“Of course it is! Ask Baldy the Eagle up there! He’s so excited he can’t do anything but circle around and utter loud cries. He can see what we can’t.”
Bumper looked up and saw Baldy the Eagle and his mate circling around in great spirals. They were so far from the earth that they looked like tiny specks, but after a while they swooped down and lighted on the decayed stump of a tree.
Ordinarily Bumper wouldn’t have dared to speak to Baldy, but fear now had made the Eagles tame and friendly. A fire in the woods changes friends and foes alike.
“O Baldy,” Bumper called, “I can’t see down here, but you can up there. Tell me if the fire is coming this way, and is there any danger?”
“Yes, Bumper,” replied Baldy, glancing down at the white rabbit. “It has swept clear across Bald Mountain, and is now racing down the slope on this side. Our new home is destroyed, and we’re fleeing for our lives. If you want to escape you should run for the river.”
“Is it as bad as all that!” exclaimed Bumper.
“Come up here and look for yourself!”
Bumper smiled at this remark, for he had no more chance of getting up there in the top of the tree than he had of swimming like Billy the Mink under water.
“You should warn all of your people to flee,” Baldy added. “And there’s no time to be lost.”
Baldy and his mate rose then and flew away, leaving the white rabbit alone. “It must be worse than I thought,” he said to himself. “Baldy doesn’t get frightened very easily. I must hurry back home.”