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Speaker 1: Hello, friends, and welcome to sleep Tight Stories. I'd like

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Speaker 1: to say hello to Matilda and hello to Alice's brother

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Speaker 1: Jimmy from Australia. I'd like to say a happy belated

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Speaker 1: birthday to Hudson who turned six on July second. Happy

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Speaker 1: birthday to Alice from Australia who is turning eight on

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Speaker 1: July eleventh. Happy birthday to Isabella whose birthday is July eleventh,

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Speaker 1: Happy birthday to Kinley, who is turning two on July twelfth,

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Speaker 1: Happy birthday to Carter Boswell who is turning seven on

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Speaker 1: July thirteenth, And happy birthday to Tully from Minneapolis who

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Speaker 1: is turning seven on July sixteenth. Happy birthday to you all.

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Speaker 1: I hope you have a wonderful day. Shout outs and

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Speaker 1: birthday wishes are one way we give thanks to our supporters.

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Speaker 1: support page at sleep tightstories dot org slash support. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: This is another Peter Rabbit story. In this story, Peter

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Speaker 1: is waiting for his friends Mister and missus Quack to

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Speaker 1: visit for a few days on their long journey. When

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Speaker 1: he sees them arrive, he's excited to hear their new stories.

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Speaker 1: Peter asks mister Quack about his webbed feet and gets

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Speaker 1: ready to hear a story all about them where mister

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Speaker 1: Quack got his webbed feet. Twice every year, in the

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Speaker 1: early spring and in the late fall, Peter Rabbit watches

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Speaker 1: the Smiling Pool with a great deal of eagerness. Can

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Speaker 1: you guess why? It is? Because two very good friends

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Speaker 1: of Peter's are in the habit of stopping there for

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Speaker 1: a few days for rest and refreshment before continuing the

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Speaker 1: long journey which they are obliged to make. They are

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Speaker 1: mister and missus Quack, the Mallard Ducks. Peter is very

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Speaker 1: fond of them, and when the time for their arrival

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Speaker 1: draws near, Peter watches for them with a great deal

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Speaker 1: of anxiety. You see, they have told him something of

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Speaker 1: the terrible dangers which they all always encounter on these

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Speaker 1: long journeys, and so Peter is always afraid that something

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Speaker 1: may have happened to them, and it is a great

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Speaker 1: relief when he finds them swimming about in the Smiling Pool.

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Speaker 1: One reason Peter is so fond of mister and missus

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Speaker 1: Quack is because they always have a story for him.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it is a story of adventure, a tale of

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Speaker 1: terrible danger and narrow escapes. Sometimes it is about their

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Speaker 1: home in the far Northland, and again it is about

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Speaker 1: the wonderful Southland where they spend the winter. But the

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Speaker 1: story that Peter likes best is the one about where

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Speaker 1: and how the Quack family got their funny webbed feet.

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Speaker 1: Mister Quack doesn't think those feet funny at all, but

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Speaker 1: Peter does. He never grows tired of watching mister and

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Speaker 1: missus Quack use them, because you know, they are used

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Speaker 1: so differently from other feet, And always he goes back

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Speaker 1: to the dear old briar patch with renewed admiration for

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Speaker 1: the wisdom of old mother nature. Peter noticed those feet

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Speaker 1: the first time he met mister and missus Quack. He

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Speaker 1: couldn't help but notice them. It happened that mister and

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Speaker 1: missus Quack were out on the bank of the Smiling

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Speaker 1: Pool as Peter came hurrying over in his usual way

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Speaker 1: hippity hippity hop They heard him coming, and not knowing

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Speaker 1: at first who it was, they at once started for

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Speaker 1: the water. Peter never will forget the funny way in

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Speaker 1: which they waddled. He never had seen anybody quite so awkward.

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Speaker 1: But when they reached the water, he forgot to laugh.

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Speaker 1: He simply stared open mouthed in astonishment. You see, there

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Speaker 1: they were as graceful as they had been awkward on land. Afterward,

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Speaker 1: when Peter had become acquainted with them, and they were

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Speaker 1: the best of friends, he ventured to speak of their

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Speaker 1: unusual feet. Do you know, he said, you have the

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Speaker 1: most interesting feet of anybody I know of. They are

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Speaker 1: so broad that the first time I saw them, I

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Speaker 1: couldn't believe my own eyes. I didn't suppose anybody had

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Speaker 1: such broad feet. I suppose there is some special reason

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Speaker 1: why they are so broad, and why your legs are

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Speaker 1: so short. Do you know how mother nature happened to

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Speaker 1: give you feet so different from the feet of other birds?

