THE LESSON OF THE WAVE 



THE sea and the sky and the shore were at 

 perfect peace on the day when the young 

 gull first launched into the air, and flew outward 

 over the green, smooth ocean. Day after day his 

 parents had brought him fish and squid, until his 

 baby plumage fell from him and his beautiful 

 wing-feathers shot forth, — clean-webbed and elas- 

 tic. His strong feet had carried him for days over 

 the expanse of sand dunes and pebbles, and now 

 and then he 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 over- 

 head the blue sky, flecked with hosts of fleecy 

 white clouds. A nearer, swifter cloud approaches, 

 hesitates, splashes into their midst, — and the par- 

 ent gull has caught her first fish of the day. In- 

 stinctively the young bird dives; in his joy of 



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