1. "pretty dear!" said the farmer's wife to betty, as she saw her climb gently on to the eggs and spread out her small wings as far as she could.
2. "this will never do," she went on. "if you want to hatch them, my pretty, you had better do it in your own nest."
3. so she stooped down, stroked betty's white back softly, and then, with a firm, gentle hand, pushed her aside while she took all the seven eggs into her apron.
4. at first betty did not like it. she did not know what snowdrop would say, and besides, she had a longing inside her to finish the job. she wanted to see the dear little things come from the shells.
5. "i shall love them as my own," said she, "unless the farmer's wife takes them from me." but she was quite happy when she saw the eggs placed safely in her own snug dry nest.
6. betty sat on the eggs for three long[pg 141] weeks. she knew that was the proper time to wait for her own broods. but still no sign of the young ones was to be seen.
7. "i do believe that cold water has killed them before they are born!" said poor betty, "for they never ought to have been laid so near a pond."
8. she sat on and on, for a fourth week. and, at the end of that time, she had her reward. there was a little faint tapping sound inside the shells.
9. the baby ducks were trying to get[pg 142] out of prison. she helped them by picking away bits of the shell as it broke, to let the light in at their tiny windows.
10. at last seven little yellow things as soft as satin cried, "peep, peep!" in a pretty whisper round her feet. their bills and their feet were rather flat, it is true, but what of that? betty loved them as if they were her own chicks.
11. "of course i do not expect that they will be quite so handsome, so clever, or so good as if born from my own eggs," said she.
12. "they will be poor weak little things. i can see that they are rather stupid, even now, from their staying in the shells a week longer than they ought.
13. "but i must take a little extra care with them!" very proud was mother betty, but in spite of all her fondness, the young ducks gave her much trouble.
14. they would not come when they were called. and they would play in the gutter. they dabbled with their little yellow feet in the black mud, as often as ever they could.[pg 143]
15. they liked digging in a dirty ditch for worms better than feeding from a nice clean plate. and they will gobble snails, shells and all, no matter what betty said.
write: it was four weeks before the eggs were hatched. betty found that the young ducks did not like to feed as chicks did. they loved to dabble in the mud.
questions: 1. what did the farmer's wife say when she saw betty climb into the nest? 2. where did she put the eggs? 3. how long did betty sit on them? 4. where did the young ducks want to play? 5. what did they wish to eat? 6. why did betty think them stupid?
