Here Mrs. Quack choked up so that she couldn't say another word.
Peter's own eyes were full of tears as he tried to comfort her.
"Perhaps," said he, "Mr. Quack wasn't killed and is hiding somewhere
along the Big River. I don't know why I feel so, but I feel sure
that he wasn't killed, and that you will find him yet."

"That's why I've waited instead of going on," replied Mrs. Quack
between sobs, "though it wouldn't have been of any use to go on
without my dear mate. I'm going back to the Big River now to look
for him. The trouble is, I don't dare go near the shore, and if he
is alive, he probably is hiding somewhere among the rushes along the
banks. I think I'll be going along now, but I'll be back to-night
if nothing happens to me. You folks who can always stay at home
have a great deal to be thankful for."

"It's lucky for me that Mrs. Peter wasn't here to hear her say
that," said Peter, as he and Jerry Muskrat watched Mrs. Quack fly
swiftly towards the Big River. "Mrs. Peter is forever worrying and
scolding because I don't stay in the dear Old Briar-patch. If she
had heard Mrs. Quack say that, I never would have heard the last
of it. I wish there was something we could do for Mrs. Quack. I'm
going back to the dear Old Briar-patch to think it over, and I guess
the sooner I start the better, for that looks to me like Reddy Fox
over there, and he's headed this way."

So off for home started Peter, lipperty-lipperty-lip, as fast as
he could go, and all the way there he was turning over in his mind
what Mrs. Quack had told him and trying to think of some way to
help her.