king back. She saw
me, of course, when I entered the canoe, but not once did she leave
the nest. When I reached the open lake, a little searching with my
glass always showed me her head there in the grass, still turned in my
direction apprehensively.

I had hoped to see her let the little ones out of their hard shell,
and see them first take the water; but that was too much to expect.
One day I heard them whistling in the eggs; the next day, when I
came, there was nothing to be seen on the nest-bog. I feared that
something had heard their whistling and put an untimely end to the
young Hukweems while mother bird was away. But when she came back,
after a more fearful survey than usual of the old bark canoe, two
downy little fellows came bobbing to meet her out of the grass, where
she had hidden them and told them to stay till she came back.

It was a rare treat to watch them at their first feeding, the little
ones all eagerness, bobbing about in the delight of eating and the
wonder of the new great world, the mother all tenderness and
watchfulness. Hukweem had never looked to me so noble before. This
great wild mother bird, moving ceaselessly with marvelous grace about
her little ones, watching their play with exquisite fondness, and
watching the great dangerous world for their sakes, now chiding them
gently, now drawing near to touch them with her strong bill, or to rub
their little cheeks with hers, or just to croon over them in an
ecstasy of that wonderful mother love which makes the summer
wilderness beautiful,--in ten minutes she upset all my theories, and
won me altogether, spite of what I had heard and seen of her
destructiveness on the fishing grounds. After all, why should she not
fish as well as I? And then began the first lessons in swimming and
hiding and diving, which I had waited so long to see.

Later I saw her bring little fish, which she had slightly wounded,
turn them loose in shallow water, and with a sharp cluck bring the
young loons out of their hiding, to set them chasing and diving wildly
for their own dinners. But before that happened there was almost a
tragedy.

One day, while the mother was gone fishing, the little ones came out
of their hiding among the grasses, and ventured out some distance into
the bay. It was their first journey alone into the world; they were
full of the wonder and importance of it. Suddenly, as I watched, they
began to dart about wildly, moving with astonishing rapidi