With a tremendous rush and sputter Huk- 



I 2Q 



weem came out beneath him, her great 



pointed bill driven through to his spine. T^ukuieem 



Little need of my help now. With another 0,^-'^^^^^ 



straight hard drive, this time at eye and brain, 



she flung him aside disdainfully, and rushed 



to her shivering little ones, questioning, chid- ' 



ing, praising them, all in the same breath, 



fluttering and cackling low in an hysteric 



wave of tenderness. Then she swam twice 



around the dead muskrat and led her brood 



away from the place. 



Perhaps it was to one of those same little 

 ones that I owe a service for which I am 

 more than grateful. It was in September, 

 when I was at a lake ten miles, away — the 

 same lake into which a score of frolicking 

 young loons gathered before moving south, 

 and swam a race or two for my benefit. I 

 was lost one day, hopelessly lost, in trying to 

 make my way from a trout pond where I had 

 been fishing, to the lake where my camp was. 

 It was late afternoon. To avoid the long 

 hard tramp down a river, up which I had 



