Christmas-Tree Land Read online

  CHAPTER XI.

  THE EAGLES' EYRIE.

  'Where, yonder, in the upper air The solemn eagles watch the sun.'

  Did you ever see the sun rise? I hope so; but still I am sure you neversaw it from such a point as that whereon their winged conductors gentlydeposited the castle and the forest children that early summer morning.

  'Jump out,' said the voice they had all learnt to obey, when theair-boat came to a stand-still a few feet above the rock. And thechildren, who as yet had noticed nothing of the ground above which theywere hovering, for their eyes were fixed on the pink and azure andemerald and gold, spreading out like a fairy kaleidoscope on the skybefore them, joined hands and sprang fearlessly on to they knew notwhat. And as they did so, with a murmuring warble of farewell, the birdsflapped their wings, and the air-boat rose swiftly into the air anddisappeared from view.

  The four looked at each other.

  'Has godmother sailed away in it? I thought she was going to stay withus,' exclaimed Maia in a disappointed tone.

  'Oh, Maia,' said Silva, 'you don't yet understand godmother a bit. Butwe must not stand here. You know the way, Waldo?'

  'Here,' where they were standing, was, as I said, a rock, ragged andbare, though lower down, its sides were clothed with short thymy grass.And stretching behind them the children saw a beautiful expanse of hillyground, beautiful though treeless, for the heather and bracken and gorsethat covered it looked soft and mellow in the distance, more especiallywith the lovely light and colour just now reflected from the sky.

  But Waldo turned in the other direction. He walked a little way acrossthe hard, bare rock, which he seemed to be attentively examining, tillsuddenly he stopped short, and tapped on the ground with a little stickhe had in his hand.

  'It must be about here,' he said. The other three children came closeround him.

  'Here,' exclaimed Silva, and she pointed to a small white cross cut inthe stone at their feet.

  Waldo knelt down, and pressed the spot exactly in the centre of thecross. Immediately a large slab of rock, forming a sort of door, butfitting so closely when shut that no one would have suspected itsexistence, opened inwards, disclosing a flight of steps. Waldo lookedround.

  'This is the short cut to the face of the cliff,' he said. 'Shall I godown first?'

  'Yes, and I next,' said Rollo, eagerly springing forward.

  Then followed Silva and Maia. The flight of steps was a short one. In afew moments they found themselves in a rocky passage, wide enough forthem to walk along comfortably, one by one, and not dark, as light camein from little shafts cut at intervals in the roof. The passage twistedand turned about a good deal, but suddenly Waldo stopped, calling out:

  'Here we are! Is not this worth coming to see?'

  The passage had changed into a gallery, with the rock on one side only,on the other a railing, to protect those walking along it from apossible fall; for they were right on the face of an enormous cliff,far down at the bottom of which they could distinguish the tops oftheir old friends the firs. And far as the eye could reach stretchedaway into the distance, miles and miles and miles, here rising, thereagain sweeping downwards, the everlasting Christmas-trees!

  The passage stopped suddenly. It ended in a sort of little shelf in therock, and higher up in the wall, at the back of this shelf as it were,the children saw two large round holes cut in the rock: they were thewindows of the eagles' eyrie.

  Waldo went forward, and with his little stick tapped three times on thesmooth, shining rock-wall. But the others, intently watching though theywere, could not see how a door opened--whether it drew back inwards orrolled in sidewards. All they saw was that just before them, where amoment before there had been the rock-surface, a great arched doorwaynow invited them to enter.

  Waldo glanced round, though without speaking. The other threeunderstood, and followed him through the doorway, which, in the samemysterious way in which it had opened, was now closed up behind them.But that it was so they hardly noticed, so delighted were they with whatthey saw before them. It was the prettiest room, or hall, you couldimagine--the roof rising very high, and the light coming in through thetwo round windows of which I told you. And the whole--roof, walls,floor--was completely lined with what, at first sight, the children tookfor some most beautifully-embroidered kind of velvet. But velvet it wasnot. No embroidery ever showed the exquisite delicacy of tints, fadinginto each other like the softest tones of music, from the purest whitethrough every silvery shade to the richest purple, or from deep glowingscarlet to pink paler than the first blush of the peach-blossom, whilehere and there rainbow wreaths shone out like stars on a glowing sky. Itwas these wreaths that told the secret.

