as much as they please. You are to fly up
to the clouds and away to the land of the pyramids, while they are
freezing and can neither see a green leaf nor taste a sweet apple."

"But we will revenge ourselves," they whispered one to another. And then
the training began again.

Among all the children down in the street the one that seemed most bent
upon singing the song that made game of the storks was the boy who had
begun it, and he was a little fellow hardly more than six years old. The
young storks, to be sure, thought he was at least a hundred, for he was
much bigger than their parents, and, besides, what did they know about
the ages of either children or grown men? Their whole vengeance was to
be aimed at this one boy. It was always he who began the song and
persisted in mocking them. The young storks were very angry, and as they
grew larger they also grew less patient under insult, and their mother
was at last obliged to promise them that they might be revenged--but not
until the day of their departure.

"We must first see how you carry yourselves at the great review. If you
do so badly that the general runs his beak through you, then the boys
will be in the right--at least in one way. We must wait and see!"

"Yes, you shall see!" cried all the young storks; and they took the
greatest pains, practicing every day, until they flew so evenly and so
lightly that it was a pleasure to see them.

The autumn now set in; all the storks began to assemble, in order to
start for the warm countries and leave winter behind them. And such
exercises as there were! Young fledglings were set to fly over forests
and villages, to see if they were equal to the long journey that was
before them. So well did our young storks acquit themselves, that, as a
proof of the satisfaction they had given, the mark they got was,
"Remarkably well," with a present of a frog and a snake, which they lost
no time in eating.

"Now," said they, "we will be revenged."

"Yes, certainly," said their mother; "and I have thought of a way that
will surely be the fairest. I know a pond where all the little human
children lie till the stork comes to take them to their parents. There
lie the pretty little babies, dreaming more sweetly than they ever dream
afterwards. All the parents are wishing for one of these little ones,
and the children all want a sister or a brother. Now we'll fly to the
pond and bring back a baby for every child who did not sing the