The Blue Mountainspage 7 / 9
"I am going to see if I can find anyone that can tell me where the Blue Mountains are," he said. "If you stay with me tonight," said the old man, "I have a book of the history of the world, and I shall know where they are before daylight if there is such a place in it at all." He stayed there all night, but there was not a word in the book about the Blue Mountains. Seeing that he was rather discouraged, the old man told him that he had a brother nine hundred miles away, and that if anyone could find out about them it would be he; "and i will help you," he said, "to reach the place where he lives before night." So he blew his whistle, and the Irishman landed at the brother's house before nightfall. When the old man saw him he said he had not seen a single man for three hundred years, and was very much surprised to see anyone come to him now. "Where are you going?" he said. "I am looking for the Blue Mountains," said the Irishman. "The Blue Mountains?" asked the old man. "Yes," said the Irishman. "I never heard the name before; but if there are any, I shall find them out. I am master of all the birds in the world, and I have only to blow my whistle and everyone will come to me. I shall then ask each of them to tell where it came from, and if there is any way of finding out the Blue Mountains that is it."
So he blew the whistle, and when he blew it all the birds of the world began to gather. the old man questioned each of them as to where they had come from, but there was not one of them that had come from the Blue Mountains. After he had run over them all, however, he remembered a big eagle that was missing, and wondered that it had not come. Soon afterward he saw something big coming toward him, darkening the sky. It kept coming nearer and growing bigger, and what was this, after all, but the eagle! When she arrived the old man scolded her and asked what had kept her so long behind. "I couldn't help it," she said. "I had more than twenty times further to come than any bird that has come here today." "Where have you come from, then?" said the old man. "From the Blue Mountains," said she. "Indeed!" said the old man; "and what are they doing there?"