Synopsis:
Scrooge participates in a steamboat race on the Mississippi River in which two river captains are fighting over a southern mansion.

Comments:
The normally down-to-earth Scrooge seems to have a secret dream in this story, where he reveals that he would like to be a Southern gentleman in a big mansion 'sitting on the veranda, sipping a soda, and listening to the cotton pickers strum their banjos!' as he so eloquently puts it.
It is very rare to have Scrooge daydreaming about being someone else, but with Donald it is quite another matter; he frequently daydreams about things. Two examples: In WDCS151 he dreams about being the grand marshal of the Easter Parade, and in WDCS198 he dreams about being a knight in shining armour.

Synopsis:
The nephews are playing businessmen and they draw a deed for an imaginary island. Later on, Donald accidentally gets hold of it and he thinks it genuine...

Comments:
Also, Donald frequently daydreams about being somewhere else, as in this story where he longs for a quit life on a tropical island. In WDCS051 he longed for a small cabin on the coast where he could just sit and do some fishing, and in WDCS271 he daydreamed of purchasing a small valley ranch of his own.

Synopsis:
Scrooge is hypnotized and learns that in a former life he was a Spanish captain who hid a treasure chest. He rushes off to find it...

Comments:
When hypnotized the ducks are in some sort of a dream-state, a state of mind that Barks used several times in his stories. Another example in which Scrooge was hypnotized came in U$37 Cave of Ali Baba when a group of Arabian dervishes made him believe that he found enormous treasures.
But it is particularly Donald who is the victim of different hypnotists. Besides being part of the two examples already mentioned he was also hypnotized in FC0159 Adventure Down Under and CP2 You Can't Guess - just to name a few.

Synopsis:
Donald gets tired of Gladstone's never-ending luck so he sends him up north with a fake treasure map. But Donald's conscience will not let him alone...

Comments:
Have we not all dreamt of doing terrible things to a person we really dislike? Donald does so every time he meets Gladstone, but he seldom goes through with his thoughts. But in this story Donald succeeds in sending Gladstone Gander on a wild goose(!) chase to the Arctic Sea. At first Donald is glad to get rid of him, but soon his conscience turns his happy thoughts into nightmare visions.

Synopsis:
Donald is plagued by nightmares. His doctor recommends he takes up some crocheting to steady his nerves. Then Daisy comes for a visit...

Comments:
A whole story about one of childhood's most traumatic experiences? Not exactly the obvious choice for a comic book but Barks did it. His reasons for writing this halfway psychological story are not known, but surely the young readers must have wondered about Donald's very uncharacteristic behaviour!

Synopsis:
What does it take to climb Old Demontooth? Donald's youthful vigour or Scrooge's overwhelming wealth?

Comments:
The story ends in a manner that we have seen numerous times in both comic books and films; the leading character goes through a lot of hardship in the story - and then wakes up in his bed. It was all a dream!
At first Barks had ended the story showing Scrooge scorning Donald for having lost the competition of being first to the top of the mountain: I believe I recall looking at the panel of Uncle Scrooge's money ramp and decided it looked too impossible to be real. Then Barks had Donald wake up in his bed instead. It was all a dream!

Synopsis:
Donald turns to pyromania after receiving a bump to his head. Soon fires are blazing all over Duckburg but is Donald the culprit?

Comments:
The last two panels of the story originally showed Donald in jail for burning down the court building. The publisher regarded this conduct as being Un-Disneyish and had another artist draw a wishy-washy ending in which Donald had just dreamed the whole story. Needless to point out that Barks had no saying in the matter...

Synopsis:
Donald is starting at his new job as a night watchman. But will he be able to stay awake?

Comments:
The answer to the question is a predictable No. But the story plot depends on it, because it is only when Donald is quietly sleeping on his watch that he manages to save the day! He dreams of being an excellent gunfighter in a shootout with a bandit, and the dream is so real to him that he actually fires his revolver while sleeping - chasing off a gang of very real thieves!

Synopsis:
The nephews want to skate but Donald makes them go down south with him. There they pull a trick on their uncle making him believe that he has been sleeping for twenty years!

Comments:
Of course, Barks just had to have a go at the most famous sleep story in the world - the American author Washington Irving's story about a Dutch immigrant to the USA, Rip van Winkle, and his twenty-year nap in the Catskill Mountains before waking up to a much-changed world.
Barks later recalled: The tale of Rip van Winkle always intrigued me. I tried many times to use the long sleep gimmick in a duck situation before I came up with this plot arrangement. Even so, the powers of suggestion had to be stretched to incredible lengths.

Synopsis:
Following a traffic accident Donald and the nephews feel as they have travelled back a hundred years in time. They visit a Spanish ranchero and gold is found.

Comments:
Barks may very well have had his Rip van Winkle story from the previous year in mind when he dreamed up the basic plot for this story. Here the ducks 'only' sleep for 6 weeks, while they 'live' in another age. The dream theme was Barks' brilliant way of telling us of several important historical events from the American past.