THE DUCK'S MIRACLE

When Bert was a young duck he ventured from the pond out to the road. He found a lovely little puddle in the road lying next to the curbside, and made himself at home with a splash. 'Quack, quack quack!' he said with delight. He was lazing around in the puddle enjoying himself and forgot to keep his eye on the road for oncoming traffic. Suddenly a large red bus came hurtling down the street laden with passengers. He saw it approaching at the last minute, and was just in time to jump to the pavement before its big tyres squashed him. Then it splattered him with the water in the puddle as it raced by. He had gotten such a fright, that he was at a loss for words. He soon found that he had lost his quack entirely and could not utter a sound. Back at the pond he wandered about silence as the big bus had frightened his quack clean away. Never would he utter another sound because of the shock he had gotten from nearly being run over in the road. And so he went about for all of his life being unable to give a single quack anymore. As he grew older one of the ducks would say, 'What's wrong with Bert. He seems awfully quiet. He never says a word!' 'He lost his quack when he was young when he nearly got run over by bus.' someone would reply. Poor Bert, a prisoner of his own silence, forever it seemed. Then one day as all the ducks were swimming in the stream close to the pond, he swam close to the reeds and the shore, feeling sorry for himself as usual, when he spotted the cap of a hunter and caught a glint of sunlight from his riflebarrel aiming at his unsuspecting friends. He got such a fright that he flew up from the water going 'Quack! Quack! Quack!' as he flew up into the sky, and in so doing warning all the other ducks to flee the danger. They too took to flight with many a panicking 'Quack!' in the air, and this threw the hunter off of his aim completely. His shot went off wildly and he never hit a single on of them. 'Thank goodness Bert got his quack back just in time!' said one of them as they flew off into the sunset. 'That's for sure!' replied the rest. And Bert went flying happily all of his days going 'Quack, quack, quack!'