“Why haven’t you spoken of this before?” he asked.  “You shall have all the food you want.  There’s no need of your starving when you have an eagle for a travelling companion.”

Just then the eagle sighted a farmer who was sowing a field near the river strand.  The man carried the seeds in a basket suspended from his neck, and each time that it was emptied he refilled it from a seed sack which stood at the end of the furrow.  The eagle reasoned it out that the sack must be filled with the best food that the boy could wish for, so he darted toward it.  But before the bird could get there a terrible clamour arose about him.  Sparrows, crows, and swallows came rushing up with wild shrieks, thinking that the eagle meant to swoop down upon some bird.

“Away, away, robber!  Away, away, bird-killer!” they cried.  They made such a racket that it attracted the farmer, who came running, so that Gorgo had to flee, and the boy got no seed.

The small birds behaved in the most extraordinary manner.  Not only did they force the eagle to flee, they pursued him a long distance down the valley, and everywhere the people heard their cries.  Women came out and clapped their hands so that it sounded like a volley of musketry, and the men rushed out with rifles.

The same thing was repeated every time the eagle swept toward the ground.  The boy abandoned the hope that the eagle could procure any food for him.  It had never occurred to him before that Gorgo was so much hated.  He almost pitied him.

In a little while they came to a homestead where the housewife had just been baking.  She had set a platter of sugared buns in the back yard to cool and was standing beside it, watching, so that the cat and dog should not steal the buns.

The eagle circled down to the yard, but dared not alight right under the eyes of the peasant woman.  He flew up and down, irresolute; twice he came down as far as the chimney, then rose again.

The peasant woman noticed the eagle.  She raised her head and followed him with her glance.

“How peculiarly he acts!” she remarked.  “I believe he wants one of my buns.”

She was a beautiful woman, tall and fair, with a cheery, open countenance.  Laughing heartily, she took a bun from the platter, and held it above her head.

“If you want it, come and take it!” she challenged.

While the eagle did not understand her language, he knew at once that she was offering him the bun.  With lightning speed, he swooped to the bread, snatched it, and flew toward the heights.

When the boy saw the eagle snatch the bread he wept for joy—­not because he would escape suffering hunger for a few days, but because he was touched by the peasant woman’s sharing her bread with a savage bird of prey.

Where he now sat on the pine branch he could recall at will the tall, fair woman as she stood in the yard and held up the bread.