But he didn't, and so when he thought he was safe, he stopped. Now
in flying away from the hunter he had followed the Laughing Brook
where it winds through a sort of swamp before it joins the Big
River. Because there was more water than could be kept between the
banks of the Big River, it had crept over the banks, and all the
trees of the swamp were standing in water. Just beyond where Sammy
was sitting was a pile of brush in the water. A Jolly Little Sunbeam,
dancing down through the tree tops, touched something under the
edge of the brush, and Sammy's sharp eyes caught a flash of green.
Idly he watched it, and presently it moved. Instantly Sammy was
all curiosity. He flew over where he could see better.

"Now what can that be?" thought Sammy, as he peered down at the
pile of brush and tried to see under it.




XVII

MR. QUACK IS FOUND AT LAST


Sammy Jay's eyes sparkled as he watched that spot of green under the
pile of brush in the swamp through which the Laughing Brook finds
its way to join the Big River. All around was water, for you know
it was spring, and the melting snows on the hills way up where the
Big River has its beginning were pouring more water into the Big
River than its banks would hold as it hurried down to the Great
Ocean. It just couldn't hurry fast enough to take all that water