The White Pigeon 95 



been windblown and had floated from a passing boat or from 

 one of the houses on the lake. How did the child lose it? By 

 its accidental dropping or by that inexplicable desire to 

 throw something away which often comes to children? Per- 

 haps it was only one of a dozen toys and would not be missed. 

 Whatever the reason, here it was bobbing up and down on 

 the rushes, its white dress greened by the contact, and look- 

 ing very much out of place. I think that the little girl to 

 whom I gave it still cherishes that water waif. 



On another occasion, I discovered a model sailboat, four- 

 teen inches in length, sloop-rigged, freshly painted, and in 

 excellent condition. It had evidently come in on a good wind, 

 for it was upright and might have continued indefinitely had 

 it not run headlong into the shore where I found it moving 

 up and down in the gentle wavelets. It bore no name or iden- 

 tification but the boy to whom I gave it now calls it the 

 Dauntless. 



Once I saw white objects on the water which I thought 

 were terns, for no other white bird that visits the marsh 

 rides so high. At a distance they floated as lightly as floating 

 bubbles, which they proved to be. They were toy balloons 

 which had been released at the football game the day before 

 and had landed on the shore and water of the marsh. Where, 

 but in this city marsh, would things which looked like white 

 terns prove to be toy balloons? 



The list of flotsam grew: rubber balls, large and small, 

 several more dolls, two model airplanes in bad condition, 

 canoe paddles, a life preserver jacket, a dinghy complete with 

 oars, fishing plugs which I found firmly attached to willows, 

 a lunch tightly and efficiently wrapped in oiled paper and in 

 perfect shape, and inflated inner tubes. Also I found another 

 class of articles, bottles, in numbers which several times ex- 

 ceeded the combined aggregate of all other objects. 



Bottles came constantly under my observation, bottles of 

 all types and for all purposes— beer, gin, Scotch, bourbon, 



