"
"It shall be so, my son. When I need you, you shall be called, and
now do not allow yourself to be disturbed in your occupations. Fly
out, young eagle, out into the air, out among the rocks, and learn
from heaven and earth what to do to prepare for your future."
She kissed his brow and laid her hand on his head in a blessing.
Mohammed kissed this hand, and then sprang to his feet and went to
his old uncle Toussoun Aga. With perfect gravity he begged
permission to teach him the eagle's cry, that he might be able to
call him when his mother should need him.
The old man looked up from the fishing-nets, at which he was
working, in utter bewilderment. "What possesses you, Mohammed Ali?
What an idea to take into your head, to train the old fellow who is
good for nothing but to make nets for the fishermen, in which they
catch the red mareles and the blue flyers--to train this old fellow
to imitate the eagle and scream like the king of the air!"
"And yet you must learn to cry like this same eagle, uncle!" With
resistless force he drew his uncle from his mat, and almost
compelled him to go up with him to the verge of the rock. High above
where the cliff projects far out into the sea, there, with a serious
air, Mohammed taught his uncle the eagle's cry.
At first his uncle refused to imitate him and utter the cry as
directed, but Mohammed regarded him with so wild and angry a look,
and then entreated him in such soft and tender tones to do it for
his dear mother's sake, whose call would, perhaps, be too weak to
reach him, that the old man could at last no longer refuse.
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