On their way home, after having seen the mud turtle fairy prince, Jimmie, Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble, of course, talked of nothing else. They wished the prince had done something wonderful, instead of merely sending them away when he ate his dinner, and they hoped he would perform a magical another time. He really did, as I shall tell you about later, if I do not forget it. The gold fish swam a little way back with the duck children, as she said the prince always liked to be alone when he ate.  
"Well, how did you like him?" asked Fan Tail of the ducks.
 
"Not very much," replied Lulu. "I never did care for mud turtles."
 
"Nor I," added Jimmie.
 
"I don't believe he was really a mud turtle at all," declared Alice. "He was a real, truly, fairy prince, and he only looked like a mud turtle, because we did not have the right kind of eyes with which to see him or else because we had no faith in him. It is always so, in fairy stories. You must believe, or you can't see the beautiful things."
 
"Well, I'd rather have some to eat," said Jimmie. "You don't care how they look; it's how they taste. I'm never going to bother with fairies again."
 
It was about three days after this that Jimmie and Lulu were walking in the deep, green woods, under the trees, picking tender leaves and roots to eat. They were hoping they might meet Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels whom they had not seen for some time. Alice stayed home to curl her feathers.
 
All at once, as they were walking along, the little boy and girl duck heard a funny noise.
 
"What's that?" cried Jimmie.
 
"I don't know," answered Lulu. "It sounds like some one calling."
 
And, sure enough, it was. As they stopped to listen they could hear some one crying: "Help! Help! Oh, help!"
 
"Let's go and see who it is," suggested Jimmie.
 
"Maybe it's a dog, or a bad rat, or a fox," objected Lulu.
 
"No," said her brother, "they would never call for help. Come on."
 
So they walked on, looking this way and that, to see what they could see; on and on through the woods, until, just as they came from behind a big oak tree, what should they catch sight of, but poor, Grandfather Goosey-Gander, caught fast in the middle of a pile of brush.
 
"Oh dear me! Oh my goodness me sakes alive! Oh, ! floppy! floppy! Oh, a bag of salt and some corn meal!" cried the poor old gentleman duck. "I am in a terrible state! Help me!"
 
Then Lulu and Jimmie ran right up to him, and asked him what was the matter.
 
"Oh dear," he said, "I really can't say. I've lost my glasses, and I can't see very well. All I know is that I was walking in the woods, thinking what a nice day it was, when, all of a sudden, in about a and a half, I found myself caught fast. And the worst part of it is that I can't get loose!"
 
"Let me take a look," said Jimmie.
 
So he went quite close and looked, and he saw that Grandfather Goosey-Gander's right leg was held in between two sticks. The old gentleman duck was in great pain.
 
"Is my leg broken?" he asked Jimmie.
 
"No," answered the little boy duck, "but some of the skin is scra............