ii 4 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



the vast quantities of wood which she threw out 

 were carried away by floods and the current of the 

 great river. Thus even to the end did her evil spirit 

 sustain her, and the tree bent and swayed in the 

 mighty wind, and at last fell with a noise as of many 

 thunders, shaking the world with its fall, and filling 

 all its inhabitants with terror. Only when they saw 

 the tree which had stood like a vast green pillar 

 reaching to the sky lying prone across the world did 

 they know the dreadful thing which had been done. 



So ended that great tree named Caligdawa; and 

 so ends my story, originally taken down from the lips 

 of wise old men who preserved the history and tradi- 

 tions of their race by a missionary priest and read by 

 me in my early youth in the volume in which he 

 relates it. 



But I will venture to say that the story has not 

 been dragged in here; I had no thought of using it 

 when I sat down this evening to write about a white 

 duck. That vision of the sunlit, surprisingly white, 

 yellow-billed ducks floating on the wind-rippled blue 

 pool — for it was like a vision — had to be told; but 

 how, unless I said that it was like a glimpse into some 

 unearthly place where all things are as on earth, only 

 more beautiful in the brighter atmosphere ? My blue 

 pool with white birds floating on it, in a spring-green 

 field, blown on by the wind and shone on and glorified 

 by the sun, was like a sudden vision, a transcript of 

 that far-up country. 



And now, just at the finish, another chance thought 

 comes to help me. The thought has, in fact, been 



