Tales of a Poultry Farm

by Clara Dillingham Pierson

  THE PEKIN DUCK STEALS A NEST

  The Ducks were not much interested in the new poultry-house. To besure the Hens talked of hardly anything else now, and several had saidthat they would be glad to lay in the new nest-boxes as soon as theyshould be lined with hay for them. So the Ducks heard enough about thehouse, but did not really care for it at all.

  "It is too far from the river," said they. "We are quite contentedwith the old Pig-pen. Since the Hog and her children were taken awayand the Man has cleaned it out, we find it an excellent place. Thereis room for all of us in the little shed where the Hog used to live,and the Man has thrown in straw and fixed good places for egg-laying.Besides, there is no door, and we can go in and out as often as wechoose."

  That was exactly like the Ducks. They seemed to think that to go wherethey wished and when they wished was the best part of life. The bestpart of sleeping in the old Pigpen, they thought, was being able toleave it whenever they chose. They knew perfectly well, if theystopped to think about it, that a Weasel or Rat could get in quite aseasily as they, and it was only their luck which had kept them safe solong.

  The Ducks were very pleasant people to know. They never worried aboutanything for more than a few minutes, and had charmingly happy andcontented ways. There were only a few of them on the farm, and no twoexactly alike in color and size. The Farmer had never paid muchattention to them, and the Boy, who bought and kept them for pets, hadtired of them so soon that they had been allowed to go wherever theypleased, until they expected always to have their own way.

  They took their share of the food thrown out for the poultry, and thenwent off to the river for the day. During the hot weather they stayedthere until after all respectable Hens had gone to roost. Even theGeese left the water long before they did. When they went to sleep,they settled down on the floor and dozed off. "It is much easier thanflying up to roosts and then down again," they said. "Find a place youlike, and then stay there. We see no reason why people should makesuch a fuss about going to sleep."

  When the Shanghai Cock heard these things, he shook his head until hiswattles swung. "That is all very well for the Ducks," said he, "butfrom the way this Man acts, I think there may be a change coming forthem by and by. I notice that things are more different every day."

  The Ducks soon began to see that it was different with them. Ducks,you know, are always very careless about where they lay their eggs.Some of these were so old that they seldom laid eggs, only the PekinDuck and her big friend, the Aylesbury Duck, laid them quite oftenafter the middle of winter. At first the Man looked in the old Pig-penfor them, but after he had looked many days and found only one, hedrew a book out of his pocket and read a bit. Then he called theLittle Girls to him and talked to them. "I want you to watch each ofthose white Ducks," said he, "and for every one of their eggs whichyou find I will give you a penny."

  Each morning for some days after that, the two Ducks were followed bytwo hopeful Little Girls. "I don't mind it so much now," the PekinDuck said to her friends on the third day, "but at first I didn't knowwhat to do. I would no sooner sit down to lay under a bush or in somecosy corner than a Little Girl would sit on the ground in front andwatch me. Then I would move to another place, and she would move too.I must say, however, that they are very good children. The Boy wholived here often threw stones at us. These children never do. Isometimes think there may be as much difference in Boys and Girls asthere is in Ducklings."

  When the Little Girls tired of watching for eggs to be laid, the PekinDuck decided to do something she had never tried before. She was theyoungest of the flock, and she wanted Ducklings. The older Ducks triedto discourage her. "Have a good time while you can," said theAylesbury Duck, who was about her age, and thought Ducklings a bother."I don't want to be troubled with a lot of children."

  The old Ducks advised her not to try it. "You think it will be veryfine," said they, "but you will find that you cannot go wherever youwant to, and do whatever you please with Ducklings tagging along. Thesitting alone is enough to tire a Duck out."

  "Oh, I think I could stand it," remarked the Pekin Duck, quietly."Didn't some Duck stand it long enough to hatch me?"

  "Hatch you? No indeed," laughed an old Rouen Duck, who could rememberquite distinctly things which had happened three years before on thefarm from which they had all come to this. "Hatch you? A Shanghai Henhatched you and half a dozen other Ducklings in a box with hay in itand slats across the front. I remember quite well how cross she becamewhen she thought it time for her Chickens to chip the shell, and theydid not chip. She never dreamed that she was sitting on Ducks' eggs,although every Duck on the place knew it and thought it a good joke.She was a stupid thing, or she would have known without being told.Any bright Hen knows that Ducks' eggs are larger, darker, and greasierlooking than her own."

