Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 162.djvu/285

Rh couples, who were now setting up house for the first time, trying to make up their minds where to settle, and weighing the contrasting advantages of thatched roofs versus old trees or stone walls.

Kuba and Kasza, their dark, curly heads thrown back till their short, fat necks ached with the exertion, were following each movement of the storks with gaping admiration and wonder.

"They are going to settle here!" shouted Kuba at last, in a perfect ecstasy of delight, as a pair of the piebald birds, detaching themselves from the crowd, narrowed their circles, and seemed to be taking the roof of Filip's hut into special consideration: a newly mated pair of birds, as was easily to be seen from their slender, élancé figures, and the somewhat paler hue of their scarlet beaks. They had plighted their faith to each other last month on the burning plains of Egypt, and had now flown hither, across land and sea, on the wings of love, to seek a home in the far north.

"Hush!"said little Kasza, below her breath. "Do not frighten them away."

After a minute or two of apparent indecision, the young stork-wife lowered her flight, and let her scarlet legs gracefully down till they rested on the thatched roof. Her lord and master, not approving, I suppose, of this feminine impetuosity in deciding such a weighty question, affected to have not yet made up his mind, and kept balancing himself in the air by occasional flaps of his strong pinions.

His partner, with feminine loquacity, seemed to be arguing hotly in favor of the spot she had chosen, and to be enumerating its advantages over other lodgings — such as the superior quality of the thatch, the sheltered position of the roof, the near vicinity to the well-stocked frog market, the moderate rent, and the apparently peaceable character of the landlords. No prowling cats, no furious dogs, to threaten the peace of an infant family!

O foolish stork! deluded bird! not to know that there are worse beasts of prey than cats, other dangers than high winds or storms!

The male stork, after a short appearance of resistance, agreed to his partner's wish, as young husbands will agree to anything before the honeymoon is spent. With consequential alacrity, together they set to work, selecting the finest twigs, the most golden straw, the richest clay, where-with to construct their dwelling-house, according to the traditional style of architecture en vogue among storks.

Then the young matron proceeded to the important business of laying the eggs. One, two, three, four beautiful eggs of a pure, ivory-white hue. Husband and wife were never weary of admiring them, and congratulating each other on their joint achievement. Then she took up her position on the nest, and brooded patiently on them day and night, while her enamored spouse kept watch on one leg beside her.

Kuba had followed all the household arrangements of the stork couple with particular interest. He had even more than once climbed up upon the roof and peeped into their domicile, at moments when husband and wife were both abroad.

One day Magda espied him sitting thus outside on the thatched roof.

"Come down at once, you naughty boy! you must not take the eggs; that brings bad luck!"

"I am not taking the eggs!" shouted back the urchin.

"Come down at once, or I shall call your father!"

Kuba let himself roll down into the cabbage-beds, and then ran to look for his sister, and whispered something into her ear.

"But, Kuba, do you think the storks will really like it?"

"Of course they will like it, ti durna (you stupid)! Don't you see, it is to save them trouble?"

The stork-mother presently hurrying back to her nest, was surprised to find five eggs instead of four. "Surely there were but four yesterday?" she said to herself; but as she did not feel very certain of her arithmetic, she finally took the fifth egg for granted. Perhaps she had counted wrong before, or perhaps she had laid this last egg in her sleep. This egg was not quite so handsome as the others, being somewhat dirty and greenish in hue; but then a night-egg might well be so, or how could she have been expected to match the color properly in the dark?

So she did not trouble her head further about the origin of that fifth egg but sat out her thirty days patiently at her post, hardly leaving the nest to snatch a hurried meal occasionally, and denying herself all relaxation or amusement, thinking of nought but the well-doing of her future progeny.

At last one of the ivory-white eggs began to crack and open at one end. With tender skill the young mother widened the crack with her scarlet bill, and assisted the new-born infant to escape from LIVING AGE.