Once upon a time, there was a little duck named Daisy, who was full of quackiness and fun. She had two close friends, Dilly and Polly, who loved playing hide-and-seek and having races. One sunny summer day, while waddling near the river, Daisy noticed that a beaver was building a dam.
“Oh Daisy, look!” quacked Dilly. “He’s building a dam with branches. It’s your chance to make a new friend.”
Daisy blinked her eyes. “I don’t have any friends across the river.”
“Why don’t you swim over?” asked Polly.
Daisy shook her head. “I can’t.”
“But why?” asked Dilly.
“It’s the current,” Daisy explained, pointing her bill toward the rushing water. “I might easily drift away.”
The breeze ruffled their feathers, and the other two little ducks looked thoughtfully at Daisy. “Miss Daisy,” said Dilly respectfully, “The only way to find out what the rush of the current is like is to cross it.”
Daisy thought little ducks were very brave. “Then I’ll try. Ready, Polly?”
“I’m ready,” replied Polly.
Daisy turned to her. “Together,” she said.
“Together,” echoed Polly.
Daisy and Polly waded to the very edge of the water. “Oh dear,” said Daisy, “it’s so wet!”
“I don’t like it,” said Polly.
“I’m going back,” said Daisy.
“No, no!” said Polly and Dilly together.
Then, with all her might, Daisy took a step forward, and in she went. “I’ll count fifty,” said Polly. “One,” she quacked, and then a little splash of her bill, and she was in the water too.
Dilly plunged in after them. “Oh, little ducks,” she quacked anxiously. “The current is strong. You are drifting, drifting, drifting farther from the bank.”
“I must swim back,” quacked Polly, frightened. But they could hear Daisy calling merrily from the other side: “Polly, you are almost across. Come.” And come she did, and, glad to be out of the water, waddled up to Daisy and quacked, “Oh ho! That’s what it is to be a little duck. I don’t feel a bit soapweed. Wasn’t it fun? Did you see the fish swimming to see what we little ducks were doing?”
“Come together, together, together,” quacked Daisy to Dilly from the other bank.
“Good-by, little misses,” said the beaver, throwing down his beech stick, and plunging into the water.
“Oh,” squealed Daisy, “Swim, Polly, swim!”
And down went the beaver under the surface. Then he came up, and half mounted on the bank, he shook the water off his back. “Quack, quack, quack,” he said; “I hope my tail will be in order again when I have had a chance to dry it. There, that’s better.” And he dipped it down into the water to float it out to its proper shape.
“Want to come,” quacked Dilly to the bank. “It’s hot over here.”
But Daisy was already dealing out kind invitations to the new beaver, who was only too glad to get dry and come over. And when the little ducks learned how much the beaver could tell about the river, they were glad they had made the attempt, and that Daisy had been brave, for—and the rain came down with a rush while they were talking—it was a fine thing to cross the river touching the water.
“Good-night, children,” said Dilly at last. “I must go home.”
“Good-night,” quacked the little ducks and the new beaver.
“Oh ho!” exclaimed Daisy, waking up with a start next morning; “I was so afraid that I had not come—it was all a dream.” Then she looked, and she was on one side of the river and her friends on the other.
“Oh ho!” she exclaimed again; “where’s Polly? She ought to be with me. I know it’s time for her to come.”
And come she did: wade, and splash, and wash, with tail in the air, and little peepy wash of the ducks and beaver alike.
So Polly the pretty duck came over so that the others, who could hardly wait to see her, quacked all at once: “Oh, Polly! Polly! we thought you wouldn’t come.”
“Come, what?” asked Polly.
“Why, the new beaver had a coat to fit him, a red heart on the shoulder of it, the sleeves of it were this long, it was just that shape,” quacked Dilly.
“And the beaver came over with you this morning, and will gladly lend it to you,” quacked Daisy.
“But I don’t want to lend it to anybody,” quacked Polly, quite startled out of her wits.
“Isn’t this all a dream?” continued Daisy.
The beaver answered, “Want to see!”
“Oh ho!” said they all. And each having taken a turn at a splash or two to wash off his green gown, they all went over across the river.
Then the beaver went to his closet, which was just a hollow log fifty feet long, waded in the water up and up till the whole front end was full. Then he gave a little cluck, and a door at the end opened, and a head and hands and feet came out, and when he had put on the coat with the red heart on it, all the little ducks laughed aloud, they were so glad.
But when the beaver heard quack quack quack, he only gave one nod with his head, saying, “Good-day to you.”
Then they quacked all over the meadow soft and low: “Oh ho! Ding dong!”
Then they quacked all over the meadow high and loud: “Dan doo! what’s that?”
And it was the cock and all the hens who had lived on the other side of the river, and they all forever lived happy ever after, and all crossed together.