Each year this story is played out in nature...

The Mother Loon
Clayton Anderson Bell

Many years ago, during a hot July afternoon, I was sitting on my deck overlooking the lake on whose shore I had a cabin. My wife was busy inside preparing for visitors due the following day.
I noticed a mother loon and her single baby swimming not far off shore. The mother was busy catching food for the little one and all seemed right with the world. A dark shadow appeared over the baby loon and suddenly the baby was gone. An Eagle had swooped down from its hunting circle high above the lake and snatched away the baby.
The mother loon surfaced with a small fish in her mouth to feed the baby loon. On seeing that the baby was gone she began a frantic search on the water. Around and around she swam till at last she realized that her baby was gone. I cannot describe how my heart ached for her.
Later that evening I noticed the mother loon swimming close to my cabin, head low in the water and slowly treading in circles.
The next day our visitors arrived, a mother and young child about eight years old.
The young child, stood at the railing of the deck and looking out on the lake, spotted the mother loon and began to sing in her small, sweet voice, a lullaby the little girl’s mother had taught her years before. The mother loon seemed to suddenly lift her head and started swimming towards the cabin deck.
In all my years I had never seen anything like this, the action between a human and a wild bird. The mother loon cried out in a low haunting cry as the little girl continued to sing to her. I stood in the shadow of the cabin unseen by the child and the mother loon and could not move. As the little girl’s lullaby ended she waved her small hand as if to say a final farewell and went back into the cabin. The mother loon turned away and swam far out on the lake.
This little girl and her mother soon went back to their home in the city and life carried on. Then one day I received a small parcel in the mail. I opened it and there was a beautifully carved and painted baby loon. To this day I have that baby loon in my china cabinet. It sits on the top shelf at the very front so I see it each time I pass, and the little girl…. her name was Caroline.