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| Duckworth floated quietly on the smooth surface of Pickle Creek. Behind him a green lawn rose up from the water`s edge and ran all the way to Oystershell Hall, Mrs. Spudwell`s house. A short distance away, Chuck and Old Webfoot floated on the water too. Every so often, they would poke their heads under water to grab a tiny fish, or some soggy plant for dinner. Being a duck has its advantages, Duckworth thought to himself. You don`t have to work or go to school, and you get to fly all over the place any time you want. The problem with being a duck, or any other kind of animal, though, was food. |
| Ducks think about food all the time. They think about where to find food, when to get food, and what kind of food they can eat. If they are lucky and find some corn, or if someone throws them a bit of people food, everything is fine. But most of the time, they had to poke around in the creek to see what they could find. It was a lot of work, and pretty boring besides. |
| Chuck slowly paddled over to see how Duckworth was doing. |
| "Found anything yet, Duckworth?" |
| Duckworth shook his head. "I haven`t been looking, Chuck. I`m bored with eating wet food all the time. It`s like living on soup. I want something dry and crunchy and tasty." |
| Chuck groaned. "You don`t mean..." |
| "That`s right," said Duckworth. "I want potato chips." |
| "Be reasonable, Duckworth. The last time you had a potato chip around here was when Mrs. Spudwell had that family reunion picnic and all those kids came." |
| "Oh, yes!" said Duckworth. "We were swimming in potato chips. One of them dropped a whole plate full." |
| "Well, do you see any picnic around here today?" |
| Oystershell Hall was quiet today. Mrs. Spudwell`s friend Florence had called up and taken her on some trip. She always said the same thing when she called. |
| "Edna, it`s time to go with the Flo!" she would say, and Mrs. Spudwell usually went. |
| Just then, Danielle Featherby flew down and landed beside them, splashing and throwing up ripples that made Duckworth and Chuck rock slightly. |
| "Hey, guys," she said. "I was just in St Michaels by the Maritime Museum. You should have been there, Duckworth. A family was picnicking on one of the outdoor tables by the lighthouse. The children each grabbed the same bag of potato chips and the bag ripped. There were potato chips everywhere. Of course, they`re all gone by now." |
| Duckworth looked at Chuck. "Why didn`t I think of that? I`m going into town!" |
| "We`ll come with you," said Chuck. |
| "Sure," said Danielle. |
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| A few miles past St Michaels, Dr. Lee was trying to get his nephew Charlie to hurry up. |
| "Come on, Charlie. Do you want to fly in the airplane today or not?" |
| Charlie appeared in the doorway wearing goggles and a leather jacket. |
| "I`m ready. And look; Aunt Constance packed us a lunch." |
| "Fine," said Dr. Lee. "But if we`re going to get to th Easton Airport by 10:30, we`d better hurry." |
| They got in the car and started off. |
| |
| The ducks circled over the town of St Michaels and drifted down to the Maritime Museum, out on Navy Point. They landed on the top of the Old Thomas Point Lighthouse and looked over the big grassy area with the picnic tables. Only one table had a bag of potato chips and the chips that fell on the ground were being quickly gobbled up by a big dog. |
| "I don`t think we`ll find chips here," said Chuck. |
| "Let`s fly to the church steeple and look some more," said Duckworth. "I`m not giving up this easily." |
| The ducks landed on the church steeple just as the bells were chiming 10. On the street below, people looked up and some of them noticed Danielle, Duckworth and Chuck. |
| "Look, Uncle Lee," said Charlie, as their car passed by on the street below, "There are three ducks on the church steeple. Are they going to church?" |
| "No," said Dr. Lee, "They`re probably Orthoducks." |
| "Ortho...what?" |
| "It's a joke." |
| |
| "How about the park near the Crab Shell restaurant?" suggested Danielle. |
| "It`s worth a try," said Chuck. |
| So the three ducks flew to the picnic tables near the grassy area where the excursion boat docks. There were people all around and several were at the tables eating, but none of they had potato chips. |
| "What`s the matter with these people?" Duckworth asked. "They can have potato chips any time they want and they eat salads? They should try being ducks for a day and see how they like it." |
| "Look over there!" said Danielle. |
| On the sidewalk alongside the water a small boy was walking and eating from a bag of potato chips! His parents were right behind him. Danielle, Duckworth and Chuck flew down and stood alongside the sidewalk a little ways in front of the boy so he would see them and offer some of his chips. |
| "Mommy, look at the ducks!" the boy shouted. "Can I give them some potato chips?" |
| The ducks waited, looking up at the people. |
| "Oh, no," said the boy`s mother. "That`s not a natural food for ducks. They shouldn`t eat something they couldn`t get in the wild. If they did, they would forget how to look for food on their own." |
| Duckworth looked at the boy`s mother and thought he had looked a lot harder for those potato chips than people ever did. |
| "But, Mommy, they look hungry," the boy protested. |
