After a few minutes it said, “Are those nuts you have in your pocket?”
Rupert said “Yes,” and drawing out a handful of the red nuts, offered them to the bird.
“Crack some and give me the kernels,” said the bird. Rupert obeyed, afraid to refuse, as he remembered what a dreadful thing had happened to the poor Queen for not being polite to a bird. The bird went on eating the nuts, and then said—
“Where are you going?”
Then the sailor told how the Queen had been rude to a bird, who had in return destroyed her hair.
“I know; that was me,” said the bird, with a chuckle. “Give me some more nuts.”
Rupert again handed the bird the nuts, and then went on relating how the Queen had had a strange dream of a wonderful Hair Tree, and how the King had offered a reward to anyone who could find it; so he was going to look for it.
“You will search a long time for the Hair Tree, I expect,” said the bird, still munching. “If the Queen waits for her hair till it is found, she will have to do without it nearly all her life. I suppose she’ll wish now that she had been civil.” But as he finished speaking, the bird’s glance fell on the golden nuts lying on the seat, and with a shrill cry he flew at them; but Rupert had seized them first and held them firmly out of his reach.
“What are these?” gasped the bird. “Where did you get them? Tell me at once.”
“They came,” said Rupert, still holding the bag tightly, “from the single pod of a tree that has no leaves, and whose branches look like brass, and that grows on a little island not far from here.” On hearing this the bird gave a low cry, and crouched down on one side of the boat, where it sat eyeing Rupert and the nuts greedily, and shaking with rage. “Then they are the nuts of the zirbal-tree,” he said at last; “and the pod has broken when I was not there. For two thousand years have I waited for that pod to break, and now it will be two thousand years before it is ripe again, and it is the only zirbal-tree living, and there is nothing on earth like its nuts.”
When Rupert saw the bird crouched in one corner of the seat, with its head lowered and its feathers ruffled, and remembered how much mischief it had done, he felt strongly inclined to seize it and wring its neck, but he restrained himself, and said—
“You had better sit up. I’ve got the nuts, and I mean to keep them; but perhaps, if you’ll answer me one or two questions, I’ll give you one.”
On this the bird drew itself up, and, arranging its ruffled plumage, sat watching Rupert suspiciously.
“You say you’re the bird who charmed away the Queen’s hair. Well, if you’ll tell me how she can grow it again I’ll give you a nut.”
“What!” cried the bird, flapping his wings angrily, “tell you how the Queen can recover her hair? Never—I’d sooner never taste a nut again.”
“Very well,” said Rupert, picking up a golden nut, and holding it temptingly towards the bird. “Only tell me which way I ought to steer to find the country where the Hair Tree grows, and I will give you this.”
The bird sat silent, with his head on one side, watching Rupert for some time, and then with a sudden cry rose into the air and was out of sight almost before he knew it had moved.
At first he felt angry at this, but as it was gone, it was no use thinking about it, and, anyhow, he had learnt that the golden nuts were very valuable, and he thought if it wanted them so much it might perhaps return for them.
He was right. All day and night he drifted about without coming in sight of land, but next morning at sunrise he saw, in the far distance, a dim line, and at the same moment he heard a whirring of wings overhead, and the Eagle flew down and perched on the edge of the boat as before.
Rupert remained quiet, without seeming to notice it, until at last it broke silence with—
“Are you in the same mind as last night? I’ll tell you the way to the Hair Tree country for a zirbal nut.”
The sailor took one out of his pocket, and said—
“Tell me first, then, and you shall have the nut afterwards.”
“That is the country where the Hair Tree grows, in front of you,” said the bird. “Many go to it, but very few return.”
“Why is that?” asked Rupert, as he gave the bird the nut.
“Why?” repeated the bird, seizing it with his bill. “You had better go there and find out. You know now where it is.”
Rupert pondered a little; then he said, “If you will tell me how to find my way safely to the Hair Tree and back, when I pass here again I will give you six whole nuts. And if you refuse I shall take my gun and shoot you.”
The bird gave a scornful laugh.
