Cloud Wings the Eagle. 101 



great birds attacked me I should have fared badly, 

 for at times I was obliged to grip hard with both 

 hands, my face to the cliff, leaving the eagles free to 

 strike from above and behind. I think now that had 

 I shown fear in such a place, or shouted, or tried 

 to fray them away, they would have swooped upon 

 me, wing and claw, like furies. I could see it in 

 their fierce eyes as I looked up. But the thought of 

 the times when I had hunted him, and especially the 

 thought of that time when I had reached out of the 

 bushes and touched him, was upon Old Whitehead 

 and made him fear. So I kept steadily on my way, 

 apparently giving no thought to the eagles, though 

 deep inside I was anxious enough, and reached the 

 foot of the tree in which the nest was made. 



I stood there a long time, my arm clasping the 

 twisted old boll, looking out over the forest spread 

 wide below, partly to regain courage, partly to re- 

 assure the eagles, which were circling very near with 

 a kind of intense wonder in their eyes, but chiefly 

 to make up my mind what to do next. The tree 

 was easy to climb, but the nest a huge affair, 

 which had been added to year after year filled the 

 whole tree-top, and I could gain no foothold, from 

 which to look over and see the eaglets, without tear- 

 ing the nest to pieces. I did not want to do that, 



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