caught a mud turtle!" he cried.

"I am not!" the mud turtle called out, only he couldn't speak very
plainly, for the hook was in his mouth. "I'm a fairy prince, and you had
no right to catch me," he said.

Now, of course, the boy couldn't hear this, for he didn't understand the
language used by the fairy prince. But Alice heard him, and so did Lulu
and Jimmie.

"Oh, dear!" cried Alice. "That bad boy has caught the fairy prince! Let's
run out and make him let the prince go!"

"Oh, no!" answered Lulu, "the boy might catch us then."

"I know what let's do," whispered Jimmie. "We'll get in the bushes right
behind that boy, and quack and squawk as loud as we can: That will scare
him and make him run away. I don't believe the mud turtle is fairy prince,
but I don't want to see him hurt. Come on, girls. Now when I say: 'ready,'
quack real loud."

So the three duck children went softly up to a bush right behind where
that fisherman--I mean fisherboy--was sitting.

All this while the fairy prince was talking to the boy, and asking to be
let go, for the hook hurt him. The boy finally did take the hook out, not
hurting the mud-turtle any more than he could help, for he was not a bad
boy.

Then, in an instant, or maybe in an instant and a half, Jimmie cried,