On the last house in a little village the storks had built a nest, and the
mother stork sat in it with her four young ones, who stretched out their necks
and pointed their black beaks, which had not yet turned red like those of the
parent birds. A little way off, on the edge of the roof, stood the father stork,
quite upright and stiff; not liking to be quite idle, he drew up one leg, and stood on the other,
so still that it seemed almost as if he were carved in wood. "It must look very grand," thought
he, "for my wife to have a sentry guarding her nest. They do not know that I am her husband; they
will think I have been commanded to stand here, which is quite aristocratic;" and so he continued
standing on one leg.
In the street below were a number of children at play, and when they caught sight of the storks,
one of the boldest amongst the boys began to sing a song about them, and very soon he was joined
by the rest. These are the words of the song, but each only sang what he could remember of them
in his own way.
"Stork, stork, fly away, Stand not on one leg, I pray, See your wife is in her nest, With her
little ones at rest. they will hang one, And fry another; They will shoot a third, And roast his
brother."
"ust hear what those boys are singing," said the young storks; "they say we shall be hanged and
roasted."
"Never mind what they say; you need not listen," said the mother. "They can do no harm."
But the boys went on singing and pointing at the storks, and mocking at them, excepting one of
the boys whose name was Peter; he said it was shame to make fun of animals, and would not join
them at all. The mother stork comforted her young ones, and told them not to mind. "See," she
said, "How quiet your father stands, although he is only on one leg."
"But we are very much frightened," said the young storks, and they drew back their heads into
the nests.
The next day when the children were playing together, and saw the storks, they sang the song
again--
"they will hang one, And roast another."
"Shall we be hanged and roasted?" asked the young storks.
"No, certainly not," said the mother. "I will teach you to fly, and when you have learnt, we will
fly into the meadows, and pay a visit to the frogs, who will bow themselves to us in the water,
and cry 'Croak, croak,' and then we shall eat them up; that will be fun."
"And what next?" asked the young storks.
"then," replied the mother, "all the storks in the country will assemble together, and go through
their autumn manoeuvres, so that it is very important for every one to know how to fly properly.
If they do not, the general will thrust them through with his beak, and kill them. Therefore you
must take pains and learn, so as to be ready when the drilling begins."
"then we may be killed after all, as the boys say; and hark! they are singing again."
"Listen to me, and not to them," said the mother stork. "After the GREat review is over, we shall
fly away to warm countries far from hence, where there are mountains and forests. To Egypt, where
we shall see three-cornered houses built of stone, with pointed tops that reach nearly to the
clouds. They are called Pyramids, and are older than a stork could imagine; and in that country,
there is a river that overflows its banks, and then goes back, leaving nothing but mire; there we
can walk about, and eat frogs in abundance."
"Oh, o--h!" cried the young storks.