ever, and he flapped about and squawked and squawked and flapped until
Mr. Fox nearly split his sides laughing at him. And when he was quite
out of breath, Mr. Quack discovered that he was making all this fuss for
nothing. He didn't sink, but floated on the water, and what was more the
water didn't get under his feathers at all. When he tried to walk, of
course he couldn't, and he had a funny feeling because his feet didn't
touch anything and felt so very useless. But he kept moving them back
and forth, and pretty soon he discovered that he moved ahead. Of course
he moved very slowly, because his feet were not made for use in the
water, but he moved, and that was enough. He knew then that he could get
back to land. Then he tried his wings and he found that he could rise
into the air from the water quite as easily as from the land. Right then
and there all fear of the water left him. In fact, he liked it.

"Little by little, Grandfather Quack began to understand that he had
made a great discovery. He had discovered the safest place in all the
Great World for him. Out on the water he was safe from Mr. Fox and Mr.
Wolf and all the other four-footed hunters. So he took to spending most
of his time on the water or near it. When he wanted a nap, he would hide
among the rushes that grew in the water. 'If only I didn't have to leave
the water for food!' sighed Grandfather Quack. 'If only I could find
food here, I would never leave the water.'

"At the time he was squatting at the very edge of the Smiling Pool.
Presently he noticed a funny water bug crawling on the bottom where the
water was only an inch or two deep. 'I wonder if that fellow is good to
eat,' thought he, and almost without thinking he plunged his head under
water and caught the bug. It was good. Grandfather Quack at once started
to look for more, and while doing this he discovered that there were a
great many seeds from the rushes scattered about in the mud at the