  The Pekin Duck remembered very little of her life before coming to thefarm, so she was glad to hear of it from the old Rouen Duck. "What didmy mother do when her eggs didn't hatch?" said she.

  "Do?" repeated the Rouen Duck. "Do? Why she did the only thing thatany sitting fowl can do. She kept on sitting."

  "How long?" asked the Pekin Duck.

  "You don't suppose I can remember that, do you?" replied the RouenDuck, twitching her little pointed tail from side to side. "Besides, Inever count things. All I know is that she said one of the Cocks, whowas a friend of hers, declared that the moon was quite new when shebegan sitting, and that she sat there until it was quite new again. Hewas roosting in a tree just then, and knew more about the moon becausehe always awakened to crow during the night. She thought it wasdreadful to have to sit so long."

  The Pekin Duck saw that the Rouen Duck was still trying to discourageher. "I suppose it was harder for her because her legs were longer,"she said. "If they were longer they would ache more, wouldn't they?"

  The Rouen Duck smiled all around her bill "Your mother had her worsttime later on, though," she said. "When you and your brothers andsisters were hatched, she could not understand why you were sodifferent from all the other children she had ever raised. She saidthat not one of you looked like her family, and the Shanghai Cock wasvery disagreeable to her about it. He said she should be more carefulwhose eggs she hatched. And when you children went into the water,your mother would walk up and down the bank of the pond, clucking ashard as she could, and begging you to come ashore at once. At night,too, there was trouble, for you would never go to bed as early as shethought proper. After a while she learned to march off at a time thatsuited her, and let you come when you were ready."

  "Thank you ever so much for telling me," said the Pekin Duck, sweetly."It must be horrid to have the wrong kind of children. I promise youthat I will not sit on Hens' eggs." Then she waddled away.

  "I want some Ducklings," said she, putting her pretty webbed feet downsomewhat harder than usual. "I want Ducklings, and I am going to steala nest at once." She was a Duck of determination, and made a start byfinding a cosy spot under some burdock plants and laying an eggbefore she went in swimming. She was in such haste to make a beginningthat she had actually to come back later to finish her nest, which shedid by adding more dried leaves and grass and lining it with downwhich she plucked from her breast.

  After that, of course, all her friends knew that it was useless totalk to her about it, for when a Duck goes around at that season ofthe year with her breast all ragged from her plucking it, people maybe very sure that she is planning to hatch a brood. It is not at allbecoming, but it is a great help, for when the sitting Duck is tiredor hungry, she can pull the down over the eggs and leave her nest,knowing that the down will keep them warm for a long time.

  Of course the other Ducks talked about her a good deal when she wasnot around, and said she would be sorry she had undertaken all thatwork and care, and that it was exactly as well to drop one's eggsanywhere and let the Man pick them up to put under some sitting Hen."Yes," said the Aylesbury Duck, "or else give them to the fat tablefor hatching." Then they all laughed. It seemed
such a joke to themthat a table should take to hatching eggs.

  Nearly every day the Pekin Duck laid an egg, and she soon had enoughto begin sitting. After that, she did not go up to the Pig-pen atnight with her friends. It was quite lonely in the clump of burdocks,and if the Pekin Duck had been at all timid she might have had somebad nights, for Weasels, Rats, and Skunks were out after dark, lookingfor something to eat. Yet they must always have found food before theyreached the burdocks, for the Duck was not disturbed. During the dayher friends came along for a chat, and often the Drake waddled up fora visit. He seemed to think her a very sensible sort of Duck. He hadnot the Gobbler's dislike of children, although he never shared thelabor of hatching them, like his friend the Gander. He thought onecould be a good father without going quite as far as that.

  The days were long and the nights seemed longer to the tired PekinDuck, but her courage never failed. When her legs cramped so that shecould hardly step off the nest, she smiled and said to herself,"Suppose I were a Thousand-Legged Worm!" She fancied it made her feelbetter to think of such things, and she never remembered thatThousand-Legged-Worms do not sit on nests and hatch out their childrenin that way. It is probably better that she did not. If it does onegood to think of Thousand-Legged-Worms, it is wise to think aboutthem, even if one does make a slight mistake of this sort.

  When the rain came, the burdock leaves kept off most of it, and thefew drops which fell between the leaves rolled off the Duck's backwithout wetting her at all. That was because her feathers were so oilythat the rain could not stay on them. Ducks, you know, always have ontheir water-proofs, and can slip in and out of the water at any timewithout getting really wet.

