hat was
just what they wanted, and their chief object in life: then they took
to a new nest, and began new quarrels, for in hot countries people are
generally hot-tempered and passionate. But it was pleasant for all
that, and the old people especially were much rejoiced, for all that
young people do seems to suit them well. There was sunshine every day,
and every day plenty to eat, and nothing to think of but pleasure. But
in the rich castle at the Egyptian host's, as they called him, there
was no pleasure to be found.

The rich mighty lord reclined on his divan, in the midst of the great
hall of the many-coloured walls, looking as if he were sitting in a
tulip; but he was stiff and powerless in all his limbs, and lay
stretched out like a mummy. His family and servants surrounded him,
for he was not dead, though one could not exactly say that he was
alive. The healing moor flower from the North, which was to have been
found and brought home by her who loved him best, never appeared. His
beauteous young daughter, who had flown in the swan's plumage over sea
and land, to the far North, was never to come back. "She is dead!" the
two returning swan-maidens had said, and they had concocted a complete
story, which ran as follows:

"We three together flew high in the air: a hunter saw us, and shot his
arrow at us; it struck our young companion and friend; and slowly,
singing her farewell song, she sunk down, a dying swan, into the
woodland lake. By the shore of the lake, under a weeping birch tree,
we laid her in the cool earth. But we had our revenge. We bound fire
under the wings of the swallow who had her nest beneath the huntsman's
thatch; the house burst into flames, the huntsman was burnt in the
house, and the glare shone over the sea as far as the hanging birch
beneath which she sleeps. Never will she return to the land of Egypt."

And then the two wept. And when stork-papa heard the story, he clapped
with his beak so that it could be heard a long way off.

[Illustration: THE KING OF EGYPT DECEIVED BY THE PRINCESSES.]

"Treachery and lies!" he cried. "I should like to run my beak deep
into their chests."

"And perhaps break it off," interposed the stork-mamma; "and then you
would look well. Think first of yourself, and then of your family, and
all the rest does not concern you."

"But to-morrow I shall seat myself at the edge of the open cupola,
when the wise and learned men assemble, to consult on the sick man'