"EFTERFEF EVEITE"
- LIBRARY -
c. *A* D --> --> 1Yll C-1 CAN :
Els TABL's HED 1871
THE MAY G. QUIGLEY
COLLECTION
OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE


WALDO WANTED adventures. But
more than that, he wanted a friend.
For although he was made of wood,
his heart was very warm indeed.
But the boys on the bridge would
have none of him. The little red tug-
boat left him behind. And the sea
gull splashingly flew away.
Just when Waldo was most dis-
couraged, he found Kit. No duck
could have a better friend than Kit,
he quickly learned. And Kit loved
Waldo even more when Kit's father
said they couldn't have gotten
along without him.
Imagine Waldo's sadness, then,
when Kit suddenly changed. You
will be as surprised as Waldo when
you learn the reason. And what Kit
decided in the end will make you
feel as Waldo did.


_
_-______- .——v—~—-,—- w 7i‘
thrown into the little brook, until there was only one duck left
in the big basket.
“But, Master!” Paulus’ voice was excited. “Look at this one.
His bill is all out of shape. Something has happened to this one!”
Paulus didn’t know it, but this little duck had enjoyed the trip
from the workshop to the stream as much as the old men them-
selves. He had seen the maple leaves and he had watched the
white clouds sail by overhead like pufls of cotton. He had en-
joyed all this, even though Paulus had said that wooden ducks
had no feelings.
The old duckmaster took the little duck from Paulus’ hands
and looked at him. The duck wondered what was going to hap-
pen next.
Then the man said, “Aye,” and his eyes were sad. “His bill is
crooked and out of shape. Indeed it is. Hewas the last duck of
the season, and I was very weary when carvedhis face.”
The little duck hadn’t noticed anything odd about his face
before. He had been too busy seeing the new world about him.
But now he was sad because he had made the olcfman unhappy.
Then he was suddenly excited, for he had heard the old duck-
master say to Paulus, “But throw him.in the water anyway. He
has a right to get wet before we toss him out with the shavings.”
The little wooden duck was so very pleased that he was going
to be thrown into the water with the other ducks that he didn’t
hear about being tossed out with the shavings.
» 7


So “plop” went the last little duck of the season, and his small
wooden heart almost splintered for joy when he felt the soft
water ripple against his breast.
_
_




oon it would be dark among the rushes, and the wind sighed
S sweetly through the branches of the weeping willow tree
that swept its leaves in the water of the little stream.
The water felt soft and smooth and quiet as it moved past the
little duck, who was stuck fast behind the thick green stems of
the water weeds. Suddenly he looked down at the water and saw
another duck. .
“Ho,” thought the little wooden duck, “how gay!” And he
looked again. The duck that looked back at him from the water
was indeed an odd creature. His bill was a most peculiar shape,
which gave him a permanently startled expression.
“Hello, little friend,” said the wooden duck happily. “I see
that your bill is crooked, too. Did the duckmaster make a mistake
in carving you?”
The duck in the water said nothing at all. -
The wooden duck tried again. “Perhaps you are embarrassed
because your bill is crooked. But look at me! The duckmaster
said that mine was not a bit straight and I don’t care . . . at least,
not very much.”
. IO


¢-Iv .
every time he went under the water, he only bobbed up again, a
duck’s length farther along from his tormentors.
“I did so want them to be my friends,” sighed Waldo as the last
stone missed him and splashed water up over his back. “And noyv
I am really alone, and I am afraid, and I never, not ever, want to
have an Adventure!”
When Waldo looked toward the shore, his eyes were so filled
with tears he could scarcely see the little white houses, with their
green shutters and red roofs, that scrambled up the hill.
On and on he drifted, and once, when he fell asleep, his
head dropped forward on his breast and his bill went under the
water.
“F lbdub,” sputtered Waldo, shaking his head quickly from
side to side. And then his eyes grew rounder and rounder. For the
water on his bill had a very peculiar taste. C-autiously, he dipped
his bill into the water again. And this time he said a frightened
little “Quack,” for it was salt -water, and even an inexperienced
little wooden duck, like Waldo, knew what that meant!
“I am drifting out to sea,” he quavered, “and I will never be
heard of again!”
But Waldo was wrong. For, although the water was most cer-
tainly salty, he was not in the ocean. He was drifting into the
mouth of a great river, and, beforehe had time to do more than
catch his breath at the thought of being lost at sea, a playful gust
of wind sent him moving toward the shore.
‘ 20


