Ellie Featherbill All Alone

Chapter Four Silvia and Her Sisters

Mr. and Mrs. Featherbill waddled over to the girls and Goldie.

“Oh, no! Ellie will be so frightened,” Mrs. Featherbill worried aloud.

“We’ll go after the barge,” Lily promised, “and bring her back safe and sound.”

“And we’ll stop the Boggits from polluting the river, too,” said Jess.

Goldie smiled at the Featherbills. “These girls are brave and clever,” she told them. “They’ll keep their promises.”

Jess got up. “Let’s go.”

Goldie and Lily followed her upriver. They could still see the barge, but they couldn’t catch up with it because the bank was covered with flowers, reeds, and prickly brambles. Soon, the plants and bushes became so dense that they couldn’t go any farther.

“The barge is completely out of sight now,” said Jess. “What are we going to do?”

Lily spotted something shining in the sun. It was on the river, but tucked into a thick clump of cattails. Then she saw a long curving neck.

“A swan!” she said. “But it can’t be. It’s silver. There’s no such thing as a silver swan.”

“Let’s see,” said Jess, pushing through the rushes. “Hey!” she called back. “It’s a sort of swan—but come and look!”

Lily and Goldie joined her at the river’s edge. Bobbing gently in the shallows was a silver-painted raft. The front was shaped like a swan’s neck and head. Three silver-speckled white ribbons trailed into the water, one from the graceful neck, and the others from the front corners.

“Why don’t we use this to follow the barge?” suggested Jess. “Jump on.”

Lily held back. “There aren’t any oars,” she said. “How can we make it go upstream?”

“You can’t,” said a clear, firm voice. “That raft belongs to me and my sisters.”

They spun around to see three snow-white swans emerging from a group of shady trees. The front one wore a pretty sunhat, but she looked stern and very proud as she stared down her bill at them.

“Careful, girls,” Goldie murmured. “Swans aren’t always friendly.”

“I know,” whispered Lily. “We had one at the wildlife hospital once, and it chased me out of the pen when I tried to feed it, then banged on the gate with its hard beak!”

“I’ll be careful,” whispered Jess. She gave the swans a friendly grin. “Excuse me,” she said. “We need to rescue a duckling, and we have to get upstream. Could you take us on your raft? Please?”

The swan sisters looked at each other. “What do you think, Silvia?” said one of the swans.

“We could, I suppose,” the swan called Silvia replied. “But we would want something in return.”

“Anything,” Lily said.

Silvia explained that she’d lost her favorite necklace. “I came in for a steep landing,” she said, “and my necklace fell off and landed in a tree. My wings are too wide to fly between the branches.”

“Show us where the necklace is, Silvia,” Lily said. “We’ll get it back for you!”

The swan stretched her elegant neck toward a lime tree. Dangling from a high branch was a string of pearls.

Goldie grinned. “Easy!” she said. In seconds she was halfway up the tree, leaping from branch to branch. She stopped and called down, “I can’t see it because of all the leaves.”

“Left a bit,” Lily called, guiding her. “Up to the next branch—look right—there!”

With a flick of her paw Goldie freed the necklace, and down it tumbled into Lily’s cupped hands.

She put the necklace on Silvia. “There!”

The grateful swan ruffled her feathers in delight. “Thank you!” she said, then turned to her sisters. “Ladies, the raft!” she told them. “We have a duckling to rescue!”