swimmer's eyes, and lay glaring at him with suspicious fury. The bear,
however, hardly condescended to glance at her. He was after those
basking seals on the ice-floes. Presently he dived, a long, long dive,
and came up suddenly at the very edge of the ice, caught the nearest
seal by the throat just as they were all hurling themselves into the
water.

"To this unhappy affair the old whale did not give so much as a second
look. So long as the bear kept a respectful distance from her precious
baby she didn't care how many silly seals he killed.

"But presently she observed, far away among her spouting kindred, the
black, slow-moving shape of a steam whaler. In some past experience
she had learned that these strange creatures, which seemed to have
other creatures, very small, but very, very dangerous, inside of them,
were the most to be dreaded of all the whale's enemies. It was at
present too far off for her to take alarm, but she lay watching the
incomprehensible monster so sharply that she almost forgot to blow.
Presently she saw it crawl up quite close to the unsuspecting shape of
one of her kinsmen. A spiteful flame leapt from its head. Then a
sharp thunder came rapping across the waves, and she saw her giant
kinsman hurl himself clear into the air. He fell back with a terrific
splash, which set the monster rolling, and, for perhaps a minute, his
struggles lashed the sea into foam. Then he lay still, and soon she
saw him drawn slowly up till he clung close to the monster's side.
This unheard-of action filled her with a terror that was quite
sickening. Clutching her calf tremblingly under her fin she plunged
once more into the deep, and, traveling as fast as possible for the
little one, at a depth of perhaps two hundred feet, she headed for
another feeding ground where she trusted that the monster might not