Twice every year, in the early spring and in the late fall, Peter Rabbit
watches the Smiling Pool with a great deal of eagerness. Can you guess
why? It is because two very good friends of Peter's are in the habit of
stopping there for a few days for rest and refreshment before continuing
the long journey which they are obliged to make. They are Mr. and Mrs.
Quack, the Mallard Ducks. Peter is very fond of them, and when the time
for their arrival draws near, Peter watches for them with a great deal
of anxiety. You see they have told him something of the terrible
dangers which they always encounter on these long journeys, and so Peter
is always afraid that something terrible may have happened to them, and
it is a great relief when he finds them swimming about in the Smiling
Pool.

One reason Peter is so fond of Mr. and Mrs. Quack is because they always
have a story for him. Sometimes it is a story of adventure, a tale of
terrible danger and narrow escapes. Sometimes it is about their home in
the far Northland, and again it is about the wonderful Southland where
they spend the winter. But the story that Peter likes best is the one
about where and how the Quack family got their funny, webbed feet. Mr.
Quack doesn't think those feet funny at all, but Peter does. He never
grows tired of watching Mr. and Mrs. Quack use them, because, you know,
they are used so differently from other feet. And always he goes back to
the dear Old Briar-patch with renewed admiration for the wisdom of Old
Mother Nature.

Peter noticed those feet the first time he met Mr. and Mrs. Quack. He
couldn't help but notice them. It happened that Mr. and Mrs. Quack were
out on the bank of the Smiling Pool as Peter came hurrying over in his
usual way, lipperty-lipperty-lip. They heard him coming and not knowing
at first who it was they at once started for the water. Peter never will