chosen his mate until death
should part them; and whenever there were eggs in the nest, he was as
patient about brooding them as she was; for did they not belong to both
of them, and did they not contain two fine young eagles in the making?

And never had they had finer children than the two who that moment were
opening hungry mouths and begging for food. In answer to their teasing,
Uncle Sam spread his great wings and took stately flight to the lake.
For he was a fisherman. When a fish came to the surface, he would try to
catch it in his strong claws, so that he might have food to take back to
his waiting family. This was easy for him when the fish was wounded or
weak and had come to the surface to die; but the quick fishes often
escaped, because he was not so skillful at this sort of fishing as the
osprey.

Yes, the osprey was a wonderful fisherman, who could snatch a fish from
the water in his sure claws. But for all that, he was not so wonderful
as Uncle Sam, who could catch a fish in the air.

[Illustration: _The Yankee-Doodle Twins._]

Now, fishing in the air was a thrilling game that Uncle Sam loved. All
the wild delight of a chase was in the sport. He used, sometimes, to sit
high up on a cliff and watch the osprey swoop down to the water. Then,
when the hawk mounted with the prize, Uncle Sam flew far above him and
swept downward, commanding him to drop the fish. The smaller bird
obeyed, and let the fish fall from his claws. But it never fell far.
Uncle Sam closed his mighty wings and dropped with such speed that he
caught the fish in mid-air; and the tree-tops swayed with the sudden
wind his passing caused. Surely there was never a more exciting way of
going fishing than this!

And did the fish belong to the osprey or to Uncle Sam?

What would you call a man who, by power of greater strength, took away
the food another man had earned?

Are we, then, to call Uncle Sam a thief and a bully?

Ah, no; because it is not with an eagle as it is with a man.

For the wild things of the world there is only one law, and that is the
Law of Nature. They must live as they are made to live, and that is all
that concerns them. There is nothing for bird or beast or blossom to
learn about "right" or "wrong," as we learn about those things. All they
need to do--any of them--is to live naturally.

When we think about it that way, it is very easy to tell whether the
fish belonged to the osprey or to Uncle Sam. Of course,