"Why, what--what's the matter?" asked Sue, and she seemed rather
surprised at Bunny's laughter. "Don't you want to save the little chicks
for the hen?" Sue went on. "Maybe somebody threw them in the water, or
maybe they fell in."

"Those aren't little chickens, Sue!" exclaimed Bunny, still laughing.

"Not chickens? They aren't? Then what are they?"

"Little ducks! That's the reason they went into the water. They know how
to swim when they're just hatched out of the eggs. They won't get
drowned."

Sue did not know what to say. She had never before seen any baby ducks,
and, at first, they did look like newly hatched chickens. But as she
watched them she saw they were swimming about, and, as one little baby
duck waddled out on the shore, Sue could see the webbed feet, which were
not at all like the claws of a chicken.

"But Bunny--Bunny--if they're little ducks and it doesn't hurt them to
go in the water, what makes the old hen so afraid?" Sue asked.

"I--I guess she thinks they are chickens. She doesn't know they are
ducks and can swim," said Bunny. "I guess that's it, Sue."

"Ha! Ha! Yes, that's it!" a voice exclaimed behind Bunny and Sue. They
looked around to see their Grandpa Brown looking at them and laughing.

"The old hen doesn't know what to make of her little family going in