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'One of them is lying in my bed!' yelled William, looking into a top window.
'And one of them is playing with my electric train!' cried Philip.
'Oh, dear! Oh, dear!' said Mrs Gregg. 'They have taken over our whole house! We shall never get it back. And what are we going to eat?'
'I will not eat worms,' said Philip. 'I would rather die.'
'Or slugs,' said William.
Mrs Gregg took the two boys under her wings and hugged them. 'Don't worry,' she said. 'I can mince it all up very fine and you won't even know the difference. Lovely slugburgers. Delicious wormburgers.'
'Oh no!' cried William.
'Never!' said Philip.
'Disgusting!' said Mr Gregg. 'Just because we have wings, we don't have to eat bird food. We shall eat apples instea
d. Our trees are full of them. Come on!'
So they flew off to an apple tree.
But to eat an apple without holding it in your hands is not at all easy. Every time you try to get your teeth into it, it just pushes away. In the end, they were able to get a few small bites each. And then it began to get dark, so they all flew back to the nest and lay down to sleep.
It must have been at about this time that I, back in my own house, picked up the telephone and tried to call Philip. I wanted to see if the family was all right.
'Hello,' I said.
'Quack!' said a voice at the other end.
'Who is it?' I asked.
'Quack-quack!'
'Philip,' I said, 'is that you?'
'Quack-quack-quack-quack-quack!'
'Oh, stop it!' I said.
Then there came a very funny noise. It was like a bird laughing.
I put down the telephone quickly.
'Oh, that Magic Finger!' I cried. 'What has it done to my friends?'
That night, while Mr and Mrs Gregg and Philip and William were trying to get some sleep up in the high nest, a great wind began to blow. The tree rocked from side to side, and everyone, even Mr Gregg, was afraid that the nest would fall down. Then came the rain. It rained and rained, and the water ran into the nest and they all got as wet as could be - and oh, it was a bad, bad night!
At last the morning came, and with it the warm sun.
'Well!' said Mrs Gregg. 'Thank goodness that's over! I never want to sleep in a nest again!' She got up and looked over the side ...
'Help!' she cried. 'Look! Look down there!'
'What is it, my love?' said Mr Gregg. He stood up and peeped over the side.
He got the surprise of his life!
On the ground below them stood the four enormous ducks, as tall as men, and three of them were holding guns in their hands. One had Mr Gregg's gun, one had Philip's gun, and one had William's gun.
