I thought so, myself, and so did his grandpa and his papa and mamma, to say nothing of Uncle Wiggily Longears.  And that’s how the foxes didn’t eat up the ducks, and to-morrow night, if the robin sings under my window as sweetly as he did yesterday morning, you shall hear about how Aunt Lettie came on a visit.

STORY XIII

A VISIT FROM AUNT LETTIE

One day it was so very pleasant out of doors that Lulu and Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble didn’t want to go to school.  The sun was sparkling on the water in the duck pond, and Alice said, as she felt the wind blowing on her feathers: 

“Oh, I just wish I could go see the fairy prince again!”

“Pooh!  I don’t,” spoke Jimmie.  “But I wish we could stay home from school.  Bully, the frog, and I were going to get up a baseball nine.  Let’s go ask papa if we can stay home.”

“Can’t I play on your ball team?” asked Lulu, who could throw a stone almost as well as a boy.

“No,” said Jimmie.  “Girls never play on ball teams.”

“Couldn’t I even umpire?” went on his sister.

“No, Uncle Wiggily Longears is going to do that,” replied Jimmie.  “Billie and Johnnie Bushytail and Sammie Littletail are going to play on the team.  But let’s go ask papa if we can stay home.  It’s too nice to go to school.”

So they went and asked Mr. Wibblewobble, who had remained at home from work that day, because, you see, he happened to swallow a shoe button by mistake for a grain of corn, and he had indigestion something awful; yes, really.

You know it was a tan shoe button, and if your eyesight isn’t very good, why it does look like a grain of corn, especially if you’re very hungry and in a hurry.  So Mr. Wibblewobble wasn’t feeling very well when Jimmie and Lulu came in to ask him if they could stay home from school, and he was the least bit cross, perhaps, because his indigestion was really very bad at that moment.  So he answered them: 

“No, indeed, you can’t stay home.  Go to school at once!  Quack!”

Now when a duck says one quack, instead of a double quack-quack, you may know he is feeling very, very miserable, and you don’t want to bother him any more than you can help.

Lulu and Jimmie knew this, and they hurried out of the pen to go to school.  Then their papa felt sorry for them, because, you see, he did not really mean to be cross, only he knew it was best for them to learn all they could.  So he said “Quack-quack,” which meant he was feeling better, and he added:  “When you come home, my dears, you may each have a penny.  Run along now, like good ducks.”

So, though Jimmie felt badly about not being able to get up a ball nine, he waddled along with his sisters, and pretty soon they were at the owl school, where they met Sammie and Susie Littletail and Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, and Sister Sallie and Bully, the frog.  Yes, they were all there, and, what’s more, they had their lessons, too, so they were not kept in.