have nothing to sit on."

"Then you will have to stand it," said the Lonesome Duck.

"P'raps you've enough magic to give us a couple of stools," suggested
Cap'n Bill.

"A duck isn't supposed to know what stools are," was the reply.

"But you're diff'rent from all other ducks."

"That is true." The strange creature seemed to reflect for a moment,
looking at them sharply from its round black eyes. Then it said:
"Sometimes, when the sun is hot, I grow a toadstool to shelter me from
its rays. Perhaps you could sit on toadstools."

"Well, if they were strong enough, they'd do," answered Cap'n Bill.

"Then, before I do I'll give you a couple," said the Lonesome Duck, and
began waddling about in a small circle. It went around the circle to
the right three times, and then it went around to the left three times.
Then it hopped backward three times and forward three times.

"What are you doing?" asked Trot.

"Don't interrupt. This is an incantation," replied the Lonesome Duck,
but now it began making a succession of soft noises that sounded like
quacks and seemed to mean nothing at all. And it kept up these sounds
so long that Trot finally exclaimed:

"Can't you hurry up and finish that 'cantation? If it takes all summer
to make a couple of toadstools, you're not much of a magician."

"I told you not to interrupt," said the Lonesome Duck, sternly. "If
you get TOO disagreeable, you'll drive me away before I finish this
incantation."

Trot kept quiet, after the rebuke, and the Duck resumed the quacky
muttering. Cap'n Bill chuckled a little to himself and remarked to
Trot in a whisper: "For a bird that ain't got anything to do, this
Lonesome Duck is makin' consider'ble fuss. An' I ain't sure, after
all, as toadstools would be worth sittin' on."

Even as he spoke, the sailor-man felt something touch him from behind
and, turning his head, he found a big toadstool in just the right place
and of just the right size to sit upon. There was one behind Trot,
too, and with a cry of pleasure the little girl sank back upon it and
found it a very comfortable seat--solid, yet almost like a cushion.
Even Cap'n Bill's weight did not break his toadstool down, and when
both were seated, they found that the Lonesome Duck had waddled away
and was now at the water's edge.

"Thank you, ever so much!" cried Trot, and the sailor called out: "Much
obliged!"

But the Lonesome Duck paid no attention. Without even looking in thei