58 More Tales of the Birds 



the noise of that water been in their ears ever 

 since they broke their shells, telling them all the 

 secrets of their life ? And had not their mother 

 told them wonderful things of it of the food 

 about its banks, and on its stones, and in its 

 shallows, the cool refreshing air that breathes 

 from it, the lights and shadows that play on it, 

 and above all, the endless music without which 

 a Sandpiper could hardly live? 



" You cannot fly yet," she told them, " but we 

 will go to the water's edge, and then your father 

 and I will show you how to enjoy it." And as 

 just then it came in sight, she opened her wings 

 and flew out on it piping, while the little ones 

 opened their wings too in vain, and hurried on 

 to the edge, and watched her as she alit on a 

 stone, and bowed gracefully to the dancing water. 

 And they too bowed their tiny bodies and felt 

 the deliciousness of living. 



All that livelong day, a day no one of them 

 ever forgot, they spent by the river side, dabbling* 

 their little dark-green legs in the water when an 

 eddy sent it gently up to them, learning to find 

 the sweetest and wholesomest insects lurking 