  The pleasure which she missed most was seeing the changes which theMan was making in the upper end of the pasture. The Drake told her howgreat yards had been fenced in with wire netting, and how the frontsof the scratching-shed had been covered with somewhat finer netting ofthe same kind. "Not even a Weasel could get through it," he said. Andthen the Pekin Duck wished that the Man would fix a place for herDucklings where Weasels could not get them. She had never feared suchcreatures for herself, but when she thought of her children she wasafraid. That is always the way, since it is much easier for a motherto be brave for herself than for her children.

  On a beautiful morning in the last of May, the Pekin Duck was repaidfor all her patience and courage by having seven beautiful Ducklingschip the shell. They were even more beautiful than she had thoughtthey would be, and she could not understand why her friends seemed nomore impressed. To be sure they said that they were fine Ducklings andthat they looked like their mother, and admired their dainty littlewebbed feet and their bills. They spoke of the beautiful thick downwhich covered them, and said that they were remarkably bright andstrong for their age. And yet the Pekin Duck could see that they hadnot properly realized what wonderful creatures the Ducklings were.

  It was when all the Ducks were gathered around to look at theDucklings that one of the Little Girls came along with her doll. Whenshe also saw the Ducklings, she was so excited that she hugged herdoll tightly to her heart and ran off to find her father.

  A few minutes later the Pekin Duck saw her precious babies lifted intoa well-lined basket and carried off toward the house. She followed,quacking anxiously, and keeping as close to the Man as possible. Twicehe lowered the basket to let her see that her children were quitesafe.

  The Man carried the basket to a place beside the new poultry-house,now all done, and quickly fixed the old down-lined nest, which theLittle Girl had been carrying in another basket, into a fine coop.Next he put the nestlings into it and let the Pekin Duck cover themwith her wings. He stretched fine wire netting across the front of thecoop, and then the Pekin Duck was perfectly happy. Indeed it was notuntil the middle of the following night that she remembered she hadnot looked at the poultry-house at all.

  SHE FOLLOWED QUACKING ANXIOUSLY. _Page 72_]

  It was rather disappointing not to be able to take her children inswimming for two days, but when she saw how carefully the Man fed themon bread and milk and other soft food, and how particular he was abouthaving plenty of clean water for them to drink, she quite forgave himfor keeping them there. The other Ducks came to tell her how to carefor the Ducklings, to shake their sleek heads, and to tell her howunfortunate it was that she could not take the Ducklings in swimmingat once. "You will need to know many things," said the old Rouen Duck,"and I will tell you if you will come to me every time that you areperplexed."

  "Thank you," said the Pekin Duck. But she never went. She thought itjust as well that a Duck who had never hatched out children should notbe giving advice to people who had.

  When the Ducklings were three days old, they were let out and startedat once for the river. When their mother had to stop to speak to herfriends on the way, they did not wait for her, but marched on ahead.All the fowls spoke admiringly of them, and the Pekin Duck was trulyhappy as she looked at her seven proper little Ducklings.

  They were such bright children, too, waddling right down to the edgeof the brook and slipping in without a single question as to how itshould be done. Their mother followed after and showed them how shefed from the bottom, reaching her head far down until she could fillher orange-colored bill with the soft mud from the bottom. There weremany tiny creatures in the mud which were good to eat, and these shekept and swallowed, letting the mud pass out between the rough edgesof her bill. If the water had been deeper, she could have showed themhow she dived, staying long under water and coming up in a mostunexpected place.

  When they came out of the water and stood on the bank, their motherstretched herself up as tall as she could and preened her feathers.The seven little Ducklings stood as tall as they could and squeezedthe water out of their down with their tiny bills, which seemed somuch longer for them than their mother's did for her.

  The Pekin Duck was much amused to see how the other Ducks flockedaround her children. Indeed, she laughed outright once, when she heardthe old Rouen Duck say to the White Cock, "Don't you think that ourDucklings are growing finely?"

  Of course the Pekin Duck was ashamed of having laughed at any one somuch older than she, so she stuck her head under her wing andpretended to be arranging the feathers there. When she drew it outagain she was quite sober, but she was thinking "Our Ducklings! OurDucklings! They may all call them that if it makes them happy to doso, but really they are my Ducklings, for I earned them, and they loveme as they love nobody else."