378 



The Petrels 



born. But at last we reached the opening, and to 

 my amazement and fear my mother floated away 

 into space, leaving me shivering there, and watching 

 her with starting eyes. Feebly I cried to her to come 

 back to me, but she replied with gentle twitterings 

 of invitation, in response to which I felt an earnest, 

 an almost fierce desire to do as she was doing, to join 

 her in those graceful airy circles that she was making. 



Then my father flashed on to the scene. Where 

 he came from I did not see, but there he was joining 

 his entreaties to those of my mother, and every little 

 while caressing her with his beak. Oh, how patient 

 they were ! It does make me ashamed when I think 

 of the long time during which I resisted their invi- 

 tions to join them, to try those new wings of mine, 

 which indeed were working jerkily of their own accord 

 at my sides. How many false starts I made, until 

 at last, quite by accident it seemed, I found myself 

 in the air, fuU of fear, but working my limbs frantically 

 in obedience to some hidden, unknown, compelling 

 power. 



It is all a blur, all full of mystery, that first fl5^ng 

 lesson. All I remember is that presently I found 

 myself on the ledge at the mouth of the tunnel again, 

 with a new strange feeling of triumph all over me, 

 almost overcoming the trembling which had so dis- 

 tressed me. I was trembling still, but part of it was 

 due to joy. After that, I was coaxed again and again 

 to try those wings of mine, and no more food was 

 brought into the tunnel for me. I found myself 

 growing apparently stronger, lighter and lighter. I 

 did not know, of course, that the latter was really 

 the case, the mass of fat with which I was encumbered 

 when first I tried to fly having become absorbed in 

 my tissues, and muscle having taken its place. It 



