Quackers the Happy Duck

Quackers the Happy Duck

by Katrina Squire

Copyright (C) 2013

Quackers the Happy Duck lived in the Forest of Fun with her friends Dog and Sheep.

Quackers was always happy, no matter what happened. If it rained, Quackers was happy because the rain tickled her tail and she could splash in puddles. If the sun was shining, Quackers was happy because it warmed her feathers and made beautiful beams of light in the Forest of Fun.

Quackers was happy playing with her toys, but she was even happy when her toys broke because that meant she got to visit her friend Mr. Tiger the Toy Fixer.

One day Quackers woke up with a super happy idea: maybe she could help other animals be as happy as she was!

She started with Grumpy Gopher. That morning she hid in front of his house until he came outside, and then she did three somersaults right through his yard. Quackers wasn’t very good at somersaults, so she looked a little like a yellow tornado hurdling through the forest, leaving a flurry of feathers behind her.

When Grumpy Gopher saw her terrible somersaults he laughed so suddenly that the milk he was drinking sprayed right out of his nose!

Next Quackers aimed for Freddie the frowning fish.  She stuck three coins to each of her feet, and as soon as Freddie swam by in the stream Quackers started tap dancing on the pebbly beach. Ducks are probably the world’s worst tap dancers because their feet are just too big to tap correctly, but Quackers danced until one of the coins flew off of her foot and hit her right in the head!

Freddie couldn’t actually stop frowning--he was a frowning fish after all--but he did the next best thing by rolling over in the water so that his frown turned upside down and it at least looked like he was actually smiling.

Quackers was so happy with her success so far that she decided to win a smile from Camilla the complaining cow. Camilla was in the middle of a long string of complaints when Quackers arrived in the pasture, but Quackers marched right over and interrupted her with a song.

Quackers had a rather duck-like voice, and ducks aren’t really noted for their singing abilities, so Camilla was taken by surprise at the interrupting duck making such a strange noise and immediately stopped complaining. Quackers finished her song just for Camilla “...CAAAAmillllllllAAAAA the COOoooOOW!” and Camilla couldn’t keep from smiling just a crack to hear her name sung in such a terrible manner.

The next morning when Quackers woke up, something funny happened. She didn’t jump right out of bed singing fun songs. She didn’t somersault to the bathroom, or skip into the kitchen. She put on her robe and  trudged outside to sit on her front porch without smiling even once.

Dog and Sheep came by to see why she wasn’t already dancing around the meadow, and found her sitting sadly in front of her house.

“I think I’ve lost my happy,” sighed Quackers.

“Nonsense,” said Sheep.
“Ridiculous,” said Dog.
“Impossible!” chirped a bird from a nearby tree.

Quackers tried to smile but only managed to lift her eyebrows.

Alarmed, Dog and Sheep came up with a plan. Sheep sat quietly with Quackers while Dog disappeared into the forest.  A little while later he returned with Grumpy Gopher, Freddie and Camilla.

Dog counted to three, “One...two...THREE!” and Camilla started to sing a terrible moo-ing song while Freddie jumped out of the bowl of water Dog was carrying and started to tap dance. Grumpy Gopher then surprised everyone by doing a spectacular head stand!

Quackers’ eyebrows lifted like before, but this time they pulled up the corners of her eyes as well. Her eyes tricked her bill into curling up into a smile, and before she knew it she was giggling and then she was rolling on the floor holding her sides with laughter: a singing cow, tap-dancing fish and gymnast gopher!

“If you bring sunshine into everyone else’s day you can’t help but have it light up your own world too, Quackers,” Sheep wisely observed.

Quackers, Dog and Sheep clapped for the trio of happy-makers before splashing happily away into the stream for a game of minnows.