floor. There was no trouble at all for us to think of more than that the
wind had held for several weeks in the southwest and northwest, and we
wondered when it would shift to its wonted springtide easting, so that
we could get the ship under way once more for the voyage she was
prepared for. Pleasant talk it was, and none could have thought that it
was to be the last of many such quiet evenings that had gone before.

Yet it seemed that my father was uneasy, and we had been laughing at him
for his silence, until he said, looking into the fire, "I will tell you
what is on my mind, and then maybe you will laugh at me the more for
thinking aught of the matter. Were I in any but a peaceful land, I
should say that a great battle had been fought not so far from us, and
to the northward."

Then my mother looked up at him, knowing that he had seen many fights,
and was wise in the signs that men look for before them; but she asked
nothing, and so I said, "What makes you think this, father?"

He answered me with another question.

"How many kites will you see overhead at any time, sons?"

I wondered at this, but it was easy to answer---to Raven, at least.

"Always one, and sometimes another within sight of the first," Raven said.

"And if there is food, what then?"

"The first swoops down on it, and the next follows, and the one that
watches the second follows that, and so on until there are many kites