The Ely Miner

Bedtime Story
by Thornton W. Burgess

The King is great! The King is strong! The King, good sir, may do no wrong!

The King of the birds is Old King Eagle, as every one knows. He is king because his father was king before him, and his father's father, and so on 'way back to the long ago time when the world was young. To him all the other feathered folk yield and pay homage because by virtue of his great strength and courage he is fitted to rule them.

their lord and master. Now, Old King Eagle is for the most part a wise and just ruler. He does his own hunting. He demands no tribute, save in one thing.

Of course, you know what tribute is. Tribute is a gift from the weak to the strong, a gift not offered willingly by the giver, but demanded by the one to whom it is given. Kings are very apt to demand tribute from those over whom they rule. But Old King Eagle demands no tribute from his subjects save one, and that one is one of his largest and strongest subjects. Can you guess who it is?

It is Plunger the Fish Hawk. Yes, sir, Plunger the Fish Hawk has to pay tribute to Old King Eagle. He doesn't do it willingly, but he does it just the same. He does it because King Eagle is big enough and strong enough to force him to. And the reason that King Eagle demands tribute from Plunger is that King Eagle has learned to like the taste of fish, but has not learned how to catch fish for himself. Therefore he must depend on some one else to catch them for him, and that some one is Plunger.

On this particular morning that Plunger had had to be so patient in order to catch a fat fish to take home to Mrs. Plunger, sitting on the eggs in their nest in the Green Forest, it had come into the head of Ol King Eagle that he was hungry for fish. The more he thought about it the hungrier he grew. Sitting on the stump of a tree on the edge of a cliff of the Big Mountain he could see the Big River like a silver ribbon in the distance—that is, it would have looked like a silver ribbon to you or to me had we been in his place. But so wonderful and keen are the eyes of King Eagle that he could see the Big River clearly. He could see more. He could see a speck sailing back and forth over the Big River, and he knew that that speck was Plunger the Fish Hawk.

Old King Eagle chuckled.

"My fisherman is fishing for me, but he doesn't know it," said he. Then he spread his wonderful great wings and sailed out and up, like the royal master of the air that he is. Up, up he flew until he was but a speck in the sky to anyone watching from below. Straight toward the Big River he flew, and there in majestic, great circles he sailed round and round three times as far above Plunger as Plunger was above the Big River. Plunger, his eyes fixed on the water below, knew nothing of King Eagle above him. So Plunger flew patiently back and forth and round and round over the Big River, watching for fish, and cloud-high above him King Eagle swung in great circles watching Plunger.

He laughed aloud, did Old King Eagle, when at last Plunger shot down into the water with a great splash and presently flapped upward heavily with a big fat fish in his claws and then headed straight toward the Green Forest. In his turn King Eagle shot downward. The rustle of his great wings was heard by Plunger, who looked up with both fear and anger in his eyes.

"Tribute! Give me tribute!" cried King Eagle.

"I won't! It is my fish, for I caught it!" screamed Plunger.

"Tribute! Tribute!" demanded Old King Eagle more fiercely than before.

Still Plunger clung to the fish for which he had waited so long and patiently.

"I won't!" he screamed again, and this time there was an answering scream. It was Mrs. Plunger. She had heard him and now was coming swiftly to aid him. So Plunger clung more tightly than ever to the big fish and beat his way toward the Green Forest, hoping that something would happen to cheat Old King Eagle of that splendid prize.

(©, 1932, by T. W. Burgess.)—WNU Service.