Once more in the same year the Viking went forth, though thestorms of autumn had already commenced to roar. He went with hiswarriors to the coast of Britain; he said that it was but an excursionof pleasure across the water, so his wife remained at home with thelittle girl. After a while, it is quite certain the foster-motherbegan to love the poor frog, with its gentle eyes and its deepsighs, even better than the little beauty who bit and fought withall around her.
  The heavy, damp mists of autumn, which destroy the leaves of thewood, had already fallen upon forest and heath. Feathers of pluckedbirds, as they call the snow, flew about in thick showers, andwinter was coming. The sparrows took possession of the stork's nest,and conversed about the absent owners in their own fashion; andthey, the stork pair and all their young ones, where were they stayingnow? The storks might have been found in the land of Egypt, wherethe sun's rays shone forth bright and warm, as it does here atmidsummer. Tamarinds and acacias were in full bloom all over thecountry, the crescent of Mahomet glittered brightly from the cupolasof the mosques, and on the slender pinnacles sat many of the storks,resting after their long journey. Swarms of them took dividedpossession of the nests- nests which lay close to each other betweenthe venerable columns, and crowded the arches of temples inforgotten cities. The date and the palm lifted themselves as ascreen or as a sun-shade over them. The gray pyramids looked likebroken shadows in the clear air and the far-off desert, where theostrich wheels his rapid flight, and the lion, with his subtle eyes,gazes at the marble sphinx which lies half buried in sand. Thewaters of the Nile had retreated, and the whole bed of the river wascovered with frogs, which was a most acceptable prospect for the storkfamilies. The young storks thought their eyes deceived them,everything around appeared so beautiful.
  "It is always like this here, and this is how we live in ourwarm country," said the stork-mamma; and the thought made the youngones almost beside themselves with pleasure.
  "Is there anything more to see?" they asked; "are we going fartherinto the country?"
  "There is nothing further for us to see," answered thestork-mamma. "Beyond this delightful region there are immense forests,where the branches of the trees entwine round each other, whileprickly, creeping plants cover the paths, and only an elephant couldforce a passage for himself with his great feet. The snakes are toolarge, and the lizards too lively for us to catch. Then there is thedesert; if you went there, your eyes would soon be full of sand withthe lightest breeze, and if it should blow great guns, you wouldmost likely find yourself in a sand-drift. Here is the best placefor you, where there are frogs and locusts; here I shall remain, andso must you." And so they stayed.
  The parents sat in the nest on the slender minaret, and rested,yet still were busily employed in cleaning and smoothing theirfeathers, and in sharpening their beaks against their red stockings;then they would stretch out their necks, salute each other, andgravely raise their heads with the high-polished forehead, and soft,smooth feathers, while their brown eyes shone with intelligence. Thefemale young ones strutted about amid the moist rushes, glancing atthe other young storks and making acquaintances, and swallowing a frogat every third step, or tossing a little snake about with their beaks,in a way they considered very becoming, and besides it tasted verygood. The young male storks soon began to quarrel; they struck at eachother with their wings, and pecked with their beaks till the bloodcame. And in this manner many of the young ladies and gentlemen werebetrothed to each other: it was, of course, what they wanted, andindeed what they lived for. Then they returned to a nest, and therethe quarrelling began afresh; for in hot countries people are almostall violent and passionate. But for all that it was pleasant,especially for the old people, who watched them with great joy: allthat their young ones did suited them. Every day here there wassunshine, plenty to eat, and nothing to think of but pleasure. Butin the rich castle of their Egyptian host, as they called him,pleasure was not to be found. The rich and mighty lord of the castlelay on his couch, in the midst of the great hall, with its manycolored walls looking like the centre of a great tulip; but he wasstiff and powerless in all his limbs, and lay stretched out like amummy. His family and servants stood round him; he was not dead,although he could scarcely be said to live. The healing moor-flowerfrom the north, which was to have been found and brought to him by herwho loved him so well, had not arrived. His young and beautifuldaughter who, in swan's plumage, had flown over land and seas to thedistant north, had never returned. She is dead, so the twoswan-maidens had said when they came home; and they made up quite astory about her, and this is what they told,-
  "We three flew away together through the air," said they: "ahunter caught sight of us, and shot at us with an arrow. The arrowstruck our young friend and sister, and slowly singing her farewellsong she sank down, a dying swan, into the forest lake. On theshores of the lake, under a spreading birch-tree, we laid her in thecold earth. We had our revenge; we bound fire under the wings of aswallow, who had a nest on the thatched roof of the huntsman. Thehouse took fire, and burst into flames; the hunter was burnt withthe house, and the light was reflected over the sea as far as thespreading birch, beneath which we laid her sleeping dust. She willnever return to the land of Egypt." And then they both wept. Andstork-papa, who heard the story, snapped with his beak so that itmight be heard a long way off.
  'Deceit and lies!"