Full text: Tales and fairy stories

THE STORKS. 
so motionless was he. “It, no doubt, looks very grand 
for my wife to have a sentinel by her nest!” thought 
he. “They can’t know that I am her husband, and 
they will of course conclude that I have been com- 
manded to stand here. It looks so noble!” And he 
continued standing on one leg. 
A whole swarm of children were playing in the 
street below; and when they perceived the stork, the 
forwardest of the boys sang the old song about the 
stork, in which the others soon joined. Only each 
sang it, just as he happened to recollect it :— 
187 
¢“ Stork, stork—fly home and rest, 
Nor on one leg thus sentry keep! 
Your wife is sitting in her nest, 
To lull her little ones to sleep. 
There’s a halter for one, 
There’s a stake for another; 
For a third there’s a gun, 
And a spit for his brother!” 
“Only listen to what the boys are singing!” said 
the young storks. “They say we shall be hanged and 
burned.” 
“You shouldn’t mind what they say,” said the 
mother stork ; ‘if you don’t listen it won’t hurt you.” 
But the boys went on singing, and pointing at the 
stork with their fingers. Only one boy, whose name 
was Peter, said it was a shame to make game of 
animals, and would not join the rest. The mother 
stork comforted her young ones. “Don’t trouble your 
heads about it,” said she; “only see how quiet your 
father stands, and that on one leg!” 
“We are frightened!” said the young ones, draw- 
ing back their heads into the nest. 
Next day, when the children had again assembled 
to play, they no sooner saw the storks than they began 
their song :— 
“There’s a halter for one, 
There ’s a stake for another.”
	        
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