Farmer Weatherbeard

`Then throw down the three feathers which you plucked out of his head,' said the Eagle.

So the man did this, and no sooner had he flung them down than the feathers became a flock of ravens, which chased the crows home again. Then the Eagle flew on much farther with the man, but at length it alighted on a stone for a while.

`Do you see anything?' it said.

`I am not quite certain,' said the man, `but I think I see something coming in the far distance.'

`Then we shall do well to fly on a little farther,' said the Eagle, and away it went.

`Do you see anything now?' it said, after some time had gone by.

`Yes; now they are close behind us,' said the man.

`Then throw down the splinters of wood which you took from beneath the gray stone by the stable door,' said the Eagle. The man did this, and no sooner had he flung them down than they grew up into a great thick wood, and Farmer Weatherbeard had to go home for an axe to cut his way through it. So the Eagle flew on a long, long way, but then it grew tired and sat down on a fir tree.

`Do you see anything?' it asked.

`Yes; I am not quite certain,' said the man, `but I think I can catch a glimpse of something far, far away.'

`Then we shall do well to fly on a little farther,' said the Eagle, and it set off again.

`Do you see anything now?' it said after some time had gone by.

`Yes; he is close behind us now,' said the man.

`Then you must fling down the great stone which you took away from the stable door,' said the Eagle.

The man did so, and it turned into a great high mountain of stone, which Farmer Weatherbeard had to break his way through before he could follow them. But when he had got to the middle of the mountain he broke one of his legs, so he had to go home to get it put right.

While he was doing this the Eagle flew off to the man's home with him, and with the hare, and when they had got home the man went to the churchyard, and had some Christian earth laid upon the hare, and then it turned into his son Jack.