“I’m your Aunt Lettie,” replied the goat.  “I’ve come to pay you a long visit.  Oh, I’m so glad I found you, for I feared I would never get to your house!  See, I have brought you some apple turnovers, and some gooseberry tarts.  Now let’s hurry home, but first kiss me.”

So Aunt Lettie kissed them all, even Bully, the frog, and then she and the Wibblewobble children went to the ducks’ pen, where she stayed several days.

And quite a number of things happened, too.  In fact, one took place the very next day, as you shall hear to-morrow night, when I am going to tell you about Lulu and the pussy willows, provided a doggie with a yellow nose and pink ears doesn’t scare me.

STORY XIV

LULU AND THE PUSSY WILLOWS

“What shall we do now?” asked Lulu the next morning after Aunt Lettie came, and the duck children had gone out to play, leaving their mamma and the old lady goat to do the dishes.

“Let’s go see the fairy prince,” suggested Alice.

“Oh, you’re always thinking of that fairy prince,” objected Jimmie.  “I say let’s go for a walk.”

“All right,” agreed Lulu.  “I know where there are some nice pussy willows.  We’ll get some to take to our school teacher next Monday.”

So they started off up the pond to the place where the pussy willows grew.  They gathered quite a number, breaking off the stems in their strong yellow bills, and then, putting the willows under their wings, they started back home again.  They didn’t have to hurry because, you see, it was Saturday, and there wasn’t any school.  Oh, my no!  Ducks don’t have to go to school on Saturday any more than you do, even if they are only in the kindergarten class.

Now, if you please, pay close attention, for something is going to happen very shortly, if Uncle Wiggily Longears doesn’t come along and bother me, and I don’t believe he will.  Well, Lulu and Alice and Jimmie got safely home with the pussy willows, and as they were putting them in water to keep until Monday, Aunt Lettie came into the room.

“What have you there, my dears?” she asked, wiggling her horns and looking over the tops of her glasses as easily as you can draw a picture of a horse.  “What have you there, my dears?”

“They are pussy willows, Aunt Lettie,” replied Lulu.

“Oh dearie me! oh Sacramento!” cried Aunt Lettie, who was quite excitable at times.  “Why ever did you bring them here, little ones?”

“Why, we want them for teacher,” explained Alice.

“I don’t,” declared Jimmie.  “Boys never bring the teacher flowers; that is unless they don’t want to be kept in when there’s a ball game.  But don’t you like pussy willows, Aunt Lettie?”

“Oh, no indeed,” she answered.  “I don’t like cats of any description.”

“But these are only pussy willows,” said Alice.

“Oh, they’ll turn into cats quickly enough,” remarked Aunt Lettie.  “There was a family who once lived next to us, and they had kittens.  Why it wasn’t any time at all before those kittens had turned into cats, and land goodness, how they did howl nights and keep me awake!  And I had lumbago that summer, too!  Oh, yes, indeed, kittens are all very well, but when they turn into old cats they’re not so nice.”