the duckling showing a slight increase in size, 

 but still maintaining its yellow fluffiness, its 

 capacity for friendship and its strange intelli- 

 gence. Then there came the sad and fatal 

 night which put an end to this little idyll. 

 The duckling, as I have said, slept in a basket, 

 and at night this was conveyed with its gentle 

 occupant to the bedroom of the two bigger 

 boys. Turn and turn about each of them had 

 the right to have the basket on the floor by his 

 bedside. On this particular night it was the 

 turn of the eldest boy. Before he turned in 

 it seemed to him that his little friend was 

 not so comfortable as usual in the basket. 

 He thought it might be cold, and told his 

 brother he would take it into his own bed for 

 warmth. 



% "All right," said the younger. "Bags I 

 for to-morrow night then." So it was ar- 

 ranged, and the duckling, nothing loth, was 

 transferred to the bed, crept close up to the 

 boy's body and went to sleep very happily. 

 $1 In the morning the younger boy woke first. 



34 



