THE WILD MOTHER 235 



I did not let them go, she sidled toward me, quack- 

 ing softly, — a language that I perfectly under- 

 stood, and was quick to answer. 



I gave them back, fuzzy, and black and white. 

 She got them under her, stood up over them, 

 pushed her wings down hard around them, her 

 stout tail down hard behind them, and together 

 with them pushed in an abandoned egg which 

 was close at hand. Her own baby, some one else's 

 baby, and some one else's forsaken egg ! She could 

 cover no more ; she had not feathers enough. But 

 she had heart enough; and into her mother's 

 heart she had already tucked every motherless 

 egg and nestling of the thousands of frightened 

 birds that were screaming and wheeling in the 

 air high over her head. 



