Farmyard Wedding
By Joy Cowley • Illustrated by Lane Yerkes
Miss Duck and Mr. Drake celebrate the big day with all of their farmyard friends.
At six o'clock in the old hay shed Miss Duck and Mr. Drake were wed. The farmyard creatures smiled and sighed
when they saw the lovely groom and bride.
Miss Duck wore a frilly dress made from weed and watercress. Mr. Drake looked very neat with pea-pod slippers on his feet.
Wise Owl said the marriage words: "Always be happy, quacky birds. Paddle through life side by side. Now the groom may kiss the bride."
Then every bird and every beast began the scrumptious wedding feast of turnip puddings and spider pies and corn bread topped with fat blue flies.
Miss Frog had baked a wedding cake for Mrs. Duck and Mr. Drake, while Billy Goat had kindly made some ginger beer and lemonade. The Hogwash Band began to play music for dancing in the hay. The happy couple waddled together, beak to beak and feather to feather.
The music got faster and Mr. Pig, playing a fiddle and dancing a jig, stuck the fiddle bow in his ear and stepped into the ginger beer.
Horse then dropped a spider pie that hit Red Rooster in the eye, and Rooster, only half awake, fell into the wedding cake.
Soon the swinging Hogwash beat had all the animals on their feet. Rooster boogied with sweet Miss Frog. Chicken jived with Wuffy Dog. Mrs. Ewe with all her flock trotted to the Sheepdip Rock, while the happy Duck and Drake
tried to do the shimmy-shake.
Mrs. Duck said, "Drakey dear, it's time that we were leaving here." Holding wings they crossed the floor and danced right out the hay-shed door.
The animals cried, "We'll see you soon. Have a happy honeymoon. May roses grow by your nesting patch, and may all your little ducklings hatch."
The bride and bridegroom paddled away, and that was the end of their wedding day—but not the end of their love and laughter, for they lived happily ever after.