to?" asked Sammy.

"Once," replied Peter. "Once he came down to the Green Meadows and sat
in that lone tree over there, and I was squatting in a bunch of grass
quite near and could see him very plainly. He is big and fierce-looking,
but he looks his name, every inch a king. I've wondered a good many
times since how it happens that he has a white head."

"Because," replied Sammy, "he is just what he looks to be,--king of the
birds,--and that white head is the sign of his royalty given his
great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather by Old Mother Nature, way back in
the beginning of things."

Peter's eyes sparkled. "Tell me about it, Sammy," he begged. "Tell me
about it, and I won't quarrel with you any more."

"All right, Peter. I'll tell you the story, because it will do you good
to hear it. I supposed everybody knew it. All birds do. That is why we
all look up to King Eagle," replied Sammy.

"Way back in the beginning of things, old King Bear ruled in the Green
Forest, as you know. That is, he ruled the animals and all the little
people who lived on the ground, but he didn't rule the birds. You see
the birds were not willing to be ruled over by an animal. They wanted
one of their own kind. So they refused to have old King Bear as their
king and went to Old Mother Nature to ask her to appoint a king of the
air. Now Mr. Eagle was one of the biggest and strongest and most
respected of all the birds of the air. There were some, like Mr. Goose
and Mr. Swan, who were bigger, but they spent most of their time on the
water or the earth, and they had no great claws or hooked beak to
command respect as did Mr. Eagle. So Old Mother Nature made Mr. Eagle
king of the air, and as was quite right and proper, all the birds
hastened to pay him homage.

"So King Eagle ruled the air and none dared to cross him or to disobey
him. Unlike old King Bear, he accepted no tribute from his subjects but
hunted for himself, and instead of growing fat and lazy, as did old King
Bear, he grew stronger of wing and feared no one and nothing. Now this
was in the days when the world was young, and Old Mother Nature was very
busy trying to make the world a good place to live in, so she had very
little time to look after the birds and the animals. Thus she left
matters very much to King Eagle and old King Bear. They settled all the
quarrels between their subjects, and for a while everything went
smoothly.

"King Eagle made his home on the cliff of a moun