Instantly the mother bird called all the 

 young close about her, raised her neck high 

 to look over them at her helpless gosling, 

 then turned her head and honked deeply to 

 the gander. Waptonk had already seen the 

 danger from his point of vantage and rose 

 heavily in the air. Circling once with bent 

 head over the little fellow in the mud, as if 

 to understand the situation, he turned and 

 flapped over him, reaching down to seize a 

 wing in his bill. So, with the youngster 

 kicking vigorously and flapping his free 

 wing to help himself, he half dragged and 

 half carried his careless offspring over the 

 mud, and hiked him out upon the moss with 

 a final unnecessary jerk that seemed to tell 

 him roughly to take better care of himself 

 another time. But he lowered his head to 

 rub his cheek softly down the little fellow's 

 neck and over his wings, again and again, 

 before he walked quietly away to his post as 

 if nothing whatever '\ 

 had happened. 



Then came the final 

 scene, which made me -^3 



2 I I 



In Quest of 



