But, now that there was no hard wall about him to break, what should he
use it for? Well, nothing at all; for the joke of it is, there was no
knob there. It had dropped off, and he could never have another.

Never mind: he could open his beak just as well without it; and
by-and-by his mother came again with a second call for breakfast, and
that time Larie got his share. After that, there were calls for luncheon
and for dinner, and luncheon again between that and supper; and part of
the calls were from Mother and part from Father Gull.

Larie's second world, it seems, was a place where he and his brother and
sister were hungry and were fed. This is a world in which dwell, for a
time, all babies, whether they have two legs, like you and Larie, or
four, like a pig with a curly tail, or six, like Nata who lived in
Shanty Creek.[1] An important world it is, too; for health and strength
and growing up, all depend upon it.

There was, however, only a rim of soft fine dry grass to show where
Larie's nest-world left off and his third world began. So it is not
surprising that, as soon as their legs were strong enough, Larie and his
brother and sister stepped abroad; for what baby does not creep out of
his crib as soon as ever he can?

They could not, for all this show of bravery, feed themselves like the
sons of Peter Pan, or swim the waters like Gavia's two Olairs at Immer
Lake. However grown up the three youngsters may have felt when they
began to walk, Father and Mother Gull made no mistake about the matter,
but fed them breakfasts, dinners, and suppers, and stuffed them so full
of luncheons between meals, that the greedy little things just had to
grow, so as to be able to swallow all that was brought them.

There were times, certainly, when Larie still felt very much a baby,
even though he ran about nimbly enough. For instance, when he made a
mistake and asked some gull, that was not his father or mother, for
food, and got a rough beating instead of what he begged for!

Oh, then he felt like a forlorn little baby, indeed; for it was not
pleasant to be whipped, and that sometimes cruelly, when he didn't know
any better; for all the big gulls looked alike, with their foam-white
bodies and their pearl-gray capes, and they were all bringing food; so
how could he know who were and who were not his Father and Mother Gull?
Well, he must learn to be careful, that was all, and stay where his very
own could find and feed him; for