Frightful's Mountain

In the spring, Jon and Susan release Frightful, and she flies directly to Sam’s mountain. Sam is delighted to see her, but he knows that without a falconer’s license, he can’t jess and leash her. Still, he hopes she might stay of her own accord. Sam updates Frightful on what she missed while she was gone. For one thing, Alice bred her pet pig, Crystal, and raised the piglets with their neighbor, Mrs. Strawberry, before selling them. Both Alice and Sam now help Mrs. Strawberry with her farm. For his part, Sam now hunts squirrels with a slingshot. Alice then appears, running up the path and scaring away Frightful. Flying off, Frightful perches on top of the Delhi Bridge. She feels comfortable in this location, and her instincts tell her to stay there. The next day, Frightful returns to Sam, and they hunt together as they used to. When Frightful captures a rat, Sam is surprised; he had trained her to catch prey that he would eat, too, and has never seen her eat rat before. Frightful sees Chup returning from his migration and flying overhead, and she flies with him for a time, but eventually returns to her scrape on the bridge as Chup goes to his home on the Schoharie cliff.