He was in the eagles' cage
and looked pitifully forlorn. I was thinking of filing down the wire
roof over him and letting him out, but I also thought of his being a
dangerous robber and bird-eater, and wondered if I should be doing right
in letting loose such a plunderer, and if it were not better, perhaps,
to let him stay where he was. What say you, Mother Akka? Was it right
to think thus?"
"No, it was not right!" retorted Akka. "Say what you will about the
eagles, they are proud birds and greater lovers of freedom than all
others. It is not right to keep them in captivity. Do you know what I
would suggest? This: that, as soon as you are well rested, we two make
the trip together to the big bird prison, and liberate Gorgo."
"That is just the word I was expecting from you, Mother Akka," returned
the boy eagerly.
"There are those who say that you no longer have any love in your heart
for the one you reared so tenderly, because he lives as eagles must
live. But I know now that it isn't true. And now I want to see if
Morten Goosey-Gander is awake.
"Meanwhile, if you wish to say a 'thank you' to the one who brought me
here to you, I think you'll find him up there on the cliff ledge, where
once you found a helpless eaglet."
OSA, THE GOOSE GIRL, AND LITTLE MATS
The year that Nils Holgersson travelled with the wild geese everybody
was talking about two little children, a boy and a girl, who tramped
through the country.
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