The next morning the White
Duck wandered round the pond in a distracted manner, looking for her little ones; she called and she searched, but could find no trace of them.
Late at night they arrived at an inn; and as it was bad travelling in the dark, and the
duck seemed much tired, and waddled about a good deal from one side to the other, they made up their minds to fix their quarters there: but the landlord at first was unwilling, and said his house was full, thinking they might not be very respectable company: however, they spoke civilly to him, and gave him the egg which Partlet had laid by the way, and said they would give him the
duck, who was in the habit of laying one every day: so at last he let them come in, and they bespoke a handsome supper, and spent the evening very jollily.
"'My dear fellow, if you are Dave
Duck I ought to inform you that I buried you two months ago.
"What are you doing here?" asked the
duck. "You were told to stay behind in Puddleby."
He
ducked forward and down, Ponta's fist just missing the back of his head.
We felt a strong temptation, at one point, to turn into a village inn as we passed and have a cheese and a few loaves between us, but we heroically restrained ourselves: we should enjoy the
duck all the better for being famished.
And I, the long time intimate of John Barleycorn, knew just what he promised me--maggots of fancy, dreams of power, forgetfulness, anything and everything save whirling washers, revolving mangles, humming centrifugal wringers, and fancy starch and interminable processions of
duck trousers moving in steam under my flying iron.
"Yes, that is just what I want to know," said the
Duck; and she swam away to the end of the pond, and stood upon her head, in order to give her children a good example.
"Good gracious, Tom, what a lot of feathers a
duck has!" groaned East, holding a bagful in his hand, and looking disconsolately at the carcass, not yet half plucked.
Closer and closer we came, and I, lying down forward, was just reaching out to grasp the skiff, when it
ducked under the great stern of the Lancashire Queen.
In regard to
ducks and rabbits, the breeds of which differ considerably from each other in structure, I do not doubt that they all have descended from the common wild
duck and rabbit.
`I know what "it" means well enough, when I find a thing,' said the
Duck: `it's generally a frog or a worm.