A WISE Swallow, seeing a man sow seed in a field, went behind him and
picked up one of the seeds to see what it was.
She found that it was flax. “When this flax has grown,” she said to
herself, “the man will make it into linen thread and use it to make
nets for catching us Birds.”
So she went to all the Birds and told them what she had discovered,
begging them to come and help her eat up the flaxseed before it should
sprout. “This field,” she said, “is as much ours as it is his. And
while one of us can do but little, all working together can quickly
remove our danger.”
But the Birds would not listen to her. Not one of them could she
persuade to help her pick up the seeds which the farmer had sown.
By and by the flax sprang up, and the Swallow tried again to persuade
the Birds to pull the young flax before it grew large. But they all
made fun of her caution and let the flax keep growing.
When she saw how heedless all the Birds were, the Swallow would have
nothing more to do with them, but left the woods where they lived and
came among men, building her nests in barns and along the eaves of
houses.