2. She swam towards the brink1 when[Pg 147] she saw Betty coming. The ducklings waddled2 as fast as they could lay their flat feet to the ground, as soon as they caught sight of the pond.
3. Betty could not keep up with them, for she had never quite lost a limp, after[Pg 148] having her toe bitten off. "See," she said to Snowdrop, as she hobbled up, "here are your children.
4. "Look at them well! How unlike they are to any ducklings you ever brought up yourself! There are no ducks in the whole yard that can compare with them. Just watch how well they behave."
5. "Quack3!" said Snowdrop. "It is all because of the pains I have taken," said Betty.
"Quack, quack!" said Snowdrop again.
6. "They have never been tempted4 to go into horrid5 cold water. They have never even seen a pond till now. What do you say to that?"
7. "Quack, quack, quack!" replied the snowy sailor, glancing her bright eye upon her little ones. The next moment the merry little ducks were sailing after her round the pond!
8. They dived head foremost, they grubbed for leeches6, they paddled with their flat feet as if they had done nothing else since they were out of the shell.
9. Poor Betty with outspread wings[Pg 149] danced round the pond crying at the top of her shrill7 voice, "Come back! come back! You will all be drowned."
10. But it was useless. The little ducks would obey her no longer. They went on swimming about after their own lily-white mother.
11. Snowdrop swam to the edge at last, and
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