fas THE STORRS.

for their beaks had not yet turned red. A little way off stood the.
Father-Stork, all alone on the ridge of the roof, quite upright and
stiff; he had drawn up one of his legs, so as not to be quite idle
while he stood sentry. One would have thought he had been
carved out of wood, so still did he stand. He thought, “It must
look very grand, that my wife has a sentry standing by her nest.
They can’t tell that it is her husband. They certainly think I
have been commanded to stand here. That looks so aristocratic !”
And he went on standing on one leg.

Below in the street a whole crowd of children were playing ; and
when they caught sight of the Storks, one of the boldest of the
boys, and afterwards all of them, sang the old verse about the
storks, But they only sang it just as he could remember it:

“Stork, stork, fly away;
Stand not on one leg to-day.
Thy dear wife is in the nzst,
Where she rocks her young to rest.

The first he will be hanged,
‘The second will be hit,
The third he will be shot,
And the fourth put on the spit.”

“Just hear what those boys are saying!” said the little Stork-
children, “They say we are to be hanged and killed.”

“You’re not to care for that!” said the Mother-Stork. “ Don’t
listen to it, and then it won’t matter.”
_ But the boys went on singing, and pointed at the Storks mock-
ingly with their fingers; only one boy, whose name was Peter,
declared that it was a sin to make a jest of animals, and he would
not join in it at all.
_ The Mother-Stork comforted her children. “Don’t you mind
it at all,” she said; “see how quiet your father stands, though
it’s only on one leg.”

“We are very much afraid,” said the young Storks: and they
drew their heads far back into the nest.

Now to-day, when the children came out again to play, and
saw the Storks, they sang their song :

“The first he will be hanged,
The second will be hit——”

4 Shall we be hanged and beaten?” asked the young Storks.
No, certainly not,” replied the mother. “ You shall learn to
fly; I'll exercise you; then we shall fly out into the meadows and
pay a visit to the frogs; they will bow before us in the water, and

sing ‘Coax! coax!’ and then we shall eat them up. That will
be a real pleasure.”

“And what then?” asked the young Storks,

“Then all the Storks will assemble, all that are here in the
whole country, and the autumn exercises begin: then one must