  'Why,' exclaimed Maia, 'it is all _feathers_!'

  'Yes,' said Silva, 'I had forgotten. I never was here before, butgodmother told me about it.'

  'And where----?' Maia was going on, but a sound interrupted her. It wasthat of a flutter of wings over their heads, and looking up the childrenperceived two enormous birds slowly flying downwards to where theystood, though whence they had come could not be seen.

  They alighted and stood together--their great wings folded, while theirpiercing eyes surveyed their guests.

  'We make you welcome,' they said at last, in a low soft tone whichsurprised the children, whose heads were full of the idea that eagleswere fierce and their only voice a scream. 'We have been looking foryour visit, of which our birds gave us notice. We have ordered acollation to be prepared for you, and we trust you will enjoy the view.'

  Waldo, who seemed to be master of the ceremonies to-day, stepped forwarda little in front of the others.

  'We thank you,' he said quietly, making his best bow as he spoke.

  The eagle queen raised her great wing--the left wing--and with itpointed to a spot among the feather hangings where, though they had notnoticed it, the children now saw gleaming a silver knob.

  'Up that stair leads to the balcony overhanging the cliff,' she said.'There you will find our respected attendants, the falcon and the hawk,who have purveyed for your wants. And before you leave, the king and Ihope to show you something of this part of our domains. _Aurevoir!_--the sun awaits us to bid him good-morning.'

  And with a slow, majestic movement the two strange birds spread theirwings and rose upwards, where, though the children's eyes followed themclosely, they disappeared they knew not how or where.

  Then Waldo turned the silver knob and opened a door, through which, asthe eagle queen had said, they saw a staircase mounting straightupwards. It led out on to a balcony cut in the rock, but carefullycarpeted with moss, and with rustic seats and a rustic table, on whichwere laid out four covers evidently intended for the four children. Twobirds, large, but very much smaller than the eagles, stood at the side,each with a table-napkin over one wing, which so amused the childrenthat it was with difficulty they returned the exceedingly dignified'reverence' with which the hawk and the falcon greeted them. And theywere rather glad when the two attendants spread their wings and flewover the edge of the balcony, evidently going to fetch the dishes.

  'What will they give us to eat, I wonder?' said Maia. 'I hope it won'tbe pieces of poor little lambs, all raw, you know. That's what theyalways tell you eagles eat in the natural history books.'

  'Not the eagles of _this_ country,' said Silva. 'I am sure you neverread about them in your books. _Our_ eagles are not cruel and fierce;they would never eat little lambs.'

  'But they must kill lots of little birds, whether they eat them or not,'said Maia, 'to get all those quantities and quantities of feathers.'

  'Kill the little birds!' cried Silva and Waldo both at once. 'Kill theirown birds! Maia, what are you thinking of? As if any creature that livesin Christmas-tree Land would kill any other! Why, the feathers are thebirds' presents to the king and queen. They keep all that drop off andbring them once a year, and that's been done for years and years, tillthe whole of the nest is lined with them.'

  'How nice!' replied Mai
a. 'I'm very glad the eagles are so kind. Butthey're not so _funny_ as the squirrels. They look so very solemn.'

  'They must be solemn,' said Waldo. 'They're not like the squirrels, whohave nothing to do but jump about.'

  'I beg your pardon,' said Rollo. 'Have you forgotten that the worldwould stop if Mr. Bushy didn't climb to the top of the tree?'

  'And what would happen if the eagles left off watching the sun?' saidWaldo.

  'I don't know,' said Maia eagerly. 'Do tell us, Waldo.'

  Waldo looked at her.

  'I don't know either,' he said. 'Perhaps the sun would go to sleep, andthen there would be a nice confusion.'

