"We don't leave because we want to, but because we HAVE to," replied
Mrs. Quack, "and we go back just as soon as we can. What would you
do if you couldn't find a single thing to eat?"

"I guess I'd starve," replied Peter simply.

"I guess you would, and that is just what we would do, if we didn't
take the long journey south when Jack Frost freezes everything
tight up there where my home is," returned Mrs. Quack. "He comes
earlier up there and stays twice as long as he does here, and
makes ten times as much ice and snow. We get most of our food in
the water or in the mud under the water, as of course you know,
and when the water is frozen, there isn't a scrap of anything we
can get to eat. We just HAVE to come south. It isn't because we
want to, but because we must! There is nothing else for us to do."

"Then I don't see what you want to make your home in such a place
for," said practical Peter. "I should think you would make it where
you can live all the year around."

"I was born up there, and I love it just as you love the dear Old
Briar-patch," replied Mrs. Quack simply. "It is home, and there
is no place like home. Besides, it is a very beautiful and a very
wonderful place in summer. There is everything that Ducks and Geese
love. We have all we want of the food we love best. Everywhere is
shallow water with tall grass growing in it."

"Huh!" interrupted Peter, "I wouldn't think much of a place like
that." "That's because you don't know what is good," snapped Jerry
Muskrat. "It would suit me," he added, with shining eyes.