Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/280

248 Next day, when the children came again to play and saw the stork, they began their song again:

"But we are not going to be hanged and spitted through, are we?" asked the young ones.

"No, of course not!" said the mother. "You are going to learn to fly, and I'll look after your training! Then we shall go into the fields and pay visits to the frogs; they will make their bow to us in the water, and sing, 'Croak, croak!' And then we shall eat them. It will be great fun!"

"And what then?" asked the young storks.

"Then all the storks all over the country will assemble, and the autumn manoeuvers will commence. Every one must be able to fly properly; that is of great importance, for the general will kill with his beak all those who cannot fly. So mind you learn as well as you can when the training begins!"

"Then we shall be killed, after all, just as the boys said; and just listen, now they are singing it again!"

"Listen to me, and not to them," said Mother Stork. "After the great manoeuvers we fly to the hot countries — oh, ever so far from here, across mountains and forests. We shall fly to Egypt, where there are three-cornered stone houses which end in a point above the clouds; they are called pyramids, and are older than any stork can imagine. And there is a river there, which overflows its banks and leaves the land covered with mud. You walk about in the mud and eat frogs."

"Oh, my!" said all the young ones.

"Yes, it is so delightful! One does nothing but eat all day, and while we are enjoying ourselves down there, there is not in this country a green leaf on the trees, and it is so cold here that the clouds freeze to pieces and fall down in little white rags." It was the snow she referred to, but she could not explain it any better.

"Do the naughty little boys also freeze to pieces?" asked the young storks.

"No, they do not freeze to pieces. But they are not very far from it; they have to sit indoors in dark rooms, and mope and shiver. You, however, can fly about in foreign countries, where there are flowers and warm sunshine."

Some time had now passed, and the young storks were already so big that they could stand up in the nest and look around, and Father Stork came flying home every day with nice frogs, little snakes, and all kinds of dainties for storks which he could find. And how he amused them with all sorts of tricks! He would twist his head right round his tail,