How the Wood Duck Got His Red Eyes and Sojy Had His Coat Spoiled
YO HO, NEPHEW! DUCKS, DUCKS, ALL KINDS of ducks!
Long ago, before there were any human people in the world, it was full of ducks—all kinds of ducks, but they were all one color.
There was one creature who looked like a man, but wasn’t a man. He had a good red coat which had a long fluffy tail like a gray squirrel, but he wasn’t a gray squirrel. Oh, no, he was much bigger and had pointed ears and a long narrow nose.
Can you guess who he was? Well, anyway, he was known as Mischief Maker, but wise old folk in their language called him S’hojiosko. We’ll call him Sojy for short.
Well, Sojy was taking a walk one day. It was a fine morning. The first thing he knew, he came to a small pool of water where an old man was painting leaves. Oh, he was putting pretty colors on the leaves!
Sojy stopped short and looked at him. He had an idea to have some fun.
“Hi, old man,” he called. “It’s a fine morning!”
“I knew that before,” called out the old man.
“What sort of a thing are you doing there?” asked Sojy, a bit peeved.
“Oh, just minding my own business!” answered the old man.
“Well, you are not, old mud puppy,” snapped Sojy.
“Well, it certainly isn’t your business,” replied the old man.
“Oh ho, somebody thinks he is wise,” said Sojy. “You think you can paint leaves, but you can’t. I see one you can’t paint.”
“Ho, ho, ho!” laughed the old man. “I have been painting leaves ever since the world began. Don’t you know who I am? I’m Autumn.”
This made Sojy think hard. He was very foxy and could get up sly schemes. After awhile he said, “I see a leaf way down in that water. Look in and see if you can paint it.”
So saying, Sojy held out a twig with one leaf and let it reflect in the water.
Autumn looked in and saw the leaf. With a dash of his brush he hit at the leaf, but he could not touch it. The water only washed away his colors. This made Sojy, the mischief maker, laugh long and loud.
“Well, good-bye, Old Man Autumn,” he called out. “When you can paint that leaf, I will let you wipe your brushes on me. I’ll come around tomorrow to see if you are minding your own business.”
Old Man Autumn was stumped. Ho ho, he was stumped!
Sojy went walking along and came to the shore of a big lake where there were many cattail reeds. He heard a great fuss there and, creeping near, saw a big flock of ducks. He was hungry and was fond of ducks. What good fortune!
“I’m terribly hungry,” said he to himself, “but I can’t swim out after ducks. What will I do? Ho ho, I have it!”
So saying, he ran up on the shore and sat on a little mound.
“Good morning, everybody!” he called out. “Say, it’s a fine morning for folk like you.” The ducks all looked up in surprise, for they knew that Sojy had an appetite for them. They were not going to be fooled, however. No, no, no-not those ducks.
“Quack, quack, honk, honk!” they laughed.
“I was just going to say that you were quite hoarse for such a nice morning,” said Sojy. “You ought to improve your voices. What a rough noise you make when you talk. All kinds of birds can sing, but all you sing is ‘quack, quack, honk, honk.’ Now, I have a magic song. Just listen to me.”
Sojy opened his wide mouth, rolled his eyes, and sang:
Fair is my voice, how I can sing, can sing!
I learned it all by just dancing, dancing!
Who dances now, no matter who, who-oo, who-oo!
Oh, he can sing, and warble too, too-oo, too-oo!
The ducks looked up and one said, “Honk, honk! This fellow seems fair enough and wants to teach us how to sing. Come on, let us find out how it is done, we’re safe enough.”
“What shall we do?” called out Mallard.
“Oh, just come ashore awhile and build a house of cattails I can’t get through. Then while it is dark inside, try to sing and dance. Outside I will sing, too, and when I have finished, you will have as sweet voices as ever came out of the sky.”
“Anything else?” asked Wood Duck, very suspiciously.
“Well, only just this,” answered Sojy. “When magic is being done you must keep your eyes shut tight-just as tight as the bark on a tree. Don’t you dare open them or you will lose your voices and your eyes will turn as red as blood. Don’t open your eyes!” “Thought so,” answered Wood Duck. “I guess we will swim out in the lake a bit further. Yes, yes.”
“No, no,” quacked the other ducks. “We are all going to dance and gain fine, sweet voices.”
So the chief duck ordered them ashore and they built a round, bowl-like house of cattail reeds and then all went inside.
“Quack hard and dance hard,” called out Sojy. “I will sing the magic song, but you must not hear a word or a sound of it. If you do, you will all turn to stones. Just keep dancing and make all the noise you can. After awhile you will get sweet little voices, just sweet enough for the world in the sky where strawberries grow the year around. Ho ho!”
So the ducks began a wild dance, honking like forty geese fighting over a bowl of mush. How they did quack and honk!
Pretty soon Sojy stuck his long furry arm in the peek hole by the door and grabbed a fat duck by the neck. It could not quack anymore, so tightly did Sojy hold on. He drew it forth and wrung its neck. Again and again he thrust his arm into the house and drew forth a duck. Soon he had a big pile of ducks. The honking inside quite naturally grew less and less.
Now Wood Duck was inside, but he wasn’t very sure that all was well. So when he felt something slide by him, he opened his eyes and saw Sojy’s arm grabbing Bufflehead.
“He’s killing us, he’s killing us!” quacked out Wood Duck.
At that, the ducks all began to flutter and tried to open their eyes, but they couldn’t, so tightly had they kept them shut.
Only Wood Duck had his eyes open. Ho, ho, ’tis a good thing to keep your eyes open even when you sleep, nephew-you listening?
Up the ducks flew right against the top of their house, and up they flew until they lifted the house clear of the ground and into the sky.
All the while, Wood Duck kept calling, “It’s enough, it’s enough!”
After awhile the ducks heard him, and down they came, house and all. Ho ho! Down came the house, and down it came until it was right over the pond of Old Man Autumn. The house fitted right over the old man, pond and all. And there they all were in the dark, ho ho!
Pretty soon Old Man Autumn said, “Whew, it got dark all of a sudden. I wonder why all those ducks are here.”
The ducks on being spoken to were able to reply.
Wood Duck told the story and said that except for him, all the others were blind.
“Too bad,” answered Old Man Autumn.
continued next week...
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