Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-02
KEEPERS OF THE NEST

so from the waters edge. Then he skunk off
without pausing to digest the situation. the
most dispirited fisher that had ever roamed
the maskeeg.
The swan, catching glimpse of his flight,
filled the solitudes with the sonorous trum-
petings of his triumph, and swan proudly
back to the nest.
A S the five long weeks of brooding for the
= patient mother on her nest drew near
an end, there came to the Barren Grounds
time of unprecedented drought. The in
Vulnerable streams that drained the soaking
maskeeg ran shallow as they had never run
before within the memory of the long lived
swans. Under the long unshadowed warmth
the lake shrank amazingly; and at last, to
the vexation of the keepers of the nest, their
lslet ceased to be perfectly an islet. The
group of tilted strata that formed it rose so
far out of water that thin topped ledge was
revealed connecting them with the shore.
1t was no more than series of widely separ-
ated and precarious stepping stones, awash
in the smallest ripple; but it was enough to
allow sufficiently nimble wanderer to visit
the islet dry shod. The swans eyed it with
growing disquiet.
At last came the day when the patient
brooder heard STRINGS, and tappings, and
thin little cries coming from the six precious
eggs beneath her breast. From time to time
she would lower her head among them to
listen enraptured, or to answer with soft
sounds of encouragement in her throat. Her
mate drew closer to the nest, forgetting to
eat, but never forgetting to keep flercely
watchful eye upon the ledge connecting with
the shore.
Soon one of the baby cygnets, having di-
vided the shell into two halves by the or
dered strokes of his sharp tipped bill, thrust
up the top portion as if it had been lid, and
sprawled forth all wet against its mothers
hot and naked breast. The mother pushed
one half of the shell within the other, that
they might take up less room, and then, a
little later, threw them out of the nest lest
they should get fitted on over the end of an
other egg and smother the occupant. Pres
taneously. The eCStatic mother was now
half standing in the nest to give the damp
spraWlers room.
TT was at this time that the old gray lynx,
= proving down nearer to the waters edge
than was his wont, observed the stepping
stones and decided to come over. He had
wanted those great white birds for long
time.
Now, the most powerful of swans, in usual
circumstances and conditions, is no match
for the lynx, but helpless quarry, merely, for
that fierce and powerful marauder. But
often in defense of their young the wild crea-
lures develop powers and heroisms un-
dreamed of at other times. At such period
they become utterly reckless of odds; and
such temper may often accomplish the inn
possible. Moreover, it is one thing to hold
bridge and another to fight in the open.
There was no uncertainty in the minds of
the two swans as to the deadliness of this
peril. They knew all about lynxes. The
mother bird stood up among her eggs and
young, and stepped delicately from the nest
kissing and beating her wings. Both birds
knew better than to attack this foe by water
or by land. With screams of hate they rose
laboriously into the air.
The lynx had reached the second stepping
stone, a sharp and narrow one, and was bal
ancing himself with the caution of house
cat afraid of wetting her feet, before taking
the next leap. Just as he gathered himself
to spring, the male swan struck him from his
foothold. His fore paws, indeed, and his
whiskered muzzle went into the water; but