1. As Betty's brood was now grown old enough to go into the world, she had plenty of time to pay Snowdrop a visit. So she went off one fine morning and found her near the brink1 of the pond.
2. Snowdrop was using her orange bill as a shovel2 to catch leeches3 in the mud.[Pg 133] Betty told her that she had come to have a chat with her. She wished to speak about the way in which she had brought up her children.
3. "I am sure, my dear Snowdrop," said Betty, "that cold water was the death of all your lost ducklings, no matter what you or any other bird may say.
4. "You are a strong duck, and so it has not hurt you yet. But you see that your frail4 little ones are all gone. It is all through your careless habit of letting them dabble5 in the mud all day and get their feet wet."
5. "Nonsense!" said Snowdrop, as, with an eye dark and bright as that of Betty, she glanced at her own orange legs and webbed feet.
6. "Nonsense! It is all nature, and runs in the blood," she said. "My mother before me, and her mother before that, knew that water never hurts a duck. It hurts us to be kept dry!
7. "And as for catching6 cold or getting fits, or cramp7, or the pip—can you do this?" And as she spoke8, Snowdrop[Pg 134] waddled9 down the steepest part of the bank.
8. She set her breast for a moment against the tiny ripples10 of the pond until she was in water deep enough to swim in. Then, all of a sudden, she turned herself upside dow............