I30 THE SWALLOW 



' 'Tis mine ! ' she said — and now with broken wings 

 Atones her boldness. While the eaglets small 

 Bemoan their fate, a kindly swallow sings : — 

 ' Comfort, young eaglets, I will take you all 

 Unto the land of Ind, far, far o'er seas, 

 Where to the horses' shoulders clover grows, 

 And amaranth reaches even to their knees. 

 The sun sets never on that happy shore.' 

 And now the little eaglets mourn no more." 



A bird of the south, the ortolan, which is 

 much liked as a food, asks the swallow how 

 it is that so many of them come back in the 

 spring, when so few went away in the fall. 

 The wise bird answers them with another 

 question. Portuguese children sing this dia- 

 logue : — 



Little swallow, whence come you, 

 That return so many, and were so few ? 



The swallow answers : — 



Foolish ortolan, whence come you. 

 That were so many, and return so few .' 



As they see the swallow flying so swiftly 

 and easily through the air, the children natu- 

 rally ask her to be a messenger to distant 



