sandpiper call, coming, apparently, from far up in the forest 
on the hillside, but it seemed to be more mournful than 
usual. They had heard that a young spotted fawn had fallen 
_ from the bluff into the channel and been killed the night 
_ before, and, as they turned to look at its straight, slender 
legs, stretched out in the creek, they saw the Spotted Sand- 
piper a short distance away. Her call was not mournful, 
but anxious; not on the hill, but almost at their feet. Well 
might the little mother be troubled, as with her were four 
small creatures that twenty-four hours before were fastened 
up in eggs; but now these little ones were tripping up and 
down; poking their slender bills into the sand for food, or 
running about as if they had always done it. She buzzed 
across the stream at sight of visitors, calling ‘“tiddle-de- 
wink! tiddle-de-wink,” and at first, the two-inch downy 
things were afraid to follow, but stood, teetering the places 
where their tails were voing to be, on the brink of the 
stream. | 
As her ealls grew louder the biggest baby ran to the 
waters’ edge and boldly ventured into the swift-current. 
_ Getting beyond his depth, he needed no swimming lesson, 
_ but used his partly webbed toes to paddle strongly toward | 
his mother. She waited for him, and then started away 
— over logs and stones, still calling and teetering. The second - 
and third bunches of down tipped-tail into water and soon 
climbed the opposite bank, walking the full length of one 
naked, white log before they found the protection they were 
seeking. The fourth, and tiniest one, stood afraid to dare 
the big ocean that flowed between him and mother. Yet as 
his family disappeared, a panic of fear urged him to make 
the plunge, and his brave little heart and legs took him over 
to where his mother called in the shadow of a bunch of 
dwarf alders. 
When he reached her, she cukleod him i in, along with the 
rest of her clever younglings clucking in soft, cuddly tones, 
and peace seemed to descend that June Fverus into the 
valley at Golden. 
191 
