72 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



old man get on Betsy, his racking mare, and start for 

 town with the swan chasing behind, trumpeting and flap- 

 ping her wings. The bird never flew in order to keep up, 

 but ran behind flapping her long wings. Sometimes if he 

 rode too fast she would catch the horse by the tail and 

 hang on, flapping her wings, and touching the ground only 

 every few rods. When the old man went into a house Lady 

 Jane had to content herself by sitting on the outside, or, as 

 she more often did, by waiting at the side of Betsy, and 

 wo betide the dog who dared to disturb either. More than 

 once some over-ambitious dog, attracted by the novel sight 

 of a swan following a man on horseback, gave chase. But 

 he always went back a sadder but wiser dog, for Lady Jane 

 looked on the intrusion as a personal insult which she 

 felt in duty bound to avenge. Strange to say, never once 

 did she come out of the fracas second best, for no dog 

 ever proved quick enough to dodge her lightning beak 

 or to escape the terrible hammering of her mighty wings. 



As spring came on Lady Jane grew apace. When fully 

 grown, she weighed over forty pounds and could eat corn off 

 the brim of Dad Oswalt's hat when the hat was on his 

 head, and Dad Oswalt was a man six feet tall. Now she 

 was snow white, all but her feet and legs and bill. These 

 were black. The bill is longer than the head, and is flat 

 like that of a goose or a duck. Yet where it joins the 

 head it is thicker than it is broad. This is true of all 

 swans. 



Lady Jane could swim faster than any one could row a 

 boat or paddle a canoe. She seemed to like to race in 

 this way, always managing to keep out of reach without 

 getting so far ahead as to discourage her pursuers. 



As spring drew on, she developed a desire to fly. She 



