Coming and Going
There came to our fields a pair of
birds that had never built a nest nor
seen a winter. How beautiful was everything! The fields
were full of
flowers and the grass was growing tall, and the bees were
humming
everywhere. Then one of the birds began singing, and the
other bird
said, "Who told you to sing?" And he answered, "The
flowers told me, and
the bees told me, and the winds and leaves told me, and
the blue sky
told me, and you told me to sing." Then his mate answered, "When
did I
tell you to sing?" And he said, "Every time you
brought in tender grass
for the nest, and every time your soft wings fluttered
off again for
hair and feathers to line the nest." Then his mate
said, "What are you
singing about?" And he answered, "I am singing
about everything and
nothing. It is because I am so happy that I sing."
By and by five little speckled eggs were in the nest,
and his mate said,
"Is there anything in all the world as pretty as my
eggs?" Then they
both looked down on some people that were passing by and
pitied them
because they were not birds.
In a week or two, one day, when the father bird came home,
the mother
bird said, "Oh, what do you think has happened?" "What?" "One
of my eggs
has been peeping and moving!" Pretty soon another
egg moved under her
feathers, and then another and another, till five little
birds were
hatched! Now the father bird sang louder and louder than
ever. The
mother bird, too, wanted to sing, but she had no time,
and she turned
her song into work. So hungry were these little birds that
it kept both
parents busy feeding them. Away each one flew. The moment
the little
birds heard their wings fluttering among the leaves, five
little yellow
mouths flew open wide, so that nothing could be seen but
five yellow
mouths!
"Can anybody be happier?" said the father bird
to the mother bird. "We
will live in this tree always, for there is no sorrow here.
It is a tree
that always bears joy."
Soon the little birds were big enough to fly, and great
was their
parents' joy to see them leave the nest and sit crumpled
up upon the
branches. There was then a great time, the two old birds
talking and
chatting to make the young ones go alone! In a little time
they had
learned to use their own wings, and they flew away and
away, and found
their own food, and built their own nests, and sang their
own songs with
joy.
Then the old birds sat silent and looked at each other,
until the mother
bird said, "Why don't you sing?" And he answered, "I
can't sing - I can
only think and think." "What are you thinking
of?" "I am thinking how
everything changes. The leaves are falling off from this
tree, and soon
there will be no roof over our heads; the flowers are all
going; last
night there was a frost; almost all the birds have flown
away. Something
calls me, and I feel as if I would like to fly away."
"Let us fly away together!"
Then they arose silently, and, lifting themselves far
up in the air,
they looked to the north. Far away they saw the snow coming.
They looked
to the south. There they saw flowers and green leaves.
All day they
flew, and all night they flew and flew, till they found
a land where
there was no winter - where flowers always blossom, and
birds always
sing. |