  'You're laughing at me,' said Maia, in rather an offended tone. 'I don'tsee how I'm to be expected to know everything; if the squirrels and theeagles and all the creatures here are different from everywhere else,how could I tell?'

  'Here's the collation!' exclaimed Rollo, and looking up, the others sawthe falcon and the hawk flying back again, carrying between them a largebasket, from which, when they had set it down beside the table, theycleverly managed, with beaks and claws, to take all sorts of mysteriousthings, which they arranged upon the table. There was no lamb, eitherraw or roasted, for all the repast consisted of fruits. Fruits of everykind the children had ever heard of, and a great many of which they didnot even know the names, but which were more delicious than you, whohave never tasted them, can imagine.

  'You see the eagle king and queen have no need to kill poor littlelambs,' said Silva. And Maia agreed with her that no one who could getsuch fruits to eat, need ever wish for any other food. While she wasspeaking, the same soft rustle which they had heard before soundedoverhead, and again the two great majestic birds alighted beside them.The four children started to their feet.

  'Thank you so much for the delicious fruit, eagle king and eagle queen,'said Maia, who was seldom backward at making speeches.

  'We are glad you found it to your taste,' said the king. 'It has comefrom many a far-away land--lands you have perhaps scarcely even dreamtof, but which to us seem not so strange or distant.'

  'Do you fly away so very far?' asked Maia, but the eagles only gleamedat her with their wonderful eyes, and shook their heads.

  'It is not for us to tell what you could not understand,' said the king.'They who can gaze undazzled on the sun must see many things.'

  Maia drew back a little.

  'They frighten me rather,' she whispered to the others. 'They are sosolemn and mysterious.'

  'But that needn't frighten you,' said Silva. 'Rollo isn't frightened.'

  'Rollo's a boy,' replied Maia, as if that settled the matter.

  Waldo now pointed out some steps in the rock leading up still higher.

  'The eagles want us to go up there,' he said. 'We shall see right overthe forest and ever so far.'

  And so they did, for the steps led up a long way till they ended onanother rock-shelf right on the face of the cliff. From here the greatfir-forests looked but like dark patches far below, while away, away inthe distance stretched on one side the great plain across which thechildren had journeyed on their first coming to the white castle; and onthe other the distant forms of mountain ranges, gray-blue, shadingfainter and fainter till the clouds themselves looked more real.

  It was cold, very cold, up here on the edge of the great bare rocks. Thebeauty of the sunrise had sobered down into the chilly freshness of anearly summer morning; the world seemed still asleep, and the childrenshivered a little.

  'I don't think I should like to live always as high up as this,' saidMaia. 'It's very lonely and very cold.'

  'You would need to be dressed in feathers like the eagles if you did,'replied Silva; 'and if one had eyes like theirs, I dare say one wouldnever feel lonely. One would see so much.'

  'I wonder,' said Maia--and then she stopped.

  'What were you going to say?' asked Rollo.

  Maia's eyes looked far over the plain as if, like the eagles, they wouldpierce the distance.

  'It was from there we came,' she said. 'I wonder if it will be fromthere that father will come to take us away. Do you think that theeagles will know when he is coming? do you think they will see him fromvery far off?'

  Silva looked over the plain without speaking, and into her dark eyesthere crept something that was not in Maia's blue ones.

  'Maia,' exclaimed Rollo reproachfully, 'Silva is crying. She doesn'tlike you to talk of us going away.'

  In an instant Maia's arms were round Silva's neck.

  'Don't cry, Silva--you mustn't,' she said. 'When we go away you andWaldo shall come too--we will ask our father, won't we, Rollo?'

  'And godmother?' said Silva, smiling again. 'What would she say? We areher children, Maia, and the children of the forest. We should not be fitto live as you do in the great world of men out away there. No; we canalways love each other, and perhaps you and Rollo will come away out ofthe world sometimes to see us--but we must stay in our own country.'

  'Never mind--don't talk about it just now,' said Maia. 'I wish I hadn'tsaid anything about father coming. I dare say he won't come for a verylong while, and when we can see you and Waldo we are never dull. It'sonly at the castle when they give us such lots of lessons and everybodyis so prim and so cross if we're the least bit late. Oh, dear!--I wasforgetting--shan't we be late for breakfast this morning? Is godmothercoming to fetch us?'

