United States or Norfolk Island ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"If I dared cross the border and shoot that Yankee eagle to-morrow," began another airman; but they all knew it wouldn't do. One said: "Do you suppose, Von Dresslin, that the bird we see is the one you saw a year ago?" "It is possible." "An American white-headed eagle?" "I feel quite sure of it." "Their national bird," said the same airman who had expressed a desire to shoot it.
And where it had been, there in mid-air, hung an eagle with a crest as white as the snow on the shining peaks below. "He seemed suddenly to be there instead of the British plane," said Von Dresslin. "I saw him distinctly might have shot him with my pistol as he sheered by me, his yellow eyes aflame, balanced on broad wings.
Monotonously, paying no attention, Professor von Dresslin continued: "I, the life history of the Parnassus Apollo, haff from my early youth investigated with minuteness, diligence, and patience." His protuberant eyes were now fixed on Brown’s rifle again. "For many years I haff bred this Apollo butterfly from the egg, from the caterpillar, from the chrysalis.
The Herr Professor’s pop-eyed attention was now occupied with the service puttees worn by Brown. A sportsman also might have worn them, of course. "The Apollo butterfly," droned on Professor Dresslin, "iss a butterfly of the larger magnitude among European Lepidoptera, yet not of the largest.
It may have been owned privately and, on account of the scarcity of food in Europe, liberated by its owner. 4th. It MIGHT have been owned by the Englishman whose plane Von Dresslin had destroyed.
"How could an American eagle get here?" inquired another man. "By way of Asia, probably." "By gad! A long flight!" Dresslin nodded: "An omen, perhaps, that we may also have to face the Yankee on our Eastern front." "The swine!" growled several. Von Dresslin assented absently to the epithet.
And another man said laughingly to Von Dresslin: "Fritz, did you see in that downfall of the British enemy, and the dramatic appearance of a Yankee eagle in his place, anything significant?" "By gad," cried another airman, "we had John Bull by his fat throat, and were choking him to death. And now the Americans!"
So near he swept that his bright fierce eyes flashed level with mine, and for an instant I thought he meant to attack me. "But he swept past in a single magnificent curve, screaming, then banked swiftly and plunged straight downward in the very path of the British plane." Nobody spoke. Von Dresslin twirled his flower and looked at it in an absent-minded way.
The Herr Professor von Dresslin grunted as he sat down. After he had lighted his pipe he grunted again, screwed together his butterfly net and gazed hard through thick-lensed spectacles at Brown. "Does it interest you, sir, the pursuit of the diurnal Lepidoptera?" he inquired, still staring intently at the American. "I don’t know anything about them," explained Brown. "What are Lepidoptera?"
There was an odd look in Siurd’s soft brown eyes; he turned and spoke to Herr Professor von Dresslin, using dialect and instantly appearing to recollect himself he asked pardon of Stent and Brown in his very perfect English. "I said to the Herr Professor in the Traun dialect: ’Ibex may be stirring, as it is already late afternoon.
Word Of The Day