isit. 'Why I could have
hatched two broods in the time that this one has taken!'

'Let me look at it,' said the old neighbour. 'Ah, I thought so; it is
a turkey's egg. Once, when I was young, they tricked me to sitting on a
brood of turkey's eggs myself, and when they were hatched the creatures
were so stupid that nothing would make them learn to swim. I have no
patience when I think of it.'

'Well, I will give it another chance,' sighed the duck, 'and if it does
not come out of its shell in another twenty-four hours, I will just
leave it alone and teach the rest of them to swim properly and to find
their own food. I really can't be expected to do two things at once.'
And with a fluff of her feathers she pushed the egg into the middle of
the nest.

All through the next day she sat on, giving up even her morning bath for
fear that a blast of cold might strike the big egg. In the evening, when
she ventured to peep, she thought she saw a tiny crack in the upper part
of the shell. Filled with hope, she went back to her duties, though
she could hardly sleep all night for excitement. When she woke with the
first steaks of light she felt something stirring under her. Yes,
there it was at last; and as she moved, a big awkward bird tumbled head
foremost on the ground.

There was no denying it was ugly, even the mother was forced to admit
that to herself, though she only said it was 'large' and 'strong.' 'You
won't need any teaching when you are once in the water,' she told him,
with a glance of surprise at the dull brown which covered his back, and
at his long naked neck. And indeed he did not, though he was not half so
pretty to look at as the little yellow balls that followed her.

When they returned they found the old neighbour on the bank waiting
for them to take them into the duckyard. 'No, it is not a young turkey,
certainly,' whispered she in confidence to the mother, 'for though it is
lean and skinny, and has no colour to speak of, yet there is something
rather distinguished about it, and it holds its head up well.'

'It is very kind of you to say so,' answered the mother, who by this
time had some secret doubts of its loveliness. 'Of course, when you see
it by itself it is all right, though it is different, somehow, from the
others. But one cannot expect all one's children to be beautiful!'

By this time they had reached the centre of the yard, where a very old
duck was sitting, who was treated with great respect