  'We are going home now,' said Waldo. 'But first we must say good-bye tothe eagles. Here they are,' for as he spoke the two royal birds camecircling down from overhead and settled themselves on the very edge ofthe cliff, whose dizzy height they calmly overlooked--their gaze fixedfar beyond.

  'That is where they always stay watching,' said Waldo, in a low voice,and then the children went forward till they were but a few steps behindthe pair. Farther it would not have been safe to go.

  'Good-bye, king and queen,' they said all together, and the eagles,slowly turning round, though without moving from their places, answeredin their grave voices:

  'Farewell, children. We will watch you, though you may not know it.Farewell.'

  Then Waldo led the others down the rock stair by which they had comeup--down past the balcony where they had had their collation of fruit,till they found themselves in the feather-lined hall.

  'There is something rather sad about the eagles,' said Maia. 'Do youthink it is watching so much that makes them sad?'

  'Perhaps,' said Silva. 'Come and sit down here in this snug corner.Look, there is a feather arm-chair for each of us--it is a littlechilly, don't you think?'

  'Yes, perhaps it is. But tell me if you know why the eagles are sad.'

  'I think they are more grave than sad,' replied Silva. 'I dare saywatching so much does make them so.'

  'Why? Do they see so far? Do they see all sorts of things?' asked Maiain a rather awe-struck tone. 'Are they like fairies, Silva?'

  'I don't know exactly,' said Silva. 'But I think they are very wise, andI expect they know a great deal.'

  'But they can't know as much as godmother, and she isn't sad,' saidMaia.

  'Sometimes she is,' said Silva. 'Besides, she has more to do than theeagles. They have only to watch--she puts things right. You'llunderstand better some day,' she added, seeing that Maia looked puzzled.'But isn't it cold? Oh, see there--that's to wrap ourselves up in,' forjust at this moment there flapped down on them, from no one could tellwhere, the great soft fluffy cloak or rug which had kept them sobeautifully warm during their air-journey.

  'Come under the shawl,' cried Maia to the two boys, and all the childrendrew their seats close together and wrapped the wonderful cloak wellround them.

  'But aren't we going home soon?' said Maia. 'I'm so afraid of beinglate.'

  'Godmother knows all about it,' said Waldo. 'She's sent us this cloak onpurpose. There's nothing to do but sit still--till she tells us whatwe're to do. I don't mind, for somehow I'm rather sleepy.'

  'I think I am too,' said Rollo, and though Silva and Maia were lessready
to allow it, I think they must have felt the same, for somehow orother two minutes later all the four were taking a comfortable nap, andknew nothing more till a soft clear voice whispered in their ears:

  'Children, it is time to wake up.'

  'Time to go home! Are the birds coming for us again?' said Maia, rubbingher eyes and staring about her. A voice softly laughing replied to her:

  'Birds--what birds are you talking about? You're not awake yet, Maia,and I've been telling you to wake ever so long.'

  It was Rollo.

  'You, why I thought it was godmother,' said Maia; 'I heard her say,"Children, it is time to wake up," and I thought we were all in thefeather-hall still. How did we get back, Rollo?'

  For 'back' they were. Maia in her own little bed in the white castle,and Rollo standing beside her in his ordinary dress. Where were Waldoand Silva--where the feather-hall--where the wonderful dresses in whichgodmother had clothed them for the air-journey? Maia looked up at Rolloas she spoke, with disappointment in her eyes.

  'We _are_ back,' he said, 'and that's all there is to say about it, asfar as I can see. But come, Maia, don't look so unhappy. We've had greatfun, and we must be very good after it to please godmother. It's alovely day, and after we've finished our lessons we can have some niceruns in the fields. Jump up--you're not a bit tired, are you? I'm not.'

  'Nor am I,' said Maia, slowly bestirring herself. 'But I'm rather dull.I'm afraid we shan't see them again for a good while, Rollo.'