Crack! Pippalina popped out of the shell and tumbled into the straw.
The other ducklings hurried to the pond. Pippalina hurried after them as fast as possible.
Slap, splish, slap, splish. They paddled neatly away. Pippalina wobbled, stretched in a different way, and stopped. "Oh," whispered Pippalina.
A narrow path opened between the reeds. Pippalina slipped into the green shhh-shhh.
First, Pippalina tried to paddle like the ducklings. But the water pushed and tugged in a different rhythm.
Then Pippalina hopped onto a lily pad. Boing! A frog splashed away, and the pad tipped.
Next, Pippalina tucked in among the big green leaves. Still, Pippalina felt more alone.
So Pippalina kept going, toward the wider water ahead.
At the meadow stream, the water ran faster. A swirl spun Pippalina in one quick, silly circle.
Whoosh! Off went Pippalina like a leaf boat, half startled and half thrilled.
Then the big lake opened wide, bright as silver beyond the grass.
Pippalina glided out. Then Pippalina froze. Across the lake, a graceful family swept by.
Their feet moved just like Pippalina's. The lake whispered hush-hush around the stems.
"Come along," called one. Pippalina paddled closer, listening to the answer in the ripples.
Pippalina turned with the graceful family and skimmed across the big lake in a shining line.
The reeds rustled at the meadow's edge. The pond looked small behind them. Pippalina lifted the beak and glided on, exactly where Pippalina fit.
