truggled and flopped, but his short wings could not raise him from
the water with those weights fastened upon his feet. Then his black
head shot under, and he jabbed savagely this way and that, making
dreadful wounds in those soft, furry bodies. But the muskrats never
heeded a wound. They swarmed upon their enemy with a splendid,
reckless rage. _They'd_ teach him to stab Water Babies!

"And they did, too! In a minute or so they had pulled the old robber
clean under, where they could all get at him; and, my! you should have
seen how the water boiled! But it was only for a minute or two. Then
two muskrats came up, bleeding, but proud as you please, and then two
or three more; and they all went ashore to lick their wounds and make
their toilets, for, as you may imagine, their hair was somewhat
disarranged.

"And then, while they were combing their fur with the claws of their
little forepaws, like hands, who should come up but Dagger Bill; but
his feet came up first, and he didn't come up far, anyway, and he
didn't stir. In fact, he was good and dead--so dead that presently a
young chub, and a red-fin, and two sunfish, came up and swam round him
curiously.

"You see, they thought they might never have another chance to get such
a _good, comfortable_ look at a loon, and be able to talk about it
afterwards."

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILDREN OF THE WILD***

******* This file should be named 16077.txt or 16077.zip *******

This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/0/7/16077

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, report