ok a nap any
more, and as he woke up early in the mornings, his mother said it was
certain that he must go to bed earlier to make up for it.

All the time Mother was helping him undress, Sunny Boy was very quiet,
and after she had kissed him and tucked him in bed he did not ask her for
a story as he usually did.

"You've been playing too hard, I think," said Mrs. Horton. "Good night
and pleasant dreams, dearest."

Sunny Boy waited till she had closed the door. Then he hopped out of bed
and pattered over to another door that led into Grandma's room. When he
came back he had two baby ducks in his hands.

"There now, you can sleep in my bed," he told them, putting them down
under the sheet.

But the baby ducks did not like the soft, clean bed. They made funny
little peeping noises, and as soon as Sunny Boy climbed into bed, one of
them fell out and ran across the floor. Sunny Boy chased it under the
bureau, and then he heard Mother calling.

"Sunny!"

He opened the door a crack.

"Yes, Mother?"

"I hear you running around up there. You don't want Mother to have to
come up and punish you, do you? Go back to bed and go to sleep like a
good boy."

"Yes'm," said Sunny.

He might have explained that he was good, but the ducks were certainly as
bad as they could be. It was still light enough in the room for him to
see the furniture, but try as he might he could not get that foolish,
obstinate frightened little duck to come out from behind the bureau.
Finally he gave it up and went to bed to take care of the other one, and
that fell or jumped out on the other side of the bed and poor Sunny had
to get up again and try to find it. The foolish thing let him chase it
under the bed, and he was half way under and half way out when Grandpa
opened the bedroom door.

"Look here, Sunny, what are you up to now?" began Grandpa. "Your mother
is tired and she sent me up to settle you. My soul, boy! what are you
doing under the bed?"

Sunny Boy wriggled out and turned a flushed face to Grandpa.

"Nothing," he said, beginning to climb into bed.

Grandpa was helping him smooth the tangled covers when one of the ducks
began to peep.

"What's that?" said he sharply. "Sunny, what have you got in here? What's
that noise?"

"It's a duck," confessed Sunny Boy reluctantly.

Grandpa sat down on the bed.

"A duck? Up here?" he gasped. "Why, how on earth did a duck get in the
house?"

"I did it," admitted Sunny. "The duck mothe