having returned.

The following morning Akka was awake in good season to watch for the
eagles; but she did not see them. On the other hand, she heard in the
morning stillness a cry that sounded both angry and plaintive, and it
seemed to come from the eagles' nest. "Can there possibly be anything
amiss with the eagles?" she wondered. She spread her wings quickly, and
rose so high that she could perfectly well look down into the nest.

There she saw neither of the eagles. There was no one in the nest save a
little half-fledged eaglet who was screaming for food.

Akka sank down toward the eagles' nest, slowly and reluctantly. It was a
gruesome place to come to! It was plain what kind of robber folk lived
there! In the nest and on the cliff ledge lay bleached bones, bloody
feathers, pieces of skin, hares' heads, birds' beaks, and the tufted
claws of grouse. The eaglet, who was lying in the midst of this, was
repulsive to look upon, with his big, gaping bill, his awkward,
down-clad body, and his undeveloped wings where the prospective quills
stuck out like thorns.

At last Akka conquered her repugnance and alighted on the edge of the
nest, at the same time glancing about her anxiously in every direction,
for each second she expected to see the old eagles coming back.

"It is well that some one has come at last," cried the baby eagle.
"Fetch me some food at once!"

"Well, well, don't be in such haste," said Akka. "Tell me first where
your father and mother are."

"That's what I should like to know myself. They went off yesterday
morning and left me a lemming to live upon while they were away. You can
believe that was eaten long ago. It's a shame for mother to let me
starve in this way!"

Akka began to think that the eagles had really been shot, and she
reasoned that if she were to let the eaglet starve she might perhaps be
rid of the whole robber tribe for all time. But it went very much
against her not to succour a deserted young one so far as she could.

"Why do you sit there and stare?" snapped the eaglet. "Didn't you hear
me say I want food?"

Akka spread her wings and sank down to the little lake in the glen. A
moment later she returned to the eagles' nest with a salmon trout in her
bill.

The eaglet flew into a temper when she dropped the fish in front of him.

"Do you think I can eat such stuff?" he shrieked, pushing it aside, and
trying to strike Akka with his bill. "Fetch me a willow grouse or a
lemmi