/BIRTH AND INFANT DAYS 17 



been born ; to what. ... It had ceased raining 

 suddenly, and the air in the freshness of early 

 morning was peculiarly resonant. 



" Buagh ! buagh !" sounded in smothered tones 

 across the water. 



The calf sprang up, bleating. The joy that 

 filled him was almost a pain. He ran to the edge 

 of the lagoon, he could not tell why, and, lifting 

 his nose in the air, sniffed the breeze. 



A big beast was crossing to the island, coming 

 nearer every instant. Fascinated, the young moose 

 watched the ripples widening out into half-circles 

 and fall behind. 



" Buagh ! buagh !" once more. 



Then the little one could stand still no longer. 

 He must jump and run and caper. And as the 

 swimmer neared the shore, and he caught the gleam 

 of deep-set eyes, he rushed out breast-deep, re- 

 gardless of the wavelets left by the recent storm. 



Laying his charming head against his mother's 

 dripping side, he questioned her absence not at all. 

 It was enough that she had come back to him. 



Presently — after they had both satisfied their 

 hunger — she told him all about it, of the impulse 

 which urged her suddenly to assure herself that her 



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