CLARA Chapter 9 Clara‘s Pond Adventure: Learning About Swimming

"Hello, Mrs. Duck”, Clara called out as she and Gilligan neared the pond. "It’s a lovely day.  I’m taking a walk.  I’m looking for adventure."  Clara sat down on the grass by the edge of the pond.

"Hello, little pig," Della Duck quacked. "Come on in. The water is fine and it is a wonderful day for a swim."  Mrs. Duck didn't seem to think it at all strange that the little pig would have taken a walk through the meadow to the pond.  She and her ducklings came here every day and she was glad to see Clara.

With one more hop, Gilligan splashed into the pond but Clara sat on the bank watching Della and the ducklings swim.  It looked like lots of fun but Clara didn't think she knew how to swim. “Pigs are not ducks and ducks are not pigs,” Clara said to no one in particular as she watched the little ducklings splashing and swimming and having fun.

Swimming in the pond looked like it must be a very wonderful adventure, "but I'm not at all like a duck", Clara thought to herself.  “I don’t think pigs know how to swim, but maybe I could learn.  Maybe I could be the first swimming adventure seeking pig in the world.” 

Clara was enjoying watching the little ducks playing in the water.  She watched them very closely trying to learn how a duck swims.  They dipped and bobbed and paddled around, tails up, tails down.  They swam in circles and in straight lines behind their mother.  The ducks seemed to be having a marvelous time and Clara thought that swimming might be a good and wonderful thing, if she only knew how.

"I don't know how to swim," Clara finally told Della Duck as she and her ducklings swam by for maybe the tenth time, inviting Clara to join them.

"Oh come in the water.  Swimming is easy," Della Duck quacked. "Just paddle your feet, like this," and she paddled quickly across the pond and back again. 

Mrs. Duck waddled onto the shore and shook off her feathers, spraying water all over Clara.   “Come on Clara.   Come in the water.  Come swim with my ducklings and me.”  Mrs. Duck went back to the pond and quickly paddled away to join her little ducklings not wanting to leave them alone too long.

“It certainly looks easy”, thought Clara as she stepped to the edge of the water and stuck her piggy toes in. The water was cool and felt good after her long, hot walk but Clara was thinking about her adventures in trying to flit and fly and dance like a butterfly and trying to hop and leap like a frog and she would never sing as beautifully as a sparrow. “A pig is not a bird, a pig is not a butterfly and a pig is not a frog. A pig is not a duck either but maybe a pig could learn to swim,” Clara thought to herself. Clara decided she would try. Swimming certainly looked a lot easier than flying and dancing and hopping and leaping and it didn't require singing either. Swimming might be the greatest adventure of all.

Clara waded a little deeper and then deeper and deeper. The water was up to her belly. Clara took one more step and then another.  The water was almost up to her chin and then…
KERPLOP...SPLASH…Clara fell in all over.

"HELP, HELP", oinked Clara loudly. “HELP!  I can't swim." Clara was very frightened. She splashed and splashed and cried for help. "I can't swim,” cried Clara. "Mrs. Duck, help me, please!” 

Della Duck swam quickly to Clara's side, "Little pig, little pig, stop splashing and thrashing around. Stand up. Put your feet down, the water is not deep here. Put your feet down and stand up." Della Duck swam around and around Clara until the little pig was standing on her own four feet and wading almost up to her pink little piggy chin in the water but Clara still couldn't swim.

"Stay close to shore, little pig," Mrs. Duck quacked. "You'll be quite safe enough if you stay close to the shore. I'll be nearby if you need me." Della Duck swam away to the middle of the pond where her ducklings were playing.  Every now and then they swam close to shore around and around Clara, and then they’d swim farther out onto the pond again. Clara was having a wonderful time splashing and playing in the water near the edge of the pond. 

After awhile the ducks swam in among the reeds and began feeding on the duckweed and arrowroot and other pond plants.  It was dinner time for the ducks but Clara was having so much fun in the water she didn't notice they were no longer swimming far out on the pond.  Clara liked playing in the water.  It was a whole new adventure.

Once Clara got use to the water, she really liked it.  She liked splashing and playing in the shallow water.  She liked the way little fishes would come up to her if she stood very still. They'd swim all around her feet and tickle her little piggy toes.

Clara liked playing ‘hide and seek’ with the little frogs that hid in the tall grass that grew by the pond and she especially liked rolling in the mud at the edge of the pond. The pond was a wonderful place with so much to see and do. Oh she was having a wonderful and grand adventure.

Clara thought it must be wonderful to be a duck. Clara wished she was a duck but of course she was not a duck.  She was just a little pig.  Maybe she couldn't be a duck but she could still play in the water. Clara had found something a little pig could do and she liked that very much.