e was uncovered, and
anxiously stretched out his head, he found himself again on the edge
of that shallow pool in the marshes where fate had overtaken him. The
brown retriever was sitting on his haunches close by, regarding him
amicably. The man was fastening one end of the tether to a stake at
the water's edge, and from the east a grayness touched with chill pink
was spreading over the sky.

A moment later the surprised bird found himself standing among the wet
sedge, close to the water. With a nervous glance at the dog, whom he
shrank from with more dread than from the man, he launched himself
into the water and swam straight out from shore.

This time, surely, he was free. Next to the spacious solitudes of the
air, this was his proper element. How exquisite to the thin webs of
his feet felt the coolness of it, as he pushed against it with strong
strokes! How it curled away luxuriously from his gray, firm-feathered
breast! This was to live again, after the pain and humiliation of his
captivity! And yonder, far down the mere, and past those tall reeds
standing shadowy in the pallor, surely he would find the flock which
had moved on without him! Then, all at once, it was as if something
had clutched him by the leg. With a startled cry and a splash he
tipped forward, and his glad journey came to an end. He had reached
the limit of his tether.

Remembering his experience of the day before, he made no vain
struggle, but floated quietly for a minute or two, stricken with his
disappointment. The man and the big brown dog had disappeared; but
presently his keen and sagacious eyes detected them both, lying
motionless in a thicket of reeds. Having stared at them indignantly
for a few moments, swimming slowly to and fro and transfixing them
with first one eye and then the other, he ducked his head and began
biting savagely at the leathern wrapping on his leg. But the
uselessness of this soon appearing to him, he gave it up, and sought
to ease his despair by diving and guttering with his bill among the
roots of the oozy bottom. In this absorbing occupation he so far
forgot his miseries that all at once he tried to lift himself on the
water, flap his wings, and sound his trumpet-call. One wing did give a
frantic flap. The other surged fiercely against its bandages, sending
a throb of anguish through his frame, and the trumpet-call broke in a
single hoarse _honk_. After this he floated for a long time in
dejection, while the le