got a wife and children. He will be dreadfully lonesome away down
here."

"Maybe you had better take him back with you on the _Kammerboy_," said
Russ thoughtfully, to the quartermaster.

But the officer could not do that. There had been some objection made
already to the big sea-eagle caged on deck. Besides, the bird's wing was
better, and if he was kept much longer confined, the quartermaster said,
he might forget how to fly!

So they all gathered around (but at a good distance from the cage you
may be sure), and the eagle was released. He had to be poked out of the
cage, for it seemed as though he could scarcely believe that the door
was open and he was free.

He stalked out upon the deck, his great claws rattling on the planks. He
turned his head from side to side, and then opened his beak and, so Vi
said, he hissed at them!

"At any rate," admitted Russ afterward, "he did make a funny noise."

"He was clearing his throat," said Laddie, with scorn of his twin. "How
could an eagle hiss? He isn't a goose."

Laddie knew all about geese, for Grandma Bell had geese. But he did not
know all about eagles, that was sure! Whether Red Eye hissed, or
growled, or whatever he did in his throat, he certainly showed little
friendliness. He raised his wings and flapped them "to see if they
worked right." Then he uttered a decided croak and jumped a little way
off the deck.

Evidently this decided him that he was really free and that his great
wings would bear him. He leaped into the air again, spreading his wings,
and wheeled to go over the stern of the steamship. The spread of his
wings when he flapped them was greater than most of the onlookers had
supposed.

"Oh! Oh! Look out, Laddie!" shouted Rose.

Her warning came too late. The end of the great pinion swept Laddie off
his feet! He went rolling across the deck, screaming lustily.

"Oh! I'm going overboard! Daddy!" he cried.

But it was Russ who grabbed him and stood him on his feet again.

"You're not going overboard at all," said the older brother. "You
couldn't. You'd have to climb over the rail to do it."

"We-ell!" breathed Laddie. "It's a wonder he didn't take me right with
him!"

Then he, like everybody else, became interested in the passage of the
great bird as it mounted skyward. It went up in a long slant at first,
and then began to spiral upward, right toward the sun, and presently was
out of sight.

"It can look the sun straight in the face," sai