noon
At the top , or near the top , the green leaves or needles and dead boughs had matted together and formed a kind of shelf or eyrie , and on this a pair of fishing eagles had made their nest . The nest had been there many years , and the eagles had come back to it during the breeding season and reared their young . For a time after the opening of the school none of the pupils seemed to give any special attention to this high nest . It was a cheerful sight at noon to see the eagles wheel in the air , or the male eagle come from the glimmering hills and alight beside his mate . One afternoon a sudden shadow like a falling cloud passed by the half-open shutter of the log school-house and caused the pupils to start . There was a sharp cry of distress in the air , and the master looked out and said : `` Attend to your books , children ; it is only the eagle . '' But again and again the same swift shadow , like the fragment of a storm-cloud , passed across the light , and the wild scream of the bird caused the scholars to watch and to listen .