contained such convalescents as six herring-gulls 

 with broken wings or battered bodies ; three crows, 

 ditto; ten tortoises with limbs or shells crushed by 

 automobiles; one blue-jay blinded by roup, but 

 now on the way to recovery; one heron wounded 

 by gun-shot; one starved porcupine and one sick 

 racoon wished upon her willing nature by thought- 

 less but well-intentioned persons who had cap- 

 tured these creatures in other parts; one young 

 alligator suffering from the same symptomatic 

 causes and for the same reason; and all of whom 

 would have likely perished but for her untiring 

 attention to their wounds and her sympathetic 

 understanding of the wants of such wild unfor- 

 tunates — reminding her, then, of all of this, of 

 the trouble her proposal entailed, I was given in 

 return the unanswerable argument expressed in 

 the simple statement, "Of course." 



So without further debate, I placed the gull in 

 the bow of the dinghy preparatory to pulling for 

 the shore. Here in the glare of the search-light the 

 bird stood, the most dejected object imaginable, 

 but retaining enough interest in life to keep all 

 our movements under the apprehensive scrutiny 

 of its uncovered eye. My Faithful Assistant fur- 



[205] 



