18 APRIL 



large flat basket, to bring home my twelve fine fat 

 ducks. After a considerable time he returned, 

 weeping and stretching out his hands, in a great 

 state of indignation. 



"Whatever calamity can have happened?" I 

 asked. "What is the matter?" 



Between his sobs he said that he had, after 

 much trouble, got all the ducks into the basket, 

 covering them over with a cloth, and was half way 

 home with it on his head; when suddenly the 

 bottom broke through, the basket fell round his 

 neck, and the ducks flew off in every direction. 

 Into the hedges he had to crawl, on hands and 

 knees, to recapture them, but as soon as he had got 

 some back under the cloth, the others flew out 

 again ; he daren't come home for help, or another 

 basket, or they would all have been lost, and he 

 had to make the passers-by assist him; and he 

 wasn't hired to carry ducks, and he couldn't do it 

 again. He would only wash my honour's dishes 

 and light fires. 



"But," I said, in the midst of stifled laughter, 

 "have you brought all the ducks?" "Yes, your 

 highness," he said, "all of them." "Then," I 



