anything that's harmless unless we need it for some purpose. The
Indians and other people about here shoot at loons for sport. I've
seen them chase the loons in canoes and keep shooting at them every
time they came up after a dive, until the loons were too tired to dive
quickly enough to get out of the way of the shot, and then the poor
things were killed. The flesh isn't fit to eat and they're always
thrown away. That is cruel."

"I never thought of un that way. I've killed loons too," David
confessed, "but I'll never shoot at a loon again. 'Tis the same with
gulls and other things we never uses when we kills, and just shoot at
for fun."

"That's the idea," said Doctor Joe enthusiastically. "Now what do you
think about killing hen partridges in summer?"

"We can kill pa'tridges, can't we?" asked David. "We always eats un,
and you said we could kill un."

"But we've got to use our heads about it," Doctor Joe explained. "I'm
talking now about _hen_ partridges in _summer_. They always have
broods of little partridges then. If you kill the mother all the
little ones die, for they're too small to take care of themselves. Do
you think that's right?"

"I never thought of un before," said David. "'Tis wicked to kill un!
I'll never kill a hen pa'tridge in summer again! Not me!"

"We'll have to be tellin' everybody in the Bay about that!" declared
Andy. "Nobody has ever thought about the poor little uns starvin' and