high and graceful spout. The calf, always hungry,
because he had such a lot of growing to do and was in such a hurry to
do it, fell at once to nursing again, while the mother lay basking half
asleep. Overhead, some great white gulls flapped and screamed against
the sharp blue, now and then dropping with a splash to snatch some fish
from the transparent slope of a wave. A couple of hundred yards away
three seals lay basking on an ice-floe, and in the distance could be
seen other whales spouting. So the mother knew that she and her baby
were not alone in these wide bright spaces of sea and sky.

"As a general rule, the great whale was apt to stay not more than two
or three minutes at the surface, but to spend most of her time in the
moderate depths. Now, however, with her big baby to nurse, she would
often linger basking at the surface till her appetite drove her to
activity. In general, also, she was apt to be rather careless about
keeping watch against her enemies. But now she was vigilant even when
she seemed asleep, and anything the least bit out of the ordinary was
enough to make her take alarm. As she lay sluggishly rocking, the
great blackish round of her head and back now all awash, now rising
like a reef above the waves, she suddenly caught sight of a white furry
head with a black tip to its nose, swiftly cleaving the water. She
knew it was only a white bear swimming, and she knew also that it was
not big enough to dare attack her calf. But with her foolish mother
fears she objected to its even being in the neighborhood. She swept
her dark bulk around so as to hide the little one from the white
swimmer's eyes, and lay glaring at him with suspicious fury. The bear,
however, hardly condescended to glance at her. He was after those
basking seals on the ice-floes. Presently he dived, a long, long dive,
and came up suddenly at the very edge of the ice, caught the nearest
seal by the throat just as they were all hurling themselves into the
water.

"To this unhappy affair the old whale did not give so much as a second
look. So long as the bear kept a respectful distance from her precious
baby she didn't care how many silly seals he killed.

"But presently she observed, far away among her spouting kindred, the
black, slow-moving shape of a steam whaler. In some past experience
she had learned that these strange creatures, which seemed to have
other creatures, very small, but very, very dangerous, insid