CHAPTER XV.
DAGGER BILL AND THE WATER BABIES "What's that ?" demanded the Babe nervously, as a peal of wild, crazy laughter rang out over the surface of the lake.
"Why, don't you know what _that_ is yet ?" Said Uncle Andy with a superior air.

"That's old Dagger Bill, the big black-and-white loon.
Sounds as if he was terribly amused, doesn't he?
But he's only calling to his big black-and-white mate, or the two little Dagger Bills they hatched out in the spring." "What does _he_ do ?" asked the Babe.
"I don't _know_ much about that fellow," answered Uncle Andy.

"Now you see him, and now you don't.

Mostly you don't; and, when you do, as likely as not it's only his snaky black head, with its sharp dagger of a bill, stuck up out of the water to keep track of you.

He's _most_ unsociable.