ONE day a mother Eagle came flying out of
her nest, to look for food
for her babies.
She circled round and round, far up
in the
air, looking down upon the
earth with her
keen eyes.
By and by she saw a little baby Fox,
whose
mother had left it alone while, like the Eagle,
she went for food.
Down came the bird, whirr went her wings,
and away she soared again, with the little Fox
clutched fast in her claws.
The poor mother Fox just at that moment
came running home to her child, and saw it
being carried away.
"O Eagle!" she cried, "leave
me my one
little baby. Remember your
own children,
and how you would feel if one of them should
be taken away. O bring back my poor cub!"
But the cruel Eagle, thinking that the
Fox
could never reach her, in her nest high in the
pine-tree, flew away with the little Fox, and
left the poor mother to cry.
But the mother Fox
did not stop to cry
long. She ran to a fire that
was burning in
the field, caught up a blazing stick
of wood,
and ran with it in her mouth, to the pine-tree
where the Eagle had her nest.
The Eagle saw her coming, and knew
that
the Fox would soon have the tree on fire, and
that all her young ones would be burned. So,
to save her own brood, she begged the Fox to
stop, and brought her back her little one, safe
and sound.
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