Then he said to his wife,
"What does a drake look like, my love?"
"Why," she replied, "it 's much like a duck, only it has a curl on its
tail and red on its wing."
"All right," he answered, "I 'll bring you home a drake in a short
time, and to-day we shall have something better for dinner than pork
and beans."
When he got to the brook there was nothing in sight, so he sat down on
the bank to watch, and again fell fast asleep.
Now Johnny Sprigg had missed his little duck, and knew some one had
shot it; so he thought this morning he would go the brook and watch
for the man who had killed the duck, and make him pay a good price for
it. Johnny was a big man, whose head was very bald; therefore he wore
a red curly wig to cover his baldness and make him look younger.
When he got to the brook he saw no one about, and so he hid in a clump
of bushes. After a time the little man woke up, and in looking around
for the drake he saw Johnny's red wig sticking out of the top of the
bushes.
"That is surely the drake," he thought, "for I can see a curl and
something red;" and the next minute "bang!" went the gun, and Johnny
Sprigg gave a great yell and jumped out of the bushes. As for his
beautiful wig, it was shot right off his head, and fell into the water
of the brook a good ten yards away!
"What are you trying to do?" he cried, shaking his fist at the little
man.
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