Noni's Secret Garden

Noni's Secret Garden Rescuing Donald On a warm, summer day, Mari, Jack, and Haley visited their grandmother, who they called Noni. She lived nearby on a lovely private pond. Surrounded by gardens and a nature preserve, it was their quiet and secret place. The children loved to watch the wildlife from Noni's deck. They often saw squirrels and bunnies, but they especially liked to watch the ducks swimming in the pond and dunking their little heads. They were so cute! The children had a favorite duck and named her Sophie. They always knew which duck was Sophie because she was the only duck who quacked all of the time. Sophie swam up and down the pond behind Noni's deck. "Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack," she sang over and over again. The children just laughed when they heard her because they knew she was happy. Mari, Jack, and Haley had been watching and waiting for months for the ducklings to arrive. But with so many storms, most of the nests were washed away. Sadly, they hadn't seen any baby ducklings in quite a while On this particular summer day, they still didn't see any ducklings or Sophie for that matter. Mari and Haley waited patiently but finally went into the house to play. Jack decided to wait outside a bit longer just hoping some of the ducklings would appear. About ten minutes later, Jack spotted Sophie with four ducklings! "Noni, Noni, the ducklings are here," he shouted. "The ducklings are here!" Everyone ran out onto the deck. Sure enough, Sophie was proudly leading her four little ducklings across the pond. She held her head high and happily quacked all of the way! Two other mother ducks followed closely behind as if to celebrate with them. Everyone screeched with joy, knowing the ducklings had finally arrived. The children laughed as they watched the ducklings dunking their little heads in the water, and only the little ducktails were seen before the ducklings scooted ahead and followed their mama closely. Suddenly, Sophie began to quack very quickly and very loudly. It was a different sound and one that the children had never heard before. But they knew something was terribly wrong and raced along the side of the pond to see what had happened. Sophie frantically quacked and flapped her wings. Her friends joined in as if they were calling for help for the three remaining ducklings! Noni told the children to stand still. She would go to the other side of the pond to see what had happened. Running to the place across from the children, Noni began frantically searching for the lost duckling. Moving through the bushes and grasses, she finally found the little duckling lying on its side. Panic soared through Noni. She looked around and saw a big bullfrog had caught the duckling in his mouth and was squeezing his leg. Noni quickly poked the bullfrog with her finger, but nothing happened. She poked the bullfrog again and the little ducking jumped out of the bullfrog’s mouth, waddling and peeping all the way to his mother. What a relief! Noni, Mari, Jack, and Haley clapped and screamed with joy as Sophie led her little family up and out of the pond. Noni and the children were so happy that the little duckling was okay! Every time the children returned for a visit with Noni, they ran to the deck to see if they could find Sophie or her babies. But it had been a couple of months, and they hadn't seen anything. Suddenly one morning, Noni looked out her window and saw a beautiful mallard duck standing on one of her tables, and he had only one leg! Noni knew it was the duckling they had rescued. It was as if the duckling had returned to thank everyone for saving his life. The children were delighted to see him and named him Donald. He even began to know his name. When the children called to him, he would fly in and always landed on the table that held his very own bowl of corn! Donald has returned almost daily, even throughout the winters, for more than five years!