-berry bushes. Jean's nostrils twitched as
there was wafted up to her the strong, acrid odor which lingers about
the places of nesting birds. As her eyes became accustomed to the
dimness, she ventured a remark which died abruptly as she caught her
breath. Beneath the low canopy of branches the ground was bare of
vegetation, and on the cool brown earth, packed hard by the patter of
webbed feet, a dozen or more sea-parrots were sitting not fifteen
slanting feet below!

At the sight of them Loll dropped to his hands and knees and, club in
hand, crept cautiously down under the low-growing bushes. Inch by inch
he drew nearer to the birds. . . . Then, with a swift movement he was
in the midst of wildly flapping wings, clubbing fiercely at
crimson-beaked heads.

Jean, fearing that he was in danger, threw herself on the ground and
tried to wriggle forward to him, but the low growth made the passage of
her larger body impossible. She drew herself back and called
frantically to the boy. She could hear the commotion and see the
parrots one by one flying clumsily out as they escaped from the spot
where he fought. With a shout of encouragement to him she made another
attempt to crawl under the brush. At that moment Loll's freckled face
was thrust through the undergrowth. He turned to tug at something,
grunting and straining as if trying to free it from the tangle.

"Jean! I've got 'em! I've got 'em!" he yelled.

A second later he was standing before her, breathless, his blouse torn
from his shoulders, his face scratched. In his bleeding little hands
he held five dead sea-parrots. "Killed 'em with my club, Jean, just
like Robinson Crusoe, 'cause they can't fly away quick under there!" he
explained. "They've all got little tunnels under there, too--nests I
think they are, but I couldn't reach the end of 'em when I put in my
arm!"

An hour later Jean was attending to the cooking of the birds. When
skinned, only the breast was found to be edible. The meat when cooked
was coarse and dark red, but it was a palatable sea-parrot and dumpling
mulligan that the girl evolved.

When the men returned from Skeleton Rib that night there was more
rejoicing over the food than there was over the fact that at last
everything was in readiness at the lake for the first clean-up. Three
puddling-boxes stood full of the soft brown muck that had once been
turf. The sluices were in place ready for the water that would be
turned int