_Frontispiece_
Round and Round the Castle they went, and the Giant
with his strength was wearing out Feet-in-the-Ashes
PAGE
"No bird will ever out-soar this flight of mine,"
said the Eagle 61

But just as the Witch was dragging her to the
stone a robin began to sing 79

The Red Champion said, "Good is the Champion that the
King of this Land has sent against me." 97

All flew from the mountain except one bird and
he was the greatest amongst them all 117

I put it to my lips, I drank it when he took a
step towards me 141

O most beauteous of all the birds, do you know of
any arms by which a hero can slay a dragon? 155

"Ernan is Lord, is Lord of the Fair Islands" 173

[Illustration]

The Boy Who Knew
What The Birds Said

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

How He Came to Know What the Birds Said

[Illustration]

There is one thing that all the Birds are afraid of, and that is the
thing that will happen when the Bird That Follows the Cuckoo flies
into the Cuckoo's mouth.

And what will happen then, asks my kind foster-child.

When the Bird that Follows the Cuckoo flies into the Cuckoo's mouth
the World will come to an end.

All the Birds know that, but not all the People know it.

Well, one day the Cuckoo was sitting on a bush and her Mouth was open.
The Bird That Follows the Cuckoo flew straight at it. And into it he
must have flown only for the Boy....

The Boy was in the tree and he flung his cap at the Cuckoo and he
covered the Cuckoo and the Cuckoo's open mouth.

The Bird That Follows the Cuckoo flew into the Crow's mouth instead,
and the Crow gave that bird a squeeze, I can tell you. The Cuckoo
pushed off the Boy's cap with her wings and flew into the forest.

All the Birds of the King's Garden were there at the time. There
were--

The Crow, the Woodpecker,
The Wren and the Eagle,
The Blackbird and Swallow,
The Jackdaw and Starling,
And the wonderful Peacock;
The Lapwing and Peewit,
The bold Yellowhammer,
The bad Willy-wagtail,
The Raven so awful,
And the Cock with his Hens;
Stone-checker, Hedge-sparrow