e! wake! wake! wake!" screamed half a dozen, flying up as if to tell
the Brotherhood of the coming of strangers.

"What can be the matter with all those Sea Swallows on the other side of
the island?" asked Nat as they walked across, and a flock of a hundred
or more Terns angled by, crying mournfully. "What a very sad noise they
are making--do you think they are afraid of us?"

"They have reason enough to cry and be sad," answered Olaf, who was
walking on, a little way ahead. "They have been driven from almost all
these islands--shot for their pretty feathers, and had their nests
robbed. There wouldn't be any here now, only that some people pay the
light-keeper at the little island yonder to see that the law is kept and
that no one hunts them here. See! He is coming over now to find out what
we are doing here!"

"Who are the people that pay him, Uncle Roy?"' asked Dodo; "the Wise
Men?"

[Illustration: Common Tern.]

"Yes, the Wise Men, and some Wise Women too. You can give a part of the
money in your tin bank to help the poor birds if you wish."

"Oh yes--that is--I forgot," and Dodo whispered in her uncle's ear that
she, as well as Nat, was saving money to buy Rap a _whole_ bird book for
Christmas.

"It seems to be a very open place for nests, out here on the sand," said
Rap. "I suppose the little Gulls and Terns must be hatched with
down-feathers on." "Yes--though they are not able to take care of
themselves as quickly as young Ducks. But as soon as they can leave the
nest, they walk down to the water's edge and eat a sort of gluey stuff
that floats in on the water. So you see that unless the law protected
them they might be very easily stolen or destroyed before their wings
were strong enough to fly."

"It must be very cold for them here in the winter."

"It would be if they were obliged to stay; but both Gulls and Terns
scatter all over the country to winter, though the Terns travel much
further south."

By this time the lighthouse keeper had made his way over to them.
Finding who they were, he invited them to bring their luncheon and row
over to Little Gull Island with him, to see the lighthouse.

There was a dancing breeze when they turned homeward that afternoon; the
boat canted saucily, and little feathers of spray kept tickling Dodo's
nose.

"Are there any more water birds that we are likely to see this fall?"
asked Nat, as the Gull Islands disappeared behind them.

"There will be great flocks o