Today Waddle meets up with Mildred moo-cow, shortly after singing a little duckling song to himself, and is very pleased when he has a chance to sing it to his new friend.

"Yawn, peep", went Waddle as he woke up. "What shall I do today? First of all...food. Breakfast!"
Scrambling wildly, to get himself out from under the combined weight of his brothers and sisters, his little legs were going every which way but the way he thought they ought to be going. After tumbling over once or twice, he made it out into yet another day of bright sunshine.

"Ahhhhh!" he said to himself, stretching his little wings, and then, "Oh dear. I'm not sure what I can eat. Bugs get cross with you if you try to eat them, so they're no good! Cows, I believe, are TOO BIG! (What IS a cow?) What else can I try? I think I'll go down to the pond and see what this water stuff is like. Maybe there's something in there I can eat?" So off he set.

On the way he thought to himself, "I must remember to paddle my legs properly in the water, and to move in a forward direction all the time."
He walked a distance further, humming a little ducky-type song to himself; after all, it was such a beautiful day, especially for little ducks to be out and about.

I WONDER WHAT IT IS,
THIS THING THEY CALL A COW?
"Rum tiddly um tum
Tiddle iddle ooo" - (This is a fine chorus line for little ducks to sing!)

WHERE DOES IT COME FROM,
THE PUDDLE OR A ZOO?
"Rum tiddly um tum
Tiddle iddle ooo"

CAN IT SING?
DOES IT SWING?
FROM THERE TO HERE AND NOW?"
"Tiddle ooo"

I WONDER WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE,
THIS THING THEY CALL A COW?
"Rum tiddly um tum
Tiddle iddle ooo"

The longer he walked and the more he sang, the happier he began to feel, but, he also began to feel hungrier. He noticed something else funny, strange. It looked like the sun was going to sleep, because it was getting darker. "That's funny" he thought, "I only woke up a few steps ago! What's happening?"
Then he looked up!!

"What is THAT?" he trembled inside!
What to do, or maybe NOT do?? Yes, that's it, something NOT to do! But WHAT!
"What IS the word for NOT doing this thing?" he "peeped", to himself, because he couldn't find a voice to PANIC in, frozen with fear! He finally decided he had to DO SOMETHING.
"I'll do what Father Duck does every time he sees something scary. He runs around in circles, flapping his wings like mad, making lots of noise - Quack, quack, Quack, quack, Quack, quack - over and over again, as loud as he can!"
So off he sounded, flapping his little wings like mad, quacking and making peeping sounds as loud as he could!

Running in circles made him feel giddy. He almost flopped over onto his back he felt so dizzy, and to make things worse he could still see THAT thing! What WAS it?
It was the biggest, hairiest, scariest, long-fuzzy-covered-monster type thing he had ever seen in his short life!! The ground shuddered when it moved. Gooey, sticky stuff dribbled from its mouth and wherever it fell, the grass got all sticky. "Must be careful not to put my foot in that" he thought to himself.
He froze in his tracks, terrified! The monster was opening its big mouth! "Aaaagggh!! It's going to eat me!" he assumed and began to PANIC (all that quack, quack, quack, stuff) as he tried to flee the monster.

A deep, warm, booming voice enveloped his little body, "Hello Waddle."
He stopped in his tracks, too frightened to move further. It knows my name! How can this be?? What IS it?
"What ARE you?" he asked in a timid, peeping voice. " Are you going to eat me?"
Again, the deep, warm, booming voice wrapped him in sound, "Ho, ho, ho, no, no, no!! I am the cow that Berenicia bug told you about yesterday. I've been watching you learning to swim in 10 Gallon Puddle. Yesterday was your first time in the water, not so? How did you like it?"

Waddle began to relax. The cow, clearly, was not about to eat him!
That was a relief! Also, it seemed to look not half as horrible as Berenicia had described it to him! Maybe it would be nice to make a new friend of the cow? So...

"What's your name, cow?" he asked, as politely as he could of course. You never know whether, with a much bigger animal than you, it's a good thing to be not very polite.

In between munching a mouthful of grass and "gooing" on the ground, the cow replied, " My name is Mildred. Nice to meet you Waddle", and carried on munching messily.
Waddle stepped back a pace or three to get a better view of Mildred. From farther away, he could see that, "Yes", she was a very fine cow. All white, with big brown spots and a lovely black patch over one eye. She didn't look at all scary to him now, but he reminded himself to keep out from under her big feet, just to be sure!
"Mildred," he asked, politely of course, "would you like to hear me sing a song? It's a song I only finished singing just before we met."
"Why, thank you Waddle. That's a lovely, mootiful, kind offer. I love listening to songs."
So, he began to sing his song, but slightly changed to match up with his newfound friend.

I WONDERED WHAT IT WAS,
THIS THING THEY CALLED A COW?
"Rum tiddly um tum
Tiddle iddle ooo"

WHERE HAD IT COME FROM,
THE PUDDLE OR A ZOO?
"Rum tiddly um tum
Tiddle iddle ooo"

HAD IT SUNG?
HAD IT SWUNG?
FROM THERE TO HERE AND NOW?
"Tiddle ooo"

I KNOW NOW WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE,
MY FRIEND MILDRED,
THE COW!
"Tiddle moo"

He was still humming to himself after dinner, so much so that he hummed himself right off to sleep and dreamt of his new friends and getting his feet all gooey in sticky grass.