uently not been
used: we had trouble enough with them to bring them hither in three
journeys; and now they lie down here in the nest, and if it should
happen that a fire broke out, and the wooden house were burned, they
would be destroyed."

"And our good nest would be destroyed too," said stork-mamma; "but you
think less of that than of your plumage stuff and of your
moor-princess. You'd best go down into the mud and stay there with
her. You're a bad father to your own children, as I said already when
I hatched our first brood. I only hope neither we nor our children
will get an arrow in our wings through that wild girl. Helga doesn't
know in the least what she does. I wish she would only remember that
we have lived here longer than she, and that we have never forgotten
our duty, and have given our toll every year, a feather, an egg, and a
young one, as it was right we should do. Do you think I can now wander
about in the courtyard and everywhere, as I was wont in former days,
and as I still do in Egypt, where I am almost the playfellow of the
people, and that I can press into pot and kettle as I can yonder? No,
I sit up here and am angry at her, the stupid chit! And I am angry at
you too. You should have just left her lying in the water-lily, and
she would have been dead long ago."

"You are much better than your words," said stork-papa. "I know you
better than you know yourself."

And with that he gave a hop, and flapped his wings heavily twice,
stretched out his legs behind him, and flew away, or rather sailed
away, without moving his wings. He had already gone some distance,
when he gave a great _flap_! The sun shone upon his grand plumage, and
his head and neck were stretched forth proudly. There was power in it,
and dash!

"After all, he's handsomer than any of them," said stork-mamma to
herself; "but I won't tell him so."

* * * * *

Early in that autumn the Viking came home, laden with booty, and
bringing prisoners with him. Among these was a young Christian priest,
one of those who contemned the gods of the North.

Often in those later times there had been a talk, in hall and chamber,
of the new faith that was spreading far and wide in the South, and
which, by means of Saint Ansgarius, had penetrated as far as Hedeby on
the Schlei. Even Helga had heard of this belief in One who, from love
to men and for their redemption, had sacrificed His life; but with her
all this ha