Hukweem the Night Voice. 1 5 1 



shelldrake, or a black duck, is caught in the open like 

 that, he always tries to get back where his mother hid 

 him when she went away. That is what the poor 

 little fellows were trying to do now, only to be driven 

 back and kept, moving wildly by the muskrat, who 

 lifted himself now and then from the water, and wig- 

 gled his ugly jaws in anticipation of the feast. He 

 had missed the eggs in his search ; but young loon 

 would be better, and more of it. — " There you are ! " 

 he snapped viciously, lunging at the nearest loon, 

 which flashed under water and barely escaped. 



I had started up to interfere, for I had grown fond 

 of the little wild things whose growth I had watched 

 from the beginning, when a great splashing began on 

 my left, and I saw the old mother bird coming like a 

 fury. She was half swimming, half flying, tearing 

 over the water at a great pace, a foamy white wake 

 behind her. — " Now, you little villain, take your medi- 

 cine. It 's coming ; it 's coming," I cried excitedly, 

 and dodged back to watch. But Musquash, intent on 

 his evil doing (he has no need whatever to turn 

 flesh-eater), kept on viciously after the exhausted 

 little ones, paying no heed to his rear. 



Twenty yards away the mother bird, to my great 

 astonishment, flashed out of sight under water. 

 What could it mean ! But there was little time to 



