THE MATING OF BROWNIE 189 
things on the banks, known to us as factories and 
cities. Past these, the family hurried fast, swim- 
ming in mid-stream. Then, at last, the water 
changed. It wasn’t pollution, it wasn’t foul—it 
was salt! Brownie felt a strange sensation come 
over him at the first sting of that salt. He 
wanted to swim on and on, and meet it, get deeper 
into it. He knew not why or what, but some- 
thing seemed to call him out, out, toward the salt. 
His father, however, ordered a return. He didn’t 
particularly care for the fish they now caught. 
But the third thing was the most wonderful of 
all. He saw other otters! All his childhood, he 
had seen only his father and mother and brother 
and sister, but on this trip he learned that there 
were otters who did not belong to his family, and 
in one little, forest-fringed pond was a family 
just the size of his, with two girl otters in it, who 
were most attractive and not at all unfriendly 
when Brownie met them as he was chasing a 
perch. In fact, he gave one of them part of the 
fish (I am afraid after taking a bite himself out 
of the tender part behind the head), and later 
they played on the bank with a stick for about an 
