ships rose from the
camp and sailed through the air, like mighty birds meant for mighty
deeds. For Uncle Sam's country was at war, and many brave and noble lads
thrilled with pride because they were going to help win a battle for
Right.

The bravest and noblest and most fearless of all the camp caught sight
of Uncle Sam and smiled. "Emblem of my country!" the young man said.
"King of the air in your strong flight! Great deeds are to be done, O
Eagle with the snow-white head, and your banner will be foremost in the
fight."

Uncle Sam made no reply. He was too far away to hear, and he could not
have understood if he had been near. He saw the distant airships, so big
and strong, and led his family away to quieter places, without knowing
at all what the big birds were, or what they meant to do. There was so
much happening in the country that honored him, that Uncle Sam could not
understand!

He did not even know that, far to the northwest, there was a part of the
country called Alaska, where eagles had lived in safety and had brought
up their young in peace long after their haunts in most parts of the
land had been disturbed. He did not know that the government of Alaska
was at that moment paying people fifty cents for every eagle they would
kill, and that in two years about five thousand of these noble birds
were to die in that manner. He did not know that, if such deeds kept on,
before many years there would be no eagles flying proudly through the
air: there would be only pictures of eagles on our money and banners. If
he could have been told what was happening, and that there was danger
that the country would be without a living emblem, and that there might
be only stuffed emblems in museums, would he not have thought, "Surely
the strong, wise men who go forth to fight for right and liberty will
see that the bird of freedom has a home in their land!"

No; Uncle Sam knew nothing about such matters, and so he busied his mind
with the things he did know, and was not sad.

He knew where the swamp was, and in the swamp the ducks were thick. They
were good-tasting ducks, and there were so many of them that hunters
with guns and dogs gathered there from all the country round. And the
hunters wounded some birds that the dogs did not get, and these could
not fly off at migrating time.

Now, Uncle Sam and his family found the wounded ducks easy to catch, and
they were nearly as well pleased with them for food as with fish.