Frederick Cornelius Johann Snuffl enose was worried. For the past two weeks he had been very worried. Fred Snuffl enose worried a lot. And, when he worried, his nose ran. He was well suited to his name.
But Fred Snuffl enose was worried today.
He and his best friend, Phil Erup, had found a mother duck lying on a nest of seven eggs. The nest of seven eggs was under a bush. The bush was beside the wall of a great, large church that stood proudly right in the center of town. The church was very large and very busy, and Fred Snuffl enose (for that is what people called him) was worried that someone from the very large and very busy church would scare the mother duck away from her nest of seven eggs. Not on purpose, mind you, but possibly by accident. So, Fred Snuffl enose and Phil Erup had decided to keep the duck’s nest a secret.
Each morning, Fred Snuffl enose and his best friend, Phil Erup, (for that is what Fred called him) got out of bed, got dressed, and walked from their house on Fence Street to the very large church which was right in the center of town, to see if the mother duck was still sitting on her seven eggs. One brilliantly sunny spring morning – it was a Thursday – they began their walk. They walked faster and faster, because Fred was feeling more and more worried than usual.
When they got to the bush beside the very large church in the center of town, Fred Snuffl enose took one look at the nest and said “Oh! OH! OH DEAR! The seven eggs have hatched and everyone is gone.”
“Everyone is gone,” Fred Snuffl enose repeated. He began to worry again. Now he was worried that the seven baby ducks had not gotten safely to the creek. The creek was rather far away, after all.
“Gone,” echoed Phil Erup, “but where and how?”
“I do not know,” said Fred Snuffl enose. “But I think I will go and look for them.” Phil Erup said “Good luck Fred Snuffl nose. I am going back to our house on Fence Street to drink some coffee,” and they said good-bye to each other.
Fred Snufflenose walked past the very large church in the center of town, and he started climbing up and then down all the very large steps to the very large church, and then he crossed the busy main street. He crossed the street very carefully, looking right and left, but he did not see any mother ducks or baby ducks in the street. He kept walking down the path that led to the creek. When he got to the creek, he stopped and looked in and thought. And thought and thought
The water was clear. It was a bit too deep, and it was moving very fast. It went splish-splash against the many rocks. “I think this would not be a very good place to bring seven baby ducks,” he said. “They would struggle in the fast-moving water going “splish-splash” and might go “wham-slam against the rocks. And oh! Oh! OH DEAR! That would be absolutely horribleiffic.”
Fred Snufflenose said funny words when he was upset, because his emotions got into his brain and his mouth and floated around in them until a strange word came out.