-i-


L.‘


Chapter Five _
he rain slanted cold against Waldo’s feathers and the water
T slapped against his bill, but Waldo felt warm and happy as
he shook his head from side to side to whisk the raindrops
from his eyes. For behind him, as he could see when he twisted
his neck and looked over his shoulder, came the little red tugboat.
Slowly at first, then more quickly, it huffed and puffed, and the
billows of black smoke, like big blankets, hung low over the gray
water.
“I wish that I could sing like a nightingale,” quacked Waldo,
“for I am happy at last. I am proving that I am very brave. It
doesn’t matter that I am just a wooden duck. And it doesn’t
matter that my bill is crooked and my tail feathers are chipped
where little boys threw stones at me. For I am about to become a
hero-duck and I shall wear a ribbon. I will save the tugboat from
the storm by my clever navigation!”
A wave spun him closer toward the shore, and the red tugboat
followed right behind his tail feathers.
Ahead of Waldo were rows of big wooden posts that looked
like short telephone poles stuck in the water. The poles made two
. 28


them over two of the wooden posts. Waldo floated quietly at the
tugboat’s side, waiting for it to say “Thank you” to him. But the
tugboat said nothing at -all.
Since he had been battling the rain and the waves for a very
long time and was tired and wet and sleepy, Waldo tucked his
head under his wing again and went quickly to sleep. But just be-
fore he began to dream little duck dreams, he said to himself very
happily, “When I wake up in the morning the sun will be shining
and my friend, the tugboat, will be able to see me. Then he will
speak to me and thank me for saving his life.”
Sure enough, when Waldo woke, the sun was shining, al-
though, because he was almost hidden by the tugboat on one side
and by the great wooden posts on the other, Waldo had to crane
his neck and look straight up into the blue sky to make sure.
But there it was, bright and warm, in the rain-washed sky.
Waldo felt happy and adventurous, so he said, “Quack!” very
clearly to the tugboat.
“Beep . . . hank . . .beep,” cried the tugboat gaily and let
out a tremendous puff of smoke and a very loud hiccough of
steam.
Suddenly, there was a great rush of water as the tugboat’s pro-
pellers started to turn, and the little red boat backed away from
the dock. Poor Waldo, quietly regarding the morning sunlight,
was thrown against the wooden posts and then sucked under the
water until he could not breathe at all and got a great mouthful of
30


_
_
_


Chapter Seven
own . . . down, went Waldo into the frothing waves,
D and when he came coughing to the top of the water he
was very, very angry.
“I am not enjoying my life one bit. It has been nothing but
waves and more waves, and what I want most is dry land and a
friend. Perhaps I am not a very seaworthy duck, but I don’t care!”
The wind was whipping the waves into great green mountains
of water. The rain was pelting against Waldo’s cold wet back.
The storm grew stronger and more fierce every minute.
“This is a dreadful storm,” cried the little duck. “Much worse
than the one when I rescued the tugboat.”
It was a great storm indeed. The clouds grew even blacker, the
waves roared higher, and the rain came down in such torrents
that Waldo could not see beyond his own crooked bill. Had he
been able to see, he would have known that he was being tossed
toward the shore.
As it was, Waldo feared that he would never live to see another
day. One moment he was on the top of the biggest wave in the

39


whole ocean. And the next instant he was thrown with a tremen-
dous force upon a rain-soaked beach.
He lay panting on the sand, trying to think, hoping that he
would never again see a drop of salty water. And while he lay
there, among the seashells and the stray bits of seaweed and wood,
the clouds gathered their dark cloaks about their shoulders and
started to move off into the west, and the rain stopped.
Waldo sighed a long gurgling sigh. “I have escaped the ocean.
I am on a beautiful beach and I shall never go to sea again!”
Now that the sky was clearing and a misty ray of sun fell
weakly across the beach, Waldo could see that he was not alone,
after all. A big brown crab scuttled sideways across the sand,
heading toward the ocean.
“Have to go home, you know,” the crab explained to Waldo
over his shoulder. “Shouldn’t be up here on the beach at all. The
storm did it.” And he plopped into a tiny wave that had crept
quietly up the sand.
“What a foolish fellow,” sighed Waldo. “Imagine, going back
into the raging sea again!”
By this time the sea was not raging at all. It had become quite
calm and blue again. However, Waldo imagined that he was still
in great danger and that the sea was very evil indeed.
Then up on the beach Waldo saw a strange brown bird walking
stiff-legged at the edge of the water.
“Oh, horrors me!” he thought. “Could it be another seagull?”
4 I


The Wild Duck closed his eyes very rudely, said nothing at all,
and wiggled his tail as he drifted away.
Because Waldo kept his eyes wide open, he saw Kit and Mobey
coming over the sand dunes to the water’s edge. Kit waswhistling
and Mobey’s red tongue lapped over_his teeth, making him look
very fierce and excited. Actually, the -dog was thinking of the
warm fireside he had left and the bowl of food that would be wait-
ing for him when he went back to the little white house with its
green shutters. -
“Ho! Look at the ducks!” cried Kit, and began to wave his
arms.
“Woof, wooof,” barked the dog, plunging into the cold water
and swimming out toward the little wave where Waldo floated.
“Honk, honk,” called the biggest Wild Duck, and with a tre-
mendous whirringIof wings and splashing of tail feathers, twenty-
four green ducks rose into the air. Following the leader duck,
honking to each other, they formed a flying V and disappeared
in the distance.
All but one.
He was the twenty-fifth Wild Duck, the one who had spoken
to Waldo. Though he flapped his wings and honked as loudly as
the others, he stayed in the water.
The dog shook the water from his eyes and swam strongly
toward the struggling duck. He seized the duck by the neck, very
gently in order not to hurt him, and swam toward shore. Kit,
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