In the Duck Yard

"

"How those two Chinese are always whispering!" said one of the Ducks. "They annoy me; I have never spoken to them."

Now the Drake came up; and he thought the little Songbird was a sparrow.

"Well, I don't see any difference," he said. "It's all the same, anyway. He's just a plaything, and if you have one, why, you have one."

"Don't pay any attention to what he says," the Portuguese whispered. "He is a very respectable businessman, and with him business always comes first. But now I'm going to lie down for a rest. You owe that to yourself, so you'll be nice and fat when the time comes to be embalmed with apples and plums."

And then she lay down in the sun and blinked one eye; she lay so comfortably and felt so well, and so she slept very comfortably.

The little Songbird busied himself with his broken wing, but finally he too lay down, pressed close beside his patroness; the sun was bright and warm; it was a good place to be.

The neighbor's hens scurried about, scratching up the earth, for, to tell the truth, they had come visiting solely for the sake of getting something to eat. The Chinese were the first to leave the duck yard, and the other hens soon followed them.

The witty little Duck was talking about the Portuguese and said the old lady was on the brink of "Duckdom's dotage." At this the other Ducks chuckled. "Duckdom's dotage!" they cackled. "That's unusually witty!" Then they repeated the other joke about portulaca - that was very amusing to them - and then they lay down.

They had been sleeping for some time when suddenly some food was thrown in for them. It landed with such a thump that the whole flock started up from sleep and flapped their wings. The Portuguese woke up, too, and rolled over on the other side, squeezing the little Songbird very hard as she did so.

"Peep!" he said. "You stepped so hard on me, madam."

"Well, why do you lie in the way?" she said. "You mustn't be so touchy. I have nerves, too, but I have never yet said, 'Peep!' "

"Please don't be angry," said the little Bird.