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Speaker 1: Mister quack, Mister quack chuckled. I tell you what it is, Peter,

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Speaker 1: he said, If you'll tell me why it is you

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Speaker 1: have such long hind legs and such a funny short tail,

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you why it is that missus quack and

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Speaker 1: I have such broad feet. Though I must confess that

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Speaker 1: I don't see anything odd about them. Peter agreed at once.

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Speaker 1: He told mister and missus Quack all about what had

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Speaker 1: happened to his grandfather a thousand times removed the very

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Speaker 1: first rabbit, way back when the world was young, And however,

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Speaker 1: since then, all rabbits have had long hind legs and

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Speaker 1: short tails. When he had finished, mister Quack thoughtfully scratched

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Speaker 1: his handsome green head, looked at his reflection in the

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Speaker 1: smiling pool to make sure that he was looking his

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Speaker 1: very best behind, to see that the feathers in the

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Speaker 1: tip of his tail had the proper curl, and then

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Speaker 1: gazed off over the green meadows with a far away

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Speaker 1: look in his eyes, as if he were looking way

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Speaker 1: back to the time he was to tell about. At last,

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Speaker 1: just as Peter Rabbit was beginning to lose patience, mister

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Speaker 1: Quack began. It must be Peter. He said that my

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Speaker 1: great great ever so great grandfather lived just about the

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Speaker 1: time as your great great ever so great grandfather, way

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Speaker 1: back in the days when the world was young. Perhaps

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Speaker 1: they knew each other, perhaps they were acquainted just as

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Speaker 1: you and I are now. Anyway, according to what has

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Speaker 1: been handed down in the family, grandfather Quack was very

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Speaker 1: much such a looking fellow as I am now, except

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Speaker 1: in the matter of his bill and feet. His bill

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Speaker 1: was not broad like mine, but more like the bills

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Speaker 1: of other birds, and his feet were like the feet

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Speaker 1: of mister Grouse and Bob White. They were made for scratching,

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Speaker 1: and there was nothing between the toes. You see, Old

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Speaker 1: Mother Nature was experimenting. She made everybody a little different

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Speaker 1: from everybody else, and then started them forth into the

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Speaker 1: great world to shift for themselves and to find out

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Speaker 1: what they really needed that they hadn't got. Old mister Quack,

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Speaker 1: my great great ever so great grandfather, soon discovered one thing,

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Speaker 1: and that was that his legs were too short for

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Speaker 1: him to get around very fast. When he walked or ran,

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Speaker 1: everybody laughed at him. He didn't mind this so very much,

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Speaker 1: though he did a little. But what he did mind

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Speaker 1: was the fact that his neighbors could run about so

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Speaker 1: much faster than him that they got all the best

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Speaker 1: of the food, and quite often he went hungry. One day,

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Speaker 1: he happened to be sitting on the bank of the

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Speaker 1: Smiling Pool, thinking the matter over and wondering what he

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Speaker 1: could best do, when mister Fox snuck up behind him

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Speaker 1: and startled him so that he lost his balance and

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Speaker 1: tumbled down the bank into the water. This frightened him

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Speaker 1: more than ever, and he flapped about and squawked and

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Speaker 1: squawked and flapped until mister Fox nearly split his sides

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Speaker 1: laughing at him. And when he was quite out of breath,

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Speaker 1: mister Quack discovered that he was making all this fuss

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Speaker 1: for nothing. He didn't sink, but floated on the water,

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Speaker 1: And what was more, the water didn't get under his

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Speaker 1: feathers at all. When he tried to walk, of course,

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Speaker 1: he couldn't, and he had a funny feeling because his

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Speaker 1: feet didn't touch anything and felt so very useless. But

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Speaker 1: he kept moving them back and forth, and pretty soon

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Speaker 1: he discovered that he moved ahead. Of course, he moved

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Speaker 1: very slowly because his feet were not made for use

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Speaker 1: in this water, but he moved, and that was enough.

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Speaker 1: He knew then that he could get back to land.

