when the wibblewobble family came back to their house after a swim around the pond one bright sunny afternoon, and when the grass on the edges of the water was as green as it could be, mamma wibblewobble looked at her children, who were walking ahead of her. jimmie and lulu were throwing stones along the path, but alice, who was as ladylike a little duck as one could wish, would not throw pebbles even, to say nothing of stones.

"i declare," exclaimed mamma wibblewobble, "those girls will have to have new bonnets. i must see to it at once."

"very well," answered papa wibblewobble, "i will get them when i come home to-morrow. i met mrs. gooseyoosy this morning and she said they had a special sale of hats at the store by the barnyard gate."

"a man duck cannot get bonnets for alice and lulu," declared mrs. wibblewobble. "you would not know what to pick out! it is bad enough to have you get jimmie's hats and shoes, but you would never know how to buy bonnets for the girls."

"very well," answered papa wibblewobble, "then i will let you do the buying. i think a green colored bonnet would be nice for alice."

"green! with her complexion!" cried his wife. "never! it must be blue—blue for alice and a brown one for lulu. give me the money and i will start out shopping to-morrow."

so mamma wibblewobble started out the next day, taking alice and lulu with her, while jimmie stayed home and played cross-tag with bully, the frog, and nurse jane fuzzy-wuzzy, who had a day's vacation.

they had lots of fun, and once jimmie nearly fell down a great big—but there, i started to tell you about alice wibblewobble's bonnet, and i must not get off the track. that story about jimmie will do for another time.

well, you should have seen the numbers and numbers of duck-bonnets that mrs. wibblewobble looked at before she was satisfied with two for the girls. not that alice and lulu were hard to please. oh, my, no! but their mamma wanted them to look just right, and you know it is quite difficult to fit a bonnet on a duck and make it look like anything. the milliner said so herself, and she ought to know. but at last the two duck girls both had very fine bonnets indeed; as fine as mustard seeds, which are very, very fine. alice had a nice blue one, and lulu a brown one.

well, would you ever imagine it? something is going to happen to alice's bonnet, and very soon, too. just be patient and you shall hear.

"now children," said mrs. wibblewobble, when they had reached the pen where they lived, "you may go out and swim around a bit with your new bonnets on until your papa comes home. i want him to see how well they fit you, for i think i have very good taste when it comes to bonnets."

"oh, i don't want to wear my new one," spoke lulu. "i will put on my old one and go and play with jimmie and bully, the frog."

so she did, but alice, who was very fond of nice clothes, went for a swim on the pond. at first she paddled around, gazing down in the water, which was just like the looking-glass some men shave by, and she thought: "oh, what a lovely bonnet i have! how fine i shall look when i go for a walk on sunday!"

and just then—really i'm not exaggerating a bit—if it didn't begin to rain! now, of course, rain couldn't hurt alice any, for she was a duck and was used to the water, but she knew it would spoil her new bonnet. so she took it off and laid it under a big burdock plant leaf near the pond, to keep the flowers and ribbons dry.

"i wish it would stop raining," said alice, after a while. "i want to go home," but the big drops kept on falling, and she had to remain near her bonnet for fear something would happen to it.

then, in a little while, oh, maybe half an hour or so, all at once as quick as a wink, along came mooleyooly, the big brown cow. mooleyooly walked up to the burdock leaf, under which was the new bonnet, and mooleyooly saw the pretty yellow flowers on it, and she saw the blue flowers on it and she saw the red flowers on it. then mooleyooly said, as she licked her lips with her red tongue:

"what have we here? it looks very nice."

"it is nice," answered alice proudly, for she was glad to have some one, even a cow, admire her bonnet.

"it looks just like the green meadow where i live," went on mooleyooly, "with buttercups, and daisies, and ragged sailor flowers and some red poppies growing in it. oh, very fine, indeed. why, those flowers are real!" exclaimed the cow, looking carefully at the new bonnet under the big leaf.

"of course," cried alice, "certainly they are real."

"better and better!" went on mooleyooly. "most delightful, i am sure!" then, oh, how sorry i feel that i have to tell it—then, if that brown cow didn't start right in and eat up alice's new bonnet!

yes, sir, every single bit, down to a bunch of green grass that looked so pretty on it. she ate it all up at one mouthful, before alice could cry out "stop" or "halt" or "cease" or any words like that. well, of course, alice cried. wouldn't you, boys and girls—i mean, of course, you girls—have done the same? well, i guess so!

then, when the cow saw how sorry alice felt, mooleyooly felt badly, too, and she cried great big tears until you would have thought it was raining harder then ever. then, being a good cow, mooleyooly promised to get alice a new bonnet, which she did, made of the finest straw in the stable.

so alice had a hat for sunday after all, even if one was eaten up by mistake. well, pretty soon it stopped raining and alice went home with the bonnet the cow gave her, and mamma wibblewobble said it was even better than the one she had bought. now, wasn't that rather odd? i thought so, myself.

to-morrow night if you do not sneeze, i hope to have the pleasure of telling you how jimmie wibblewobble almost fell over the waterfall; but don't let that alarm you the least bit, for he was saved in a most wonderful way.