296 Lesson of the Wave [THIRD WEEK 



had paddled into deep pools and bathed in the cold salt 

 water. Most creatures of the earth are limited to one or 

 the other of these two elements, but now the gull was 

 proving his mastery over a third. The land, the sea, were 

 left below, and up into the air drifted the beautiful bird, 

 every motion confident with the instinct of ages. 



The usefulness of his mother's immaculate breast now 

 becomes apparent. A school of small fish basking near the 

 surface, rise and fall with the gentle undulating swell, seeing 

 dimly overhead the blue sky, flecked with hosts of fleecy 

 white clouds. A nearer, swifter cloud approaches, hesi- 

 tates, splashes into their midst, and the parent gull has 

 caught her first fish of the day. Instinctively the young 

 bird dives; in his joy of very life he cries aloud, the 

 gull-cry which his ancestors of long ago have handed down 

 to him. At night he seeks the shore and tucks his bill 

 into his plumage; and all because of something within 

 him, compelling him to do these things. 



But far from being an automaton, his bright eye and 

 full-rounded head presage higher things. Occasionally his 

 mind breaks through the mist of instinct and reaches 

 upward to higher activity. 



As with the other wild kindred of the ocean, food was 

 the chief object of the day's search. Fish were delicious, 

 but were not always to be had; crabs were a treat indeed, 

 when caught unawares, but for mile after mile along the 

 coast were hosts of mussels and clams, sweet and lucious, 

 but incased in an armour of shell, through which there 

 was no penetrating. However swift a dash was made upon 

 one of these, always the clam closed a little quicker, 



