eight o'clock before
There were tiny little loaves for each of the children , home-made cakes with plenty of plums , and strawberries and cream , and ducks ' eggs . These the farmer 's wife showed Little Me had pretty pale green shells , instead of white or brown like the hens ' eggs , and Mrs. White promised to show the children some baby chickens and ducklings the next day . How Little Me _ did _ sleep that night , to be sure ! She never heard her father and mother and Bob , her elder brother , arrive at all ; and it was eight o'clock before she woke the next morning , and found they had all gone out and left Me in kind Mrs. White 's care . Mrs. White took her to feed the chickens -- such dear little fluffy balls of yellow and white and black down , and Mrs. White let Little Me feed them out of a saucer , and some of them jumped over Me 's hand , and were most friendly ; and then Mrs. White took her to a pretty pond , and showed her a beautiful duck and nine baby ducks , not so fluffy and small as the chickens , but yet very soft and clean-looking . Bob was rather too grown up to play much with Little Me , and Tommy always played with Jack , so that Little Me spent much of her time wandering about by herself . The pond where the duck and ducklings lived had a little waterfall at one end , and then it became a little stream , and ran over pebbles under a bridge , and wandered away into the fields with a border of forget-me-nots .