THE BALD-HEADED AMERICA!^ EAGLE. 15 



them. Where I should have declared Avar, Ben 

 brought i^eace. 



One morning, the third day after my arrival at 

 Jessie's hut, wishing to take advantage of a glorious 

 sunny day and make a long excursion along the 

 coast, I asked the girl where my young friend had 

 gone to. She sought for him, called him by name, 

 but he was nowhere to be found. I swej^t the 

 country round with my telescope, but could find no 

 trace of either Ben or his brothers. As I was 

 determined not to remain indoors, I shouldered my 

 gun, and whistled to my dog, but I had not gone 

 twenty yards before I felt how I missed Ben in my 

 solitary walk. Nevertheless, I pushed on, crossmg 

 waste lands and marshes, sometimes getting a shot 

 at a wild duck, and sometimes at a snipe, making my 

 way towards a group of rocks which raised them- 

 selves perpendicularly from the sea shore. I seemed, 

 somehow, to be irresistibly attracted towards this 

 place. 



Suddenly I heard a lamentable cry, which w^as 

 repeated by the echoes, and the cry was followed by 

 a shrill but plaintive scream. Pamning rapidly 

 round a point, I was almost stupefied by the spec- 

 tacle which presented itself to my eyes. At the end 

 of a rope, which was wound around the trunk of a 

 stunted oak, x^oor little Ben hung over the abj^ss, 

 oscillating in space, whilst a formidable eagle, with 

 his claws and beak open, was preparing to dart upon 



