it was very pleasant out in the country . it was summer time , the corn was yellow , the oats green , the hay was stacked down in the green meadows , and there the stork walked about on his long red legs and talked egyptian . he had learnt the language from his mother . round the fields and meadows there were large woods and within them deep lakes : indeed , it was pleasant out in the country . full in the sunshine , an old manor house stood , surrounded by a deep moat , and from the base of the walls right down to the water great dock plants grew -- so tall that a little child could stand upright under the largest of them . it was as lonely in among them as in the thickest wood ; and there a duck was sitting on her nest . she had got to hatch out her little ducklings , but by this time she was well nigh tired out , they took so long about it , and she had very few callers . the other ducks preferred swimming about the moat to coming up and sitting under a dock - leaf to chat with her .
she had got to hatch out her little ducklings .
why was the mother duck tired ?
why was the mother duck tired ?