104 Wilderness Ways. 



I sat perfectly still, which is the only way to reassure 

 a wild creature ; and soon I thought Cheplahgan had 

 lost his fear in his anxiety for the little ones. But the 

 moment I rose to go he was in the air again, circling 

 restlessly above my head with his mate, the same wild 

 fierceness in his eyes as he looked down. A half-hour 

 later I had gained the top of the cliff and started east- 

 ward towards the lake, coming down by a much easier 

 way than that by which I went up. Later I returned 

 several times, and from a distance watched the eaglets 

 being fed. But I never climbed to the nest again. 



One day, when I came to the little thicket on the 

 cliff where I used to lie and watch the nest through 

 my glass, I found that one eaglet was gone. The 

 other stood on the edge of the nest, looking down 

 fearfully into the abyss, whither, no doubt, his bolder 

 nest mate had flown, and calling disconsolately from 

 time to time. His whole attitude showed plainly that 

 he was hungry and cross and lonesome. Presently 

 the mother-eagle came swiftly up from the valley, and 

 there was food in her talons. She came to the edge 

 of the nest, hovered over it a moment, so as to give 

 the hungry eaglet a sight and smell of food, then went 

 slowly down to the valley, taking the food with her, 

 telling the little one in her own way to come and he 

 should have it. He called after her loudly from the 



