a parrot takes hold of the wires in his cage."

"Fine!" cried Billie. "Will you do it, Jimmie?"

"Sure," answered the little boy duck, but he didn't know what was going to
happen, or, maybe, he wouldn't have tried to climb up. Well, the
squirrels selected quite a tall tree, but rather an easy one, and Jimmie
managed to scramble up to the first low limbs, with Billie and Johnnie
boosting him.

After that it wasn't quite so hard, and he was able to get up quite a
distance, pulling himself with his yellow bill. He was not very graceful,
and I'm sure if you ever saw a duck climb a tree you would agree with me,
but finally, after a great deal of hard work, Jimmie was right on the top
branch where the two squirrels sat blinking their eyes.

"How do you like it?" asked Johnnie.

"Fine!" cried Jimmie. "Quack! Quack! Quack!" Now when a duck says "quack"
three times, you may know he is very much pleased indeed. Oh, what a fine
view Jimmie had, but he didn't dare frisk around as Billie and Johnnie
did, for he was a trifle dizzy. Then, after he had been up there some
time, he thought he had better go down, for the wind was blowing the
treetop, and he wasn't used to it. So, after Billie and Johnnie had sung
their song again, Jimmie started for the ground.

Well, you know how it is yourself, if you have ever climbed a tree. It's
easy to go up, but it's hard to get down. The limb for your feet is never
where you think it is. Poor Jimmie tried, and Billie and Johnnie helped
him, but he didn't dare turn around to go down, backward, and that's the
only way you can get down a tree, unless you're a squirrel.

Then Jimmie began to get frightened. He knew it was time for him to go
home, but it began getting darker and darker and darker, and there he was
right in the top of the tree, as far away from the ground as ever. He
tried once more, but he didn't dare let go of one branch with his bill,
while he put his foot down on another limb below, and there he was. Oh,
what an unpleasant situation to be in, to say the least!

"Oh, I'll never get down!" cried Jimmie. "I wish I'd stayed on the
ground!"

Billie and Johnnie began to get frightened, too, for it was partly their
fault, and they were just going off for some kind of help, though what
kind they didn't know, when they heard a noise.

It was a swishing, swooping, swoshing noise, and who should fly down out
of the sky but that good, kind fishhawk, who once carried Billie and
Johnni