the heavy strand of wire parted as though it had been a string.

"Give me those clippers!" Jimmie bore down upon him crossly. "I told you
to leave 'em alone. Now see what you've done! Look here, Sunny, can't you
keep out of trouble long enough for me to finish this fence?"

Sunny yielded the clippers reluctantly. He had not known they were so
sharp. Jimmie need not have been so cross, he thought.

"I want to do something different," Sunny complained.

Jimmie wisely decided to give him something to do.

"Couldn't you drive that mother duck and her ducklings up to the chicken
yard?" he asked, pointing to the same ducks Sunny had discovered in the
dairy. "I know your grandmother wants to shut them up to-night and that
mother duck is just working her way down to the brook. I want to finish
this fence before I call it a day, so if you want to be useful, here's
your chance."

Of course Sunny Boy wanted to be useful, and he started after Mother Duck
and her family. If you have ever tried to argue with a duck you will know
that it does no good to tell her where she should go--ducks are like some
people, they like to have their own way. This mother duck had made up her
mind that she was going to take her family down to the brook, and Sunny
Boy had to race up and down the orchard and "shoo" her from behind trees
and be patient a long time before he could get her started in the
direction of the chicken yard. Then, once out of the orchard, she caught
a glimpse of Araminta, who had come back--for it was five o'clock--and
was scattering cracked corn for the chickens. The duck mother was hungry,
and she started to run toward the chicken yard. Sunny Boy could scarcely
keep up with her, and the poor little baby ducks were left away behind.

"Let 'em be--they'll follow her!" cried Araminta, and she scattered a
little corn in an empty coop.

The duck mother waddled right inside, and Araminta put up a bar that
fastened her in.

"I think she has too many duck babies," said Sunny Boy, watching as the
ducklings came up to the coop and began to hunt for corn.

"Yes, she has," agreed Araminta. "But she can keep them all warm, I
guess."

"I know what I can do," suggested Sunny Boy, but Araminta was hurrying to
the house after bread and milk to feed the duck babies and she did not
ask him what he could do.

Mrs. Allen stayed to supper, and very soon after Mrs. Horton said that
Sunny Boy looked sleepy and must go to bed. He seldom to