The Golden Duck

One uponce a time there was a little yellow duck. He loved to swim and fish
for food. One day while he was swimming he noticed something shiny in the
bottom of the lake. He decided to swim down and see what it was. He had
never swam down to the bottom of the lake before. He dove into the water
but only made it about halfway down before he had to return to the surface
for air. Once he was back on the surface he looked back down at the shiny
object and tried to figure out how he was going to retrieve it. He thought,
and he thought some more. Then he had an idea. He thought that if he
started with more speed then he would be able to made it to the bottom. He
flew as high as he could, then he dove towards the water. When he hit the
water it made a big splash but only slowed him down slightly. He swam and
swam until he reached the bottom and his shiny reward. He snatched it up in
his beak and swam back toward the surface. When he finally reached the
surface he was tired. He swam over to the edge of the land and rested. Then
he decided to look at what he had recovered from the bottom of the lake. He
placed the item on the ground and was surprised to find that it was a
golden coin. It was worth a lot of money. He thought to himself, "What good
is a gold coin to a duck"? He took the gold coin and dropped it back to the
bottom of the lake. The gold coin sank to the bottom stirring a cloud of
dust when it hit. For a split second under the dust hundreds of shiny coins
could be seen. When the dust settled they were hidden completely. The
little yellow buck swam around on the surface having a fun time fishing for
food. He was completely unaware that he was the richest duck in the whole
wide world.

Told on Dec. 19, 2010