in Freedom 137 



up that precious egg of theirs, which between them 

 they have managed to make in a rare mess ; so that if, 

 when Mrs. Puff is out on the spree (or rather, the sea)^ 

 she does not return when she ought, it looked un- 

 commonly as if Mr. Puff, when he bustled out in the 

 way that I have just mentioned, was grumbling at her 

 want of punctuality. 



And if you've never seen a puffin, you can't 

 imagine how utterly comical he looks at such times. 



I remember how we watched one bird in particular, 

 whose burrow was quite close to where we were having 

 our picnic luncheon, and if that bird bundled out once, 

 looked round, and bundled in again, he did it at least 

 half-a-dozen times. 



And each time we were convinced his language 

 grew stronger and stronger. 



Poor puff ! we men can sympathise with him ! 

 We know what these feminine delays are, when we 

 wait, and we wait, whilst the ladies who went upstairs 

 to get on their hats, saying as they go " We'll be 

 down in a moment," are still apparently " titivating " 

 after quite half-an-hour has sped. 



At last Mrs. Puff really did come back, and you 

 should have seen the way in which the old gentleman 

 bundled off. 



He must have been in a rage, knowing that he 

 couldn't leave the egg to grow cold. 



In the nesting seasons puffins are everywhere at 

 once floating in companies on the waves ; diving 

 beneath for small fry ; squatting about on the rocks and 

 the bunches of thrift ; in their burrows, busy with 



