kept faithful watch, and had fought
with the utmost contempt for death, and, thanks to the fine old house,
they had always conquered.

It will have to be acknowledged that as long as the black rats were in
power they were as much shunned by all other living creatures as the
gray rats are in our day--and for just cause; they had thrown themselves
upon poor, fettered prisoners, and tortured them; they had ravished the
dead; they had stolen the last turnip from the cellars of the poor;
bitten off the feet of sleeping geese; robbed eggs and chicks from the
hens; and committed a thousand depredations. But since they had come to
grief, all this seemed to have been forgotten; and no one could help but
marvel at the last of a race that had held out so long against its
enemies.

The gray rats that lived in the courtyard at Glimminge and in the
vicinity, kept up a continuous warfare and tried to watch out for every
possible chance to capture the castle. One would fancy that they should
have allowed the little company of black rats to occupy Glimminge castle
in peace, since they themselves had acquired all the rest of the
country; but you may be sure this thought never occurred to them. They
were wont to say that it was a point of honour with them to conquer the
black rats at some time or other. But those who were acquainted with the
gray rats must have known that it was because the human kind used
Glimminge castle as a grain store-house that the gray ones could not
rest before they had taken possession of the place.

THE STORK

_Monday, March twenty-eighth_.

Early one morning the wild geese who stood and slept on the ice in Vomb
Lake were awakened by long calls from the air. "Trirop, Trirop!" it
sounded, "Trianut, the crane, sends greetings to Akka, the wild goose,
and her flock. To-morrow will be the day of the great crane dance on
Kullaberg."

Akka raised her head and answered at once: "Greetings and thanks!
Greetings and thanks!"

With that, the cranes flew farther; and the wild geese heard them for a
long while--where they travelled and called out over every field, and
every wooded hill: "Trianut sends greetings. To-morrow will be the day
of the great crane dance on Kullaberg."

The wild geese were very happy over this invitation. "You're in luck,"
they said to the white goosey-gander, "to be permitted to attend the
great crane dance on Kullaberg!" "Is it then so remarkable to see cranes
dance?" asked the goosey-g