ck in the harbor, you
know, Rose," her brother rejoined.

"And it's not a gull," said the man, squinting his eyes to look at the
distant bird. "It's too big. I declare! I think that's an eagle."

"Oh! An eagle like those on top of the flagstaffs?" cried Russ.

"And on the gold pieces?" added Rose, for she had a gold piece that had
been given her on her last birthday.

"No, not that kind of eagle," said the man. "But he's related. Yes, sir;
it's a sea-eagle; some call 'em, I guess rightly, ospreys. They're
fishers, but they can't roost on the sea. That one's a long way off
shore. Something is the matter with him."

"Do you suppose he's hungry?" asked Rose doubtfully.

"I shouldn't wonder if hunger drove him out here so far from land," said
the sailor, smiling. "But he's been hurt. You can see how his left wing
droops. Yes, something has happened to that bird."

The bird beat his way heavily toward the ship. First it rose a little
way in the air, and then it slid down as though almost helpless, beating
its good wing prodigiously to keep from falling into the water.

"He's making bad weather of it," said the sailor. "Poor chap. If he
comes aboard----"

"Oh! we'll feed him and mend his wing," cried Rose. "He's just
like--Why, Russ Bunker! that poor bird is just what Aunt Jo called poor
Sam, a tramp. That is what he is."

"A sea-going tramp, I guess," said the sailor, laughing.

But he watched the coming sea bird quite as interestedly as did the two
children. The creature seemed to have selected the steamship as its
objective point, and it beat its good wing furiously so as to get into
the course of the _Kammerboy_.

"Can we have the bird if it gets aboard, Mr. Officer?" asked Russ
eagerly.

"If I can catch it without killing it--for they are very fierce
birds--it shall be yours," promised the man.

At once, therefore, the eagerness and interest of Russ and Rose Bunker
were vastly increased. They clung to the rail and watched the
approaching bird with anxious eyes. It was coming head on toward the bow
of the ship. Would the _Kammerboy_ get past so swiftly that the
sea-eagle could not reach it?

The uncertainty of this, and the evident effort of the great bird to fly
a little farther, greatly excited the two older of the six little
Bunkers.

CHAPTER VII

A SIGNAL OF DISTRESS

The steamship was pursuing her course so swiftly, but so easily, that
Russ and Rose Bunker scarcely realized that the ch