“Oh dear me!  Oh my goodness me sakes alive!  Oh, floppy! floppy! floppy!  Oh, a bag of salt and some corn meal!” cried the poor old gentleman duck.  “I am in a terrible state!  Help me!”

Then Lulu and Jimmie ran right up to him, and asked him what was the matter.

“Oh dear,” he said, “I really can’t say.  I’ve lost my glasses, and I can’t see very well.  All I know is that I was walking in the woods, thinking what a nice day it was, when, all of a sudden, in about a quack and a half, I found myself caught fast.  And the worst part of it is that I can’t get loose!”

“Let me take a look,” said Jimmie.

So he went quite close and looked, and he saw that Grandfather Goosey-Gander’s right leg was held in between two sticks.  The old gentleman duck was in great pain.

“Is my leg broken?” he asked Jimmie.

“No,” answered the little boy duck, “but some of the skin is scraped off.”

“I knew it!” cried Grandfather Goosey-Gander.  “Now I won’t be able to go fishing next week.  Oh, I do seem to have the worst luck; don’t I?”

“We will get you out,” Lulu said to him, and then she and her brother went to the aid of the poor old duck.  They pushed this way and that way, and they pulled that way and this way, and they lifted up on the pieces of sticks, and they pushed down on them, but it was no use.  Poor Grandfather Goosey-Gander was stuck fast there, and I think it was a shame, but it couldn’t be helped.  Oh my no, and a bit of peppermint candy besides!

“Well, I guess I will have to stay here and die,” said the discouraged old duck, and he felt so badly that he wept.  Lulu and Jimmie cried also, they felt so sorry.  The three of them cried, and their tears were so many that if they had cried long enough there would have been quite a pond there, and they could have gone in swimming.  That is, of course, all but Grandfather Goosey-Gander, and he couldn’t swim for he was held fast.  But they didn’t weep long enough.

“Let’s try once more,” said Lulu, after a while, and then she and Jimmie tried harder than ever to get grandfather’s leg out.  But they couldn’t.

“If I only had a saw!” cried Jimmie, “I could get him loose.”

“Ha! perhaps I can help you!” suddenly exclaimed a voice.

Then, as quickly as you can break an egg by dropping it on the floor (only of course you must not do it without permission), who should appear but Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat.  She was out walking with Sammie and Susie Littletail.

“Oh, somebody do please help me!” cried Grandfather Goosey-Gander.  “I’ve lost my glasses, my leg is caught, and I have a pain in my back.  Oh, oh, oh!”

“I’ll gnaw through those sticks in a jiffy!” cried Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, for a jiffy is very quick time indeed.  Oh, yes, and a broken down couch besides!

So, telling Sammie and Susie Littletail to stand back, and calling to Jimmie and Lulu to remain with them, the muskrat nurse set to work to free Grandfather Goosey-Gander.  Her teeth were like the chisels the carpenter uses and in a few seconds the old duck’s leg was free.  Oh, how glad he was, and how thankful to Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy!  Of course the duck and rabbit children also were glad.