40 Ways of Wood Folk. 



Slowly I backed the canoe away till it was out of 

 sight around the point, though I could still see the 

 mother bird through the bushes. She swam rapidly 

 about where the canoe had been, calling more loudly ; 

 but the little fellow had lost confidence in her, or was 

 too frightened, and refused to show himself. At last 

 she discovered him, and with quacks and flutters that 

 looked to me a bit hysteric pulled him out of his 

 hiding place. How she fussed over him ! How she 

 hurried and helped and praised and scolded him all 

 the way over ; and fluttered on ahead, and clucked 

 the brood out of their hiding places to meet him ! 

 Then, with all her young about her, she swept round 

 the point into the quiet bay that was their training 

 school. 



And I, drifting slowly up the lake into the sunset 

 over the glassy water, was thinking how human it all 

 was. " Doth he not leave the ninety and nine in the 

 wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he 

 find it.?" 