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Speaker 1: Then he tried his wings, and he found that he

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Speaker 1: could rise into the air from the water quite as

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Speaker 1: easily as from the land. Right then and there, all

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Speaker 1: fear of the water left him. In fact, he liked

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Speaker 1: it little by Little Grandfather Quack began to understand that

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Speaker 1: he had made a great discovery. He had discovered the

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Speaker 1: safest place in all the great world for him. Out

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Speaker 1: on the water, he was safe from mister Fox and

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Speaker 1: mister Wolf. So he took to spending most of his

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Speaker 1: time on the water or near it. When he wanted

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Speaker 1: a nap, he would hide among the rushes that grew

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Speaker 1: in the water. If only I didn't have to leave

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Speaker 1: the water for food, sighed grandfather Quack. If only I

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Speaker 1: could find food here, I would never leave the water.

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Speaker 1: At the time, he was squatting at the very edge

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Speaker 1: of the Smiling Pool. Presently he noticed a funny water

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Speaker 1: bug crawling on the bottom, where the water was only

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Speaker 1: an inch or too deep. I wonder if that fellow

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Speaker 1: is good to eat, he thought, and almost without thinking,

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Speaker 1: he plunged his head underwater and caught the bug. It

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Speaker 1: was good. Grandfather Quack at once started to look for more,

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Speaker 1: and while doing this he discovered that there were a

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Speaker 1: great many seeds from the rushes scattered about in the

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Speaker 1: mud at the bottom of the Smiling Pool, and that

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Speaker 1: these also were good to eat. Then, quite by accident,

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Speaker 1: he got hold of a tender root in the mud

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Speaker 1: and found that this was especially good. This was enough

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Speaker 1: for Grandfather Quack. He had found that he could get

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Speaker 1: plenty to eat without leaving the Smiling Pool. Moreover, he

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Speaker 1: didn't have to share it with anybody, because there was

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Speaker 1: no one else who thought of looking for food there.

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Speaker 1: He knew when he was well off. So Grandfather Quack

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Speaker 1: grew fat and was happy. The only things that bothered

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Speaker 1: him were the slowness with which he had to pick

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Speaker 1: up seats one at a time, and the slowness with

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Speaker 1: which he could paddle about, for he couldn't really call

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Speaker 1: it swimming. But in spite of these things he was

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Speaker 1: happy and made the best of his lot. One day,

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Speaker 1: he tugged and tugged at a root with his head underwater.

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Speaker 1: When at last he had to bring his head up

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Speaker 1: for a breath. Who should he discover but Old Mother

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Speaker 1: Nature watching him from the opposite bank. Come over here,

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Speaker 1: mister quack, and tell me all about it, she said.

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Speaker 1: Grandfather Quack started across the Smiling Pool, but because his

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Speaker 1: feet were not made for swimming, it took him a

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Speaker 1: long time to get there. Old Mother Nature smiled as

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Speaker 1: she watched him. You look better on the water than

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Speaker 1: you do on land, she said, In fact, I believe

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Speaker 1: that is just where you belong. Now tell me how

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Speaker 1: you happen to take to the water. Grandfather Quack told

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Speaker 1: her the whole story, and how Old Mother Nature did

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Speaker 1: laugh when he described how frightened he was when he

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Speaker 1: fell in that first time. Suddenly she reached out and

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Speaker 1: caught him by the bill. I don't think much of

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Speaker 1: that bill for poking about in the mud, she said,

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Speaker 1: How will this do? She let go, and Grandfather Quack

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Speaker 1: found he had a broad bill, just suited for getting

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Speaker 1: food out of the mud. Then Old Mother Nature instructed

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Speaker 1: him to hold forward, first one foot and then the

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Speaker 1: other between the toes. She stretched a tuff sp clear

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Speaker 1: to the toenails. Now let me see you swim, she said.

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Speaker 1: Grandfather Quack tried. He kicked one foot and then the other,

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Speaker 1: and to his great joy, he shot along swiftly. When

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Speaker 1: he drew his feet back for another kick, his toes

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Speaker 1: closed together, and so his feet came through the water easily.

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Speaker 1: But when he kicked back, they were widespread, and the

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Speaker 1: skin between them pushed against the water and drove him ahead.

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Speaker 1: It was wonderful, it was splendid. He hurried over to

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Speaker 1: Old Mother Nature, and with tears of joy in his eyes,

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Speaker 1: he thanked her. And from that day to this members

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Speaker 1: of my family have had the same broad bills and

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Speaker 1: webbed feet, and have lived on the water, concluded mister Quack,

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Speaker 1: and that is the end of our story. Good night,

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Speaker 1: sleep tight,