Lulu and the Duck in the Park Read Online Free Page A

think that can be true,” said Mellie. “I don’t see how anything could make a sound in an egg!”
    “Just in case,” said Lulu, worrying, “I should quack to this egg. So it doesn’t get lonely.”
    “Should I quack too?” asked Mellie. “Would it help?”
    Lulu said she thought that would help a lot, and it did. She felt much less silly quacking with a friend than quacking alone.

    After lunch came music. That was difficult. Class Three was practicing a song for the Easter play, with singers and recorders. Mellie’s recorder had been lost months before, but Lulu still had hers. There was no possible excuse that could save her from having to stand in front of the class with the rest of the recorder group and play her recorder.
    “I’ll take care of the egg,” said Mellie bravely, and she did. For the next half hour she cradled the hat nest in her hands under the table, hardly daring to breathe. Music passed safely.
    The day that had begun in such a fuss of water and dogs and quacking and tears became more and more peaceful. Mrs. Holiday handed out doodling paper and picked up a new storybook.
    “Harry Potter,” she read, “and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”
    She had been promising to begin it for weeks.
    CRACK!
    Even through two hats and her sweater, Lulu felt that crack.

Chapter Four
Life with a Duck
    Lulu looked across at Mellie to see if she had noticed anything. Mellie was in a Mellie-dream, tilting her chair backward, listening to the story while she drew owls and ducks and lightning-shaped scars.
    Maybe I imagined it, thought Lulu, and she began very carefully to move her hand under her sweater, over the rim of the hat nest, down toward the egg.
    Something?
    Nothing?
    Lulu jumped with shock.

    No more smooth egg. Fragments of shell. No more warm stillness. A fluttering struggle for freedom. No more quiet.
    A thin, high voice.
    “Weep!” wheezed the front of Lulu’s sweater. “Weep!”
    “Is someone trying to be funny?” demanded Mrs. Holiday, looking up from her book.
    Luckily for Lulu, several people were goofing off. Charlie and Henry were thumb wrestling. Someone else was having a tug of war with the guinea pig over a spelling list. Mellie fell off her chair.
    Mrs. Holiday snapped Harry Potter shut. “Oh, Mrs. Holiday!” groaned Class Three. “If you would like me to read any more,” said Mrs. Holiday, glaring, “you will become instantly quiet and sensible. If you would not like me to read any more, then we will spend the time on mental math!”
    Class Three became instantly quiet and sensible. Mrs. Holiday began reading once more. Lulu wrote IT’S HATCHING on her doodling paper, nudged Mellie, and pointed.
    Mellie stared.
    NOW? she wrote.
    Lulu nodded.
    DID YOU BUMP IT?
    “No,” whispered Lulu.
    ON ITS OWN?
    “Yes.”
    “I didn’t know they did that,” whispered Mellie. “Not on their own! From the inside. I thought the mother duck helped them break their way out.”
    “Mellie!” exclaimed Mrs. Holiday. “Collect your things together and come and sit by me!”
    Mellie did. But not before she had scrawled on her doodling paper: WONTITSUFFKET and pushed the paper toward Lulu.
    Wontitsuffket, read Lulu, puzzled. Wontitsuffket? What is wontitsuffket?
    She looked at Mellie. Mellie looked desperately back.
    Won, read Lulu again. Or Wont? Wont it? Wont it suffket.
    OH!
    Won’t it suffocate?
    “Please, Mrs. Holiday,” begged Lulu, “may I leave the room? Now? Quick?”
    Mrs. Holiday nodded, and then noticed Lulu’s hands holding the front of her sweater and said, “Yes, you may. Now! Quickly! Mellie, go with her. Come back for me if Lulu is not well.”
    “Hurry!” added Mrs. Holiday urgently, because if there was one thing she could not bear, it was people being ill in her classroom.
    Lulu and Mellie hurried. They raced along the corridor, burst into the empty bathroom, thankfully shut the door, and leaned on it.
    “Get it out! Get it out!” begged Mellie.
    Lulu was already