in the cottage whose
glance he did not care to meet, was Clawina, the house cat. She did him
no harm, either, but he couldn't place any confidence in her. Then, too,
she quarrelled with him constantly, because he loved human beings. "You
think they protect you because they are fond of you," said Clawina. "You
just wait until you are fat enough! Then they'll wring the neck off you.
I know them, I do."

Jarro, like all birds, had a tender and affectionate heart; and he was
unutterably distressed when he heard this. He couldn't imagine that his
mistress would wish to wring the neck off him, nor could he believe any
such thing of her son, the little boy who sat for hours beside his
basket, and babbled and chattered. He seemed to think that both of them
had the same love for him that he had for them.

One day, when Jarro and Caesar lay on the usual spot before the fire,
Clawina sat on the hearth and began to tease the wild duck.

"I wonder, Jarro, what you wild ducks will do next year, when Takern is
drained and turned into grain fields?" said Clawina. "What's that you
say, Clawina?" cried Jarro, and jumped up--scared through and through.
"I always forget, Jarro, that you do not understand human speech, like
Caesar and myself," answered the cat. "Or else you surely would have
heard how the men, who were here in the cottage yesterday, said that all
the water was going to be drained from Takern, and that next year the
lake-bottom would be as dry as a house-floor. And now I wonder where you
wild ducks will go." When Jarro heard this talk he was so furious that
he hissed like a snake. "You are just as mean as a common coot!" he
screamed at Clawina. "You only want to incite me against human beings. I
don't believe they want to do anything of the sort. They must know that
Takern is the wild ducks' property. Why should they make so many birds
homeless and unhappy? You have certainly hit upon all this to scare me.
I hope that you may be torn in pieces by Gorgo, the eagle! I hope that
my mistress will chop off your whiskers!"

But Jarro couldn't shut Clawina up with this outburst. "So you think I'm
lying," said she. "Ask Caesar, then! He was also in the house last
night. Caesar never lies."

"Caesar," said Jarro, "you understand human speech much better than
Clawina. Say that she hasn't heard aright! Think how it would be if the
people drained Takern, and changed the lake-bottom into fields! Then
there would be no more pondweed