Mother West Wind How" Stories"

o

EAGLE WON H

ling across the snowy white face of a cloud. It didn't seem possible that it could be alive way up there. But it was. Peter knew that it was, and he knew who it was. It was King Eag

e able to fly like that," said he

him that Peter jumped. There was Sammy Jay

r it made him a wee bit

vious of any bird. The ground is good enoug

n King Eagle close

squatting in a bunch of grass quite near and could see him very plainly. He is big and fierce-looking, but he l

-and that white head is the sign of his royalty given his great-great-ever-so

t, Sammy," he begged. "Tell me about it

o you good to hear it. I supposed everybody knew it. All bird

f their own kind. So they refused to have old King Bear as their king and went to Old Mother Nature to ask her to appoint a king of the air. Now Mr. Eagle was one of the biggest and strongest and most respected of all the birds of the air. There were some, like Mr. Goose and Mr. Swan,

g Bear, he grew stronger of wing and feared no one and nothing. Now this was in the days when the world was young, and Old Mother Nature was very busy trying to make the world a good place to live in, so she had ve

tened to the complaints of the other birds and settled their disputes, and none questioned his decisions. Now after a while, this little part of the earth where the animals and the birds first lived becam

Eagle, sitting on the edge of the cliff on the mountain, thought it all over. Old Mother Nature ought to know how things were. He would send a messenger to try to fin

her had a pain in his wings. One and all they had an excuse until Hummer, the tiniest of

He thanked Hummer and told him that his heart was as big as his body was small, but that he would not send him out into the Great World, for he would go himself. He had been but trying out his subjects

ing hard to do, it was the king's place to do it, so he himself was going out into the unknown Great World to find Mother Nature and see what could be done to make things better

was set to choose a new king. That morning, as soon as it was light enough to see, little Mr. Hummer darted away, and his heart was heavy. He would take no part in choosing a new king. He would go until he found King Eagle or until something happened to him. Pretty soon he saw a speck way up against a clo

n search of Old Mother Nature, and now they proved it again. Instead of waiting to give King Eagle a royal welcome, they hurried away, one after another. They were afraid to meet him, because in their hearts they knew that they had don

d Mother Nature preparing a new land for them, and that when she gave the word, he would lead them to it. Then King Eagle flew to his home on the cliff of the mountain, and not

ng Eagle had suffered, and how he had proved himself a royal king. As a reward she promised that his family should be rulers over the birds forever, and

nd touched his throat, and behold a shining ruby wa

ent forth and peopled the Great World, and King Eagle and his children and his children's children hav