n. 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.

She must have known that the large bird was a golden eagle--a plunderer,
who was usually welcomed with loud shots; doubtless she had also seen
the queer changeling he bore on his back. But she had not thought of
what they were. As soon as she understood that they were hungry, she
shared her good bread with them.

"If I ever become human again," thought the boy, "I shall look up the
pretty woman who lives near the great river, and thank her for her
kindness to us."

THE FOREST FIRE

While the boy was still at his breakfast he smelled a faint odour of
smoke coming from the north. He turned and saw a tiny spiral, white as a
mist, rise from a forest ridge--not from the one nearest him, but from
the one beyond it. It looked strange to see smoke in the wild forest,
but it might be that a mountain stock farm lay over yonder, and the
women were boiling their morning coffee.

It was remarkable the way that smoke increased and spread! It could not
come from a ranch, but perhaps there were charcoal kilns in the forest.

The smoke increased every moment. Now it curled over the whole mountain
top. It was not possible that so much smoke could come from a charcoal
kiln. There must be a conflagration of some sort, for many birds flew
over to the nearest ridge. Hawks, grouse, and other birds, who were so
small that it was impossible to recognize them at such a distance, fled
from the fire.

The tiny white spiral of smoke gr