he felt better, especially after he had rubbed a horse chestnut on his
sore leg.

You see the rheumatism which was cured by a red fairy, as I told you about
in the first book, came back because Uncle Wiggily got his feet wet going
out one day without his umbrella.

Of course Papa and Mamma Wibblewobble were much surprised to hear about
the ball game, and the broken window, but they didn't scold Jimmie very
much, and pretty soon, oh, in a little while after supper, you know, it
was bedtime for the duck children and they went to bed.

Well, it got darker and darker, and soon it was nice and quiet around the
pond where the ducks lived. Only the frogs seemed to be awake, and they
were croaking away in the water. And pretty soon Lulu and Alice were
dreaming and so was Jimmie, and the funny part of it is that they all
dreamed different things.

Pretty soon it got even darker, and then up popped the silvery moon, and
it wasn't quite so dark. But it was more quiet. Oh my, yes! It was so
quiet that I believe if a feather had fallen off a duck's back it would
have made a noise when it struck the ground. Oh, it was very quiet.

Then, all of a sudden Jimmie awakened. He sniffed and he snuffed, and he
smelled smoke. So he got up and he called to Lulu and Alice in the next
room:

"Say, don't you smell smoke?"

"Yes," said Alice, "I do."