Only she did want Sardis to see
it, and she could not understand why he didn’t come, when there was
plenty of room.
It had grown cool, so for the home drive Dolly rode in her brother’s
arms on the front seat. Presently she went to sleep and awoke saying
that she had been dreaming about her little lame duck, and that he
quacked her wide awake.
“There! I never bade him good-bye!” she lamented. “Why didn’t I think
of it! I wonder you didn’t remind me, Sardis; you always think of
everything.”
Sardis laughed, and then Polly laughed, too. What was funny about that?
Next morning Dolly’s brother took her in his arms and strode up to the
little brook at the edge of the woods. For an instant the child stared
in silence. Then her amazement broke into words.
“Why-ee!” she gasped; “it looks like my little lame duck! But how did
he get here? Did he follow me?”
“Not quite,” laughed her brother. “He came with you, he and his
comrade.”
“In the car?”
Sardis nodded.
“O-h!” cried Dolly comprehendingly; “that’s why you and Miss Dudley
laughed! That’s why everybody laughed! And I did hear them quack,
didn’t I?”
“Probably, for the rest of us did.”
“I might have known there was something, for you always love to
surprise me--I love it, too,” she chuckled, nestling her cheek to his.
“And are they going to stay and live right here?” she questioned later.
“Yes, they are yours. Miss Dudley thought the brook would answer very
well for their swimming-place.”
“It’s lovely--you don’t s’pose they’ll be homesick?”
“Not a bit.”
“Oh, I wish I had something to feed them with!”
A little basket of crumbs pushed its way into Dolly’s hands.
“Why, Miss Dudley, I didn’t know you were here!”
“I came just in time to hear your wish. I thought you’d be wanting to
feed them about now.”
“You guessed right. Isn’t Sardis the best Sardis in the world to give
them to me?”
“That isn’t much of a compliment, Lady Merrifield,” laughed her
brother. “There are not many Sardises for me to compete with.”
For an instant the child looked blank. Then she brightened. “Anyway,
you’re the best _brother_ in the world!” she exclaimed. “You can’t say
anything against that!”
“I could say a good deal against it,” smiling across to Polly; “but I
won’t, for”--his face suddenly sobered--“I am mighty glad you think so,
Dorothy.”