aid o' settin' fire to the withered leaves o' the tree an'
burnin' up the neest, which wud 'a' been like killin' the goose as laid
the eggs o' gold.

"I mout a managed that sort o' existence for a longer spell, tho' I
acknowledge it war tiresome enuf. But it warn't that as made me anxious
to see it up, but suthin' very different. I seed that the young baldies
war every day gettin' bigger. Thar feathers war comin' out all over, an'
I ked tell that it wudn't be long till they wud take wing.

"When that time kum, about whar shed I be? still in the tree or worse;
but whar was my purvision to kum from? who wud supply me wi' fish, an'
flesh, an' fowl, as the eagles hed done? Clurly neery one. It war this
thort as made me uneasy.

"I must do suthin' to git down out o' that tree, or die among its
branches, an' I spent all my spare time in thinkin' what mout be did. I
used to read in Webster's Spellin' Book that needsessity are the mother
o' invention. I reckon Ole Web warn't far astray when he prented them
ere words. Anyways it proved true in the case o' Zeb Stump, when he war
trapped in that cyprus.

"I hed noticed that the two ole eagles becum tamer, as they got used to
me. They seed that I did no harm to their chicks, 'ceptin' so far as to
abstrack from 'em a portion o' thar daily allowance. But I allers tuk
care to leave them sufficient for themselves; an' as thar parents
appeared to hev no difficulty in purvidin' them wi' plenty,--unlike many
parents in yur country, friend, as I've heerd,--my pilferin' didn't seem
much to distress 'em. They grew at last so that they'd sit on the one
side o' the neest, while I war peepin' over the other! I seed that I ked
easily snare them; an' I made up my mind to do this very thing; for a
partickler purpuss which promised to extercate me out o' the ugly scrape
I hed so foolishly got into.

"I hed noticed that the eagles war both big birds, an' strong i' the
wing. Everybody ort to know thet much. It therefore occurred to me that
I mout make them wings do me a sarvice,--otherways that they shed carry
me out o' the tree. In coorse I didn't intend they shed take me up i'
the air. There warn't much danger o' that. I only thort they mout sarve
to break my fall, like one o' them flyin' things,--paryshoots I believe
they calls 'em. Arter I'd got my plan tol'ably well traced out, I sot
about trappin' the ole eagles. In less 'n an hour's time I hed both on
'em in my keepin' wi' thar beaks spli