One morning the old Water-rat put his head out of his hole. He had
bright beady eyes and stiff grey whiskers, and his tail was like a long bit of
black india-rubber. The little ducks were swimming about in the pond, looking
just like a lot of yellow canaries, and their mother, who was pure white with
real red legs, was trying to teach them how to stand on their heads in the
water.
'You will never be in the best society
unless you can stand on your heads,' she kept saying to them; and every now and
then she showed them how it was done. But the little ducks paid no attention to
her. They were so young that they did not know what an advantage it is to be in
society at all.
'What disobedient children!' cried the
old Water-rat; 'they really deserve to be drowned.'
'Nothing of the kind,' answered the Duck,
'every one must make a beginning, and parents cannot be too patient.'
'Ah! I know nothing about the feelings of
parents,' said the Water-rat; 'I am not a family man. In fact, I have never
been married, and I never intend to be. Love is all very well in its way, but
friendship is much higher. Indeed, I know of nothing in the world that is
either nobler or rarer than a devoted friendship.'
'And what, pray, is your idea of the
duties of a devoted friend?' asked a Green Linnet, who was sitting in a
willow-tree hard by, and had overheard the conversation.
'Yes, that is just what I want to know,'
said the Duck, and she swam away to the end of the pond, and stood upon her
head, in order to give her children a good example.
'What a silly question!' cried the
Water-rat. 'I should expect my devoted friend to be devoted to me, of course.'
'And what would you do in return?' said
the little bird, swinging upon a silver spray, and flapping his tiny wings.
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