Sunday Clothes and Mud Puddles

“Those shirttails look disgraceful on you Henry! And Henrietta, that ribbon is crooked. Both of you
are enough to fill the wings of three duck mothers.” The ducklings to which she spoke hung their heads and
murmured “Sorry Mother.” Ms. Elizabeth, their mother answered this with a humph and a shake of her head.
Readdressing her children she said “Go along you too and don’t get into trouble, we are already 2 minuets late
to church; Pastor Gargle likes his congregation to be on time and I still have to get my feathers combed, get
dressed and iron your fathers suit!” The two ducklings scampered off, leaving their mother grumbling and
fussing to herself. “Come on Henrietta let’s go out-side and see if any of the neighbors are still here”.
However, their search revealed that all the neighbors had already left
for church. “If there are no other ducks to play with we must play with
ourselves,” quipped Henrietta. “Why don’t we climb the tree?” cried Henry? “No, I want to play in the puddle by the porch”, and with that Henrietta jumped in the mud puddle. Henry was aghast, “Henrietta,do you know what mom will do if we ruin our clothes!” Henrietta replied, “If she catches us we can just climb up in the tree you spoke of and she won’t be able to get us”. “Well, alright, if you’re sure she won’t be able to punish us” said Henry, and then he jumped in to join her. For about 10 minutes, the played in the mud and water until their nice clothes were ruined and covered with mud. Then, suddenly, a piercing shriek filled the air; both of the ducklings looked up and saw their mother with a feather drier on, and a hysterical look on her face. “Henry and Henrietta Crest! Shame on both of you, come in here right now where you will get what you deserve!” Instead of doing what their Mother told them they bolted up a tree, were they believed that they were safe. For a few minutes, their Mother tried to get up the tree
but to no avail. Then she went inside and called their father telling him all that had happened. Soon a red sedan drove up in the highway and parked next to the house, out
stepped the father of Henry and Henrietta, Mr. Thomson. He had a stern look on his face as he stepped into the house and out in the garden. Later that afternoon, if you went to the Crest family house and asked for Henry and Henrietta you would be told that they were unavailable. The truth was that Henry and Henrietta were in bed and had very sore tail sections. After that eventful Sunday, Henry and Henrietta were the best of ducklings and never got their Sunday suites dirty again. In fact, if you asked Pastor
Gargle about them he would say, “Those little Crest children are the most mannerly ducklings in the congregation.”
The End