THE WATER-HEN 
damp and draggled, and even while she watched 
the fourth egg split and its occupant struggled 
into the world. 
The sunshine had already left the Pool when 
the elder chicks grew impatient, and scrambled 
over the precipice of the nest's side into the 
water. Karruck came over at once and took 
charge of them. His pride in his children 
was monstrous. He pulled big bill-fulls of cress 
and starwort and called to the little ones to 
watch how he did it, while they paddled round 
him like fussy steam-tugs round a larger barque, 
and gaped with their yellow and geranium 
beaks which had not yet learned to peck. 
At nightfall Karruck took the chicks to the 
new nest, and brooded over them faithfully ; 
but Cearc-uise kept her place upon the original 
nest, which now contained one newly hatched 
chick and a doubtful egg. 
VII 
Towards midnight, as Cearc-uise listened to 
the distant babble of the river, she grew very 
restless. Twice she stood up with that 
deliberate grace which is the moorhen's heri- 
tage among birds, and tried to coax the chick 
to follow her into the water, but he was too 
weak and could only sprawl impotently beside 
19 
