19
there it sat cowering and unable to utter a sound, for it was voiceless. Yet
how quickly the little bird discovered the beauty of everything around it. The
sweet, fresh air; the soft radiance of the moon, as its light spread over the
earth; the fragrance which exhaled from bush and tree, made it feel happy as it sat there clothed
in fresh, bright plumage. All creation seemed to spead of beneficence and love. The bird wanted to
give utterance to thoughts that stirred in his breast, as the cuckoo and the nightingale in the
spring, but it could not. Yet in heaven can be heard the song of praise, even from a worm; and the
notes trembling in the breast of the brid were as audible to Heaven even as the psalms of David
before they had fashioned themselves into words and song.
Christmas-time drew near, and a peasant who dwelt close by the old wall stuck up a pole with some
ears of corn fastened to the top, that the birds of heaven might have feast, and rejoice in the
happy, blessed time. And on Christmas morning the sun arose and shone upon the ears of corn, which
were quickly surrounded by a number of twittering birds. Then, from a hole in the wall, gushed
forth in song the swelling thoughts of the bird as he issued from his hiding place to perform his
first good deed on earth,--and in heaven it was well known who that bird was.
The winter was very hard; the ponds were covered with ice, and there was very little food for
either the beasts of the field or the birds of the air. Our little bird flew away into the public
roads, and found here and there, in the ruts of the sledges, a grain of corn, and at the halting
places some crumbs. Of these he ate only a few, but he called around him the other birds and the
hungry sparrows, that they too might have food. He flew into the towns, and looked about, and
wherever a kind hand had strewed bread on the window-sill for the birds, he only ate a single
crumb himself, and gave all the rest to the rest of the other birds. In the course of the winter
the bird had in this way collected many crumbs and given them to other birds, till they equalled
the weight of the loaf on which Inge had trod to keep her shoes clean; and when the last bread-
crumb had been found and given, the gray wings of the brid became white, and spread themselves out
for flight.
"See, yonder is a sea-gull!" cried the children, when they saw the white bird, as it dived into
the sea, and rose again into the clear sunlight, white and glittering. But no one could tell
whither it went then although some declared it flew straight to the sun.