Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble

								

be almost dinner time, and I just love corn meal."
"I know something better than that," suddenly said a quivery-quavery
voice, right beside the ducks, and when they looked around who should be
there but Mr. Goosey-Gander, the grandfather of all the ducks in the pen.
"I know something better than corn meal, little ones," he said, and he
splashed his wings in the water.
"What is it?" asked Lulu, as quickly as you can shoot a marble into the
ring and out again. "Is it gum drops?"
"No," answered Grandfather Goosey-Gander, "it is not gum drops. It is
better than that. It is nice, sweet roots and grasses that grow down under
water," and, with that, what do you think he did? Why, he stood right up
on his head, and reached his bill down beneath the pond, and got some of
the nicest grass that ever was. "There," said the old gentleman duck,
poking up his head, "do as I did, little ones."
So those three Wibblewobble children did, and pretty soon, Alice and
Jimmie had as much as they could eat, and raised their heads. Then they
saw that Lulu still had her bill down under the water.
"She must be getting lots more than we did," spoke Alice.
"Yes, indeed," replied Jimmie. "I wonder how she can hold her breath so
long?"
Just then, what should happen but that Lulu began to wave her feet in the
air, and she flapped her wings until the spray went up in a regular
shower, just like at Asbury Park.
"Oh, my goodness me sakes alive, and three teaspoonsfull of corn meal with
pepper in!" cried Grandfather Goosey-Gander. "Lulu is stuck in the mud! We
must pull her out. Quick!" That's just the way he said it.
And, would you believe me, Lulu was held fast in the mud by her dear
little bill! Oh, how terribly frightened Jimmie and Alice were. They
squawked and they quacked, and they tried to pull Lulu out, but she was
stuck too fast.
Then all the other ducks came swimming up to see what the trouble was, and
they tried to pull her out, but they couldn't, and, all the while her feet
were wiggling as fast as they could wiggle, almost like Sammie
Littletail's nose.
Then Grandfather Goosey-Gander called out: "What ho! Make way there! I
will save her!" And with that, what do you think he did? Why, he dived
right down under the water, yes, sir, right down in the mud, and he
pushed, and he pulled, and he hauled and he splashed, and he yanked, and
he rooted, and he twisted, and he turned, and he shoved, and then, all
alone, brave old grandfather that he was, he got Lulu up from the mud,
where she had been stuck by her little bill!
And it was almost time, too, let me tell you, for her breath was nearly
gone. But she soon got better, and she never put her head so far down
under water again.
Then all the ducks said: "Quack, Quack, Quack!" three times, they were so
glad, and they swam around in a circle, and the old rooster stood on the
bank and crowed, just as if he had done it all! Oh, how glad Papa and