So they hurried away, for the gold fish whispered that the mud turtle was always cross when he ate.  Jimmie and Lulu were much disappointed, but Alice was not, for she insisted that the mud turtle was really wonderful, and was a fairy prince in disguise.  Now what do you think about it?  I leave it to you.  But whatever you may think please don’t be hasty.  Take plenty of time.  Perhaps you had better wait for the story to-morrow night, which if the cow bell doesn’t ring and awaken the doll in the baby carriage will be about how Grandfather Goosey-Gander got into trouble and out again.

STORY IX

GRANDFATHER GOOSEY-GANDER IN TROUBLE

On their way home, after having seen the mud turtle fairy prince, Jimmie, Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble, of course, talked of nothing else.  They wished the prince had done something wonderful, instead of merely sending them away when he ate his dinner, and they hoped he would perform a magical feat another time.  He really did, as I shall tell you about later, if I do not forget it.  The gold fish swam a little way back with the duck children, as she said the prince always liked to be alone when he ate.

“Well, how did you like him?” asked Fan Tail of the ducks.

“Not very much,” replied Lulu.  “I never did care for mud turtles.”

“Nor I,” added Jimmie.

“I don’t believe he was really a mud turtle at all,” declared Alice.  “He was a real, truly, fairy prince, and he only looked like a mud turtle, because we did not have the right kind of eyes with which to see him or else because we had no faith in him.  It is always so, in fairy stories.  You must believe, or you can’t see the beautiful things.”

“Well, I’d rather have some snails to eat,” said Jimmie.  “You don’t care how they look; it’s how they taste.  I’m never going to bother with fairies again.”

It was about three days after this that Jimmie and Lulu were walking in the deep, green woods, under the trees, picking tender leaves and roots to eat.  They were hoping they might meet Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels whom they had not seen for some time.  Alice stayed home to curl her feathers.

All at once, as they were walking along, the little boy and girl duck heard a funny noise.

“What’s that?” cried Jimmie.

“I don’t know,” answered Lulu.  “It sounds like some one calling.”

And, sure enough, it was.  As they stopped to listen they could hear some one crying:  “Help!  Help!  Oh, help!”

“Let’s go and see who it is,” suggested Jimmie.

“Maybe it’s a dog, or a bad rat, or a fox,” objected Lulu.

“No,” said her brother, “they would never call for help.  Come on.”

[Illustration:]

So they walked on, looking this way and that, to see what they could see; on and on through the woods, until, just as they came from behind a big oak tree, what should they catch sight of, but poor, Grandfather Goosey-Gander, caught fast in the middle of a pile of brush.