THE BOY WHO KNEW WHAT THE BIRDS SAID
roofs and to plant apple-trees—there was few left to do these things for all the young men were out on the mountain hunting for an eagle.
"The people of Windy-Gap will be ruined," said the people of Half-a-Loaf, "they have done nothing yet to catch the Eagle. When the King gets no tribute from them he'll come down and sell them and their village. Call the young men back that have gone into the fields to work and send them up the mountain again."
At last the people of Half-a-Loaf caught their Eagle—a great golden Eagle he was. They built for him a shed and they fed him on what lambs they had that year.
"We're safe anyway," said the people of Half-a-Loaf, "but the unfortunate folk in Windy-Gap have lost their chance. They'll not have time to catch an eagle now. "
The time was coming near when the two villages would have to send their tribute to the King.
"We have our Eagle," said the people of Half-a-Loaf, "But O, Bad Fortune! we have hardly
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