It is nearly always foggy at Novastoshnah , except when the sun comes out and makes everything look all pearly and rainbow-colored for a little while . Kotick , Matkah 's baby , was born in the middle of that confusion , and he was all head and shoulders , with pale , watery blue eyes , as tiny seals must be , but there was something about his coat that made his mother look at him very closely . `` Sea Catch , '' she said , at last , `` our baby 's going to be white ! '' `` Empty clam-shells and dry seaweed ! '' snorted Sea Catch . `` There never has been such a thing in the world as a white seal . '' `` I ca n't help that , '' said Matkah ; `` there 's going to be now . '' And she sang the low , crooning seal song that all the mother seals sing to their babies : You must n't swim till you 're six weeks old , Or your head will be sunk by your heels ; And summer gales and Killer Whales Are bad for baby seals . Are bad for baby seals , dear rat , As bad as bad can be ; But splash and grow strong , And you ca n't be wrong . Child of the Open Sea ! Of course the little fellow did not understand the words at first . He paddled and scrambled about by his mother 's side , and learned to scuffle out of the way when his father was fighting with another seal , and the two rolled and roared up and down the slippery rocks . Matkah used to go to sea to get things to eat , and the baby was fed only once in two days , but then he ate all he could and throve upon it . The first thing he did was to crawl inland , and there he met tens of thousands of babies of his own age , and they played together like puppies , went to sleep on the clean sand , and played again . The old people in the nurseries took no notice of them , and the holluschickie kept to their own grounds , and the babies had a beautiful playtime . When Matkah came back from her deep-sea fishing she would go straight to their playground and call as a sheep calls for a lamb , and wait until she heard Kotick bleat . Then she would take the straightest of straight lines in his direction , striking out with her fore flippers and knocking the youngsters head over heels right and left . There were always a few hundred mothers hunting for their children through the playgrounds , and the babies were kept lively . But , as Matkah told Kotick , `` So long as you do n't lie in muddy water and get mange , or rub the hard sand into a cut or scratch , and so long as you never go swimming when there is a heavy sea , nothing will hurt you here . '' Little seals can no more swim than little children , but they are unhappy till they learn .
The first time that XXXXX went down to the sea a wave carried him out beyond his depth , and his big head sank and his little hind flippers flew up exactly as his mother had told him in the song , and if the next wave had not thrown him back again he would have drowned .
Kotick Novastoshnah Whales days first gales holluschickie left nurseries playgrounds