Elementary Education 343 



of his own element ! I circled round and round slowly, 

 my breast swelling with the pride of life, and my mother 

 hovering by my side gave utterance to low, gentle 

 sounds of joy. Together we returned to my birth- 

 place, my first lesson well and fully learned. I settled 

 down upon the familiar spot, and my mother went 

 back to the sea to forage for us both. 



I went away no more that day, but on the next 

 morning awoke and stretched my new wings crying 

 clamorously for food. But my mother was already 

 on her painful way down to the sea, and, except for 

 a reproachful look in my direction occasionally, paid 

 no heed to me. So I followed her quickly. I wanted 

 food, and I felt that I might get some sooner if I made 

 an effort myself. We launched ourselves together, 

 this time without any difficulty on my part, for I 

 had learned how to bear myself in relation to the water. 

 No longer were the smoothly rolling waves as they 

 swelled in upon the beach able to fling me, a much- 

 bedraggled bunch of patchy fluff with ungainly wings 

 and gaping beak, back upon the sand. 



And moreover that morning we had only flown 

 a short distance when the beautiful form of my mother 

 gliding along before me suddenly stopped, her feet 

 shot out before her, and down she came, I following 

 her. The water was alive with squid, and all that 

 we needed to do was just to scoop them in as fast 

 as we would. The other birds of all kinds saw us 

 drop, and before we had been eating a minute the air 

 was dark overhead with them hurrying to the feast. 

 My mother dealt fierce blows at any intruder that 

 came within reach, and I followed her example in- 

 stinctively, not that there was any need to drive 

 others away, for the supply was vast enough for an 

 enormous host of our fellows, but because it is natural 



