BIRD STORIES 



Uncle Sam made no reply. He was too far away to 

 hear, and he could not have understood if he had been 

 near. He saw the distant airships, so big and strong, and 

 led his family away to quieter places, without knowing 

 at all what the big birds were, or what they meant to do. 

 There was so much happening in the country that hon- 

 ored him, that Uncle Sam could not understand ! 



He did not even know that, far to the northwest, 

 there was a part of the country called Alaska, where 

 eagles had lived in safety and had brought up their 

 young in peace long after their haunts in most parts of 

 the land had been disturbed. He did not know that the 

 government of Alaska was at that moment paying 

 people fifty cents for every eagle they would kill, and 

 that in two years about five thousand of these noble 

 birds were to die in that manner. He did not know 

 that, if such deeds kept on, before many years there 

 would be no eagles flying proudly through the air: there 

 would be only pictures of eagles on our money and ban- 

 ners. If he could have been told what was happening, 

 and that there was danger that the country would be 

 without a living emblem, and that there might be 

 only stuffed emblems in museums, would he not have 

 thought, "Surely the strong, mse men who go forth to 

 fight for right and liberty will see that the bird of free- 

 dom has a home in their land!'^ 



94 



