Solomon Crow's Christmas Pockets and Other Tales

CHAPTER I

The black duck had a hard time of it from the beginning--that is, from the beginning of her life on the farm. She had been a free wild bird up to that time, swimming in the bay, playing hide-and-seek with her brothers and sisters and cousins among the marsh reeds along the bank, and coquettishly diving for "mummies" and catching them "on the swim" whene...