The Duck Who Couldn't Quack

On the edge of a grassy and peaceful riverbank lived a fairly large family of ducks. There were Mummy Duck, Daddy Duck and twelve ducklings. Now eleven of the ducklings were very noisy indeed! All day long, all you would hear was “Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack. Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack!” But one of the little ducklings, whose name was Denzil, was a very quiet duckling. Poor little Denzil – unlike his brothers and sisters, he just couldn’t quack!

So one day Mummy Duck took Denzil to see Doctor Duck. “Good morning, Denzil,” said Doctor Duck. “Can you open your beak really wide? And I shall have a little look.” Doctor Duck peered inside Denzil’s open beak and shined his torch all around. “Well Denzil, I cannot see anything to worry about. You will quack when the time is right.”

“Thank you for you help, Doctor,” said Mummy Duck. “Goodbye.”

Mummy Duck and Denzil slowly waddled back to the river bank. When they arrived, all of Denzil’s brothers and sisters were playing out on the water. They saw Denzil and Mummy Duck and quickly swooooooshed over to find out the news.

“Good news! Everyone, Doctor Duck said that Denzil will quack when the time is right,” said Mummy Duck.

“Hoorah!” said Daddy Duck and all the ducklings together.

A few days later Denzil was out on the water playing hide and seek with his brothers and sisters. Denzil swam over to a large clump of reeds that were growing on the water’s edge. He shivered in excitement as he listened to his sister counting “eight, nine, ten, coming, ready or not!” Suddenly a large red hairy paw swiped at him. “QUACK!” screamed Denzil as he looked straight into the face of a hungry fox. Denzil quickly swooshed away from the reeds. Mummy Duck heard his “quack” and rushed over to rescue him.

“Denzil, what happened?” said Mummy Duck.

“A fox nearly ate me, Mummy!” said a very frightened Denzil.

“Don’t worry, darling, the fox has gone now. But you must be very careful to keep away from that part of the river bank,” Mummy Duck said.

Then suddenly they realised what had happened! “You quacked, Denzil!” said Mummy Duck.

“Yes, I quacked!” said a very happy Denzil, and just to make sure he opened his beak really wide and (you might want to put your hands over your ears!) do you know what he said? “QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK! QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK, QUACK! I can do it! I really can,” laughed Denzil as he floated off to show his brothers and sisters his amazing QUACK!