Cloud Wings the Eagle. 105 



edge of the nest, and spread his wings a dozen times 

 to follow. But the plunge was too awful ; his heart 

 failed him ; and he settled back in the nest, and pulled 

 his head down into his shoulders, and shut his eyes, 

 and tried to forget that he was hungry. The mean- 

 ing of the little comedy was plain enough. She was 

 trying to teach him to fly, telling him that his wings 

 were grown and the time was come to use them ; but 

 he was afraid. 



In a little while she came back again, this time with- 

 out food, and hovered over the nest, trying every way 

 to induce the little one to leave it. She succeeded at 

 last, when with a desperate effort he sprang upward 

 and flapped to the ledge above, where I had sat and 

 watched him with Old Whitehead. Then, after .sur- 

 veying the world gravely from his new place, he 

 flapped back to the nest, and turned a deaf ear to all 

 his mother's assurances that he could fly just as easily 

 to the tree-tops below, if he only would. 



Suddenly, as if discouraged, she rose well above 

 him. I held my breath, for I knew what was coming. 

 The little fellow stood on the edge of the nest, look- 

 ing down at the plunge which he dared not take. 

 There was a sharp cry from behind, which made him 

 alert, tense as a watch-spring. The next instant the 

 mother-eagle had swooped, striking the nest at his 



