Part 12
And with this last supreme effort of strength, the unfortunate sailor sank and was lost for ever.
The wooden shoes were now completely horrified at the awful sights it had been their lot to see.
“What an experience!” they said to themselves--“Oh, how much better to be ducks than shoes! Surely no happy duck in a pond ever witnessed such scenes! The life of a duck in a pond is so peaceful--so placid!”
“Oh, if they had never disobeyed their good, kind Mother-Duck,” they thought!--but, in spite of their recollections, they were compelled to go swimming on as they were, and so they got carried by a cross current out of the ocean down a great river, and out of the great river into a smaller one, and out of that into a lake,--a beautiful clear lake which they seemed to remember. As they floated along pleasant memories came into them, and they felt as if something strange was about to happen.
Suddenly they saw a beautiful duck with shining feathers coming towards them, and they nearly jumped out of the water in their excitement, for they moaned creakily to themselves,--
“We were ducks once! we were ducks once!”
“Yes,” said a soft voice near--“Poor little Nanette was alive once, but she disobeyed her mother, and now where is she?”
The shoes trembled in the water, and then said to themselves,--
“If we could be ducks again, we would never disobey our mother!”
Scarcely had they thought this than they felt a most curious change coming over them, and ere they had time to consider what it was, lo and behold!--they saw themselves mirrored in the water, two beautiful plump ducks, with rainbow-tinted plumes and sleek shining heads, swimming gracefully along!
“Quack! quack!” they said--“Now we know where we are! This is the same lake where we were born, and where we used to float,--and there is our dear home, over there by the shore! Let us find our mother, and we will never disobey her again!”
And neither they did. They were heartily welcomed home; and their strange adventures served to amuse the whole farm-yard for several months, though a cross old Turkey-cock was one day heard to gobble out,--
“I don’t believe they were ever shoes at all! When they disobeyed their mother, they lost themselves and got frightened;--then they hid away for a time, and came back with an absurd story they just invented to make themselves look important!”
But whoever pays attention to the gobblings of a Turkey-cock?
CHILDREN’S EVENING HYMN
IN our hearts celestial voices Softly say: “Day is passing, Night is closing, Kneel and Pray!”
Father, we obey the summons, Hear our cry! Pity us, and help our weakness, Thou Most High!
For the joys that most we cherish Praised be Thou! Good and gentle art Thou ever, Hear us now!
Coming morrow we may never Live to see; All we ask Thee is to keep us Safe with Thee!
May our dreams be of Thy Kingdom Bright and fair; Where at last we hope to meet Thee, Free from care.
Now the stars are shining o’er us In the skies; Looking like the watching Angels’ Loving eyes.
Softly now and slowly dying Ends our strain,-- Grant that we may in Thy Kingdom Sing again.
There, when all our strife is over, Sin forgiven, May we dwell with Thee for ever Up in Heaven!
FOOTNOTES:
[1] “Effects of the Factory System.”--Allen Clarke.
[2] John xii. 49.
[3] By permission of Messrs. LANDY & CO., Publishers, 139 Oxford Street, London, who own the musical copyright.