THE BOY WHO KNEW WHAT THE BIRDS SAID
Half-a-Loaf and Windy-Gap, send me my rightful tribute," said the King to them.
"There isn't much we can send. . . ." said the Headman of Half-a-Loaf .
"A string of salmon," said the Headman of Windy-Gap.
"A basket of plover's eggs," said the Headman of Half-a-Loaf.
"No," said the King, "the tribute that each of your villages must send me is the King of the Birds."
The two Headmen went back to their villages, and that very day each told at the council what tribute the King had ordered them to send. "The King of the Birds," said the people of Half-a-Loaf, "That's the Eagle surely." "The King of the Birds," said the people of Windy-Gap. "What Bird might that be? We'll have to give thought to this."
The people of Windy-Gap thought about it and thought about it, but the people of Half-a-Loaf declared there was no doubt at all about it the Eagle was the King of the Birds. And while the
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