“Oh, it will be such fun!” cried Sue.

“Jolly!” cried Bunny.

“Let’s go and ask mother now,” said Sue.

The children started for the house.  On the way they had to pass a little pond of water.  On the edge of it stood a hen, clucking and making a great fuss.  She would run toward the water and then come back again, without getting her feet wet.

“Oh, the poor old hen!” cried Sue.  “What’s the matter?  Oh, see, Bunny!  All her little chickens are in the water.  Oh, Bunny!  We must get them out for her.  Oh, you poor old hen!”

CHAPTER IV

A STRANGE BOY

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue stood on the shore of the little pond, looking at the old hen, who was fluttering up and down, very much excited, clucking and calling as loudly as she could.

And, paddling up and down in the water in front of her, where the hen dared not go, for chickens don’t like to get wet you know, paddling up and down in front of the hen were some soft, fluffy little balls of downy feathers.

“Oh, her chickens will all be drowned!” cried Sue.  “We must get them out, Bunny.  Take off your shoes and stockings and wade in.  I’ll help you save the little chickens for the poor old hen.”

Sue sat down on the ground, and began to take off her shoes.

Bunny began to laugh.

“Why, what—­what’s the matter?” asked Sue, and she seemed rather surprised at Bunny’s laughter.  “Don’t you want to save the little chicks for the hen?” Sue went on.  “Maybe somebody threw them in the water, or maybe they fell in.”

“Those aren’t little chickens, Sue!” exclaimed Bunny, still laughing.

“Not chickens?  They aren’t?  Then what are they?”

“Little ducks!  That’s the reason they went into the water.  They know how to swim when they’re just hatched out of the eggs.  They won’t get drowned.”

Sue did not know what to say.  She had never before seen any baby ducks, and, at first, they did look like newly hatched chickens.  But as she watched them she saw they were swimming about, and, as one little baby duck waddled out on the shore, Sue could see the webbed feet, which were not at all like the claws of a chicken.

“But Bunny—­Bunny—­if they’re little ducks and it doesn’t hurt them to go in the water, what makes the old hen so afraid?” Sue asked.

“I—­I guess she thinks they are chickens.  She doesn’t know they are ducks and can swim,” said Bunny.  “I guess that’s it, Sue.”

“Ha!  Ha!  Yes, that’s it!” a voice exclaimed behind Bunny and Sue.  They looked around to see their Grandpa Brown looking at them and laughing.

“The old hen doesn’t know what to make of her little family going in swimming,” he went on.  “You see, we put ducks’ eggs under a hen to hatch, Bunny and Sue.  A hen can hatch any kind of eggs.”

“Can a hen hatch ockstritches’ eggs?” Sue wanted to know.