One morning the old Water-rat put his head out of his hole. He had
bright beady eyes and stiff grey whiskers and his tail was like a long bit
of black india-rubber. The little ducks were swimming about in the pond,
looking just like a lot of yellow canaries, and their mother, who was pure
white with real red legs, was trying to teach them how to stand on their
heads in the water.
“You will never be in the best society unless you can stand on your
heads,” she kept saying to them; and every now and then she showed
them how it was done. But the little ducks paid no attention to her. They
were so young that they did not know what an advantage it is to be in
society at all.
