wn father and mother, who are what is called "bald eagles," though
their heads are not bald at all, but well covered with feathers.

These two birds that were hatched in the home that was more than seventy
years old lived to see the end of the war the young soldiers were
training for when they took their first flights together near the shore
of the same lake. And perhaps they will live to a time when the people
of their country learn to deal more and more justly with each other and
with the great bird of freedom chosen by their forefathers to be the
emblem of their proud land.

Why, indeed, if the boys and girls of the neighborhood keep up a guard
for the protection of Uncle Sam and Aunt Samantha, should they not nest
again, and yet again, in that tree-top home that has been so well taken
care of for more than threescore years and ten; and bring up
Yankee-Doodle Twins for their country in days of peace as they did in
days of war?

VII

CORBIE

Corbie's great-great-grandfather ruled a large flock from his look-out
throne on a tall pine stump, where he could see far and wide, and judge
for his people where they should feed and when they should fly.

His great-grandfather was famous for his collections of old china and
other rare treasures, having lived in the woods near the town dump,
where he picked up many a bright trinket, chief among which was an old
gold-plated watch-chain, which he kept hidden in a doll's red tea-cup
when he was not using it.

His grandfather was a handsome fellow, so glistening that he looked
rather purple when he walked in the sunshine; and he had a voice so
sweet and mellow that any minstrel might have been proud of it, though
he seldom sang, and it is possible that no one but Corbie's grandmother
heard it at its best. He was, moreover, a merry soul, fond of a joke,
and always ready to dance a jig, with a chuckle, when anything very
funny happened in crowdom.

As for the wisdom and beauty of his grandmothers all the way back, there
is so much to be said that, if I once began to tell about them, there
would be no space left for the story of Corbie himself.

[Illustration: _In this Mother Crow had laid her eggs._]

Of course, coming from a family like that, Corbie was sure to be
remarkable; for there is no doubt at all that we inherit many traits of
our ancestors.

Corbie knew very little about his own father and mother, for he was
adopted into a human family when he was ten d