| "You heard your mother, Wembly," his father said. "It`s for their own good." |
| The ducks looked at each other as the boy and the potato chips disappeared down the sidewalk. |
| "How about the boat launch at Newcomb?" suggested Chuck. |
| Newcomb was a few miles up the road from St Michaels and had a bridge and a boat launch where people who were taking boats out would stop and sometimes snack. The three flew there, but found no snackers and no potato chips. |
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| At the Easton airport, Dr. Lee and Charlie packed up the airplane and took off heading for Kent Narrows and the Miles River before turning for the Chesapeake Bay. Far below the trees were puffy green and the water sparkled silver. Charlie was so excited, he almost forgot about the food Aunt Constance had packed. |
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| After flying over Newcomb, Danielle, Duckworth and Chuck went to the picnic area in Royal Oak. Royal Oak was where people got the ferry to Oxford and was sometimes a place where a duck could find some good handouts. There was a line of cars waiting to board the ferry, and a few people stood around waiting, but no one was eating potato chips. |
| Duckworth sighed. "Well, I guess today is not going to be a potato chip day. Let`s go back to Pickle Creek and see if we can find some lily roots or something." |
| When the ducks got back to Pickle Creek, Cheesy Quacker, Phineas Frog, Shelby the racing turtle, and Buster Crab were all waiting. |
| "You mean you never found any potato chips?" asked Shelby. |
| "None." |
| "But Duckworth always finds a way; finds a way," croaked Phineas. |
| "Not this time," said Chuck. |
| "It just wasn`t a good potato chip day," added Danielle. |
| Duckworth didn`t say anything. He just kept thinking about all hose potato chips out there and how he couldn`t get any. He could almost taste them. |
|
| Dr. Lee and nephew Charlie were just passing the tip of Tilghman Island on their way back to Easton. They had flown out over the Bay Bridges and passed a big container ship steaming north towards Baltimore. The bay had been sprinkled with white sails of sailboats. Below them, fishing boats were scattered around the mouth of the Choptank River. To Charlie it looked like the biggest Christmas garden he had ever seen. |
| Suddenly, he remembered the snacks, and realized he had to eat quickly or they would be back at the airport before he could finish. Charlie unwrapped the snacks and found a chili sandwich and a giant economy size bag of potato chips. |
|
| Back at Pickle Creek Duckworth`s friends were still talking about Duckworth`s failure to find potato chips. No one could believe it. |
| "But Duckworth, you always do what you set out to do," said Buster. "You should be able to find potato chips. It has to be easier than when you found out about the haunted marsh." |
| "Or Mumbles Manor," added Shelby. |
| "Well, maybe Duckworth is just having a bad day," said Cheesy. "I suppose it happens to the best of us sometimes..." |
| Off in the distance, they could hear a small airplane up in the sky. |
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| In the airplane, Charlie had just finished the chili sandwich and opened the giant bag of potato chips. But the sun shining in the windows and the chili sandwich he had just eaten made him feel hot, so Charlie slid the side window open. |
| "Charlie, no!" shouted Dr. Lee. "At this speed, it`ll suck the potato chips out the..." |
| But it was too late. The wind rushing past swirled around the cabin of the airplane and blew all the potato chips out the window in a big yellow and crunchy cloud that slowly began to settle towards the ground far blow. |
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| Duckworth was getting annoyed with his friends and how they kept asking why he couldn`t find potato chips. They seemed to think it was easy. They seemed to think he could do anything. |
| "Look," he said, finally. "Potato chips are hard to find. Sometimes I can and sometimes I can`t." |
| "But Duckworth..." |
| "Do you think I can just wave my wing and make potato chips appear? Do you think I can do anything?" |
| "Well, you usually can," said Buster. |
| "All right," said Duckworth. "How about if I make potato chips appear out of the air? Just stand back and I`ll give it a try. Are you ready? I WANT POTATO CHIPS AND I WANT THEM RIGHT NOW!" Duckworth shouted. |
| Duckworth looked around at his friends. "You see? It isn`t so easy to.." |
| "Hey, what`s that on the ground over there?" shouted Shelby. |
| Everyone looked. There on the ground was a small yellow potato chip. As the animals looked, suddenly another potato chip appeared, then another, and then it seemed to be raining potato chips! Potato chips fell on the grass, on the trees, on the water, and on the animals` heads, like a golden snowstorm. For a few seconds, the animals couldn`t even see each other through the cloud of chips falling from the sky. Then it was over, and Pickle Creek was covered with chips. |
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| The animals stood in silence for a moment, then turned to Duckworth. Shelby spoke first. |
| "Wow, Duckworth. You really CAN do anything." |
| Duckworth sighed. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let`s eat!" |
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