There came to our fields a pair of birds that had never built a nest
nor seen a winter. How beautiful was everything! The fields were full
of flowers, and the grass was growing tall, and the bees were humming
everywhere. Then one of the birds began singing, and the other bird
said, “Who told you to sing?” And he answered, “The flowers told me,
and the bees told me, and the winds and leaves told me, and the blue
sky told me, and you told me to sing.” Then his mate answered, “When
did I tell you to sing?” And he said, “Every time you brought in
tender grass for the nest, and every time your soft wings fluttered
off again for hair and feathers to line the nest.” Then his mate
said, “What are you singing about?” And he answered, “I am singing
about everything and nothing. It is because I am so happy that I
sing.”
By and by five little speckled eggs were in the nest, and his mate
said, “Is there anything in all the world as pretty as my eggs?” Then
they both looked down on some people that were passing by and pitied
them because they were not birds.
In a week or two, one day, when the father-bird came home, the
mother-bird said, “Oh, what do you think has happened?” “What?” “One
of my eggs has been peeping and moving!” Pretty soon another egg
moved under her feathers, and then another and another, till five
little birds were hatched! Now the father-bird sang louder and louder
than ever. The mother-bird, too, wanted to sing, but she had no time,
and so she turned her song into work. So hungry were these little
birds that it kept both parents busy feeding them. Away each one
flew. The moment the little birds heard their wings fluttering among
the leaves, five yellow mouths flew open wide, so that nothing could
be seen but five yellow mouths!
“Can anybody be happier?” said the father-bird to the mother-bird.
“We will live in this tree always, for there is no sorrow here. It is
a tree that always bears joy.”
Soon the little birds were big enough to fly, and great was their
parents’ joy to see them leave the nest and sit crumpled up upon the
branches. There was then a great time! The two old birds talking and
chatting to make the young ones go alone! In a little time they had
learned to use their wings, and they flew away and away, and found
their own food, and built their own nests, and sang their own songs
of joy.
Then the old birds sat silent and looked at each other, until the
mother-bird said, “Why don’t you sing?” And he answered, “I can’t
sing--I can only think and think.” “What are you thinking of?” “I am
thinking how everything changes: the leaves are falling off from this
tree, and soon there will be no roof over our heads; the flowers are
all going; last night there was a frost; almost all the birds are
flown away. Something calls me, and I feel as if I would like to fly
far away.”
“Let us fly away together!”
Then they rose silently, and, lifting themselves far up in the air,
they looked to the north: far away they saw the snow coming. They
looked to the south: there they saw flowers and green leaves! All day
they flew; and all night they flew and flew, till they found a land
where there was no winter--where flowers always blossom, and birds
always sing.