a clanging
noise. They must be ducks."

"Ducks?" cried Steve, staring upwards and seeing nothing.

"Yes, sir. Another sign of the cold weather. They're all banded
together in one great flight, and are going south to the marshes of
North Russia, where they'll stay till it begins to freeze there, and
then go farther south."

"But are you sure? Oh, they wouldn't take flight in the dark!"

"Sure, sir? Listen to the whistling of their wings, hundreds and
thousands of them flying over as fast as they can go. Yes, they always
fly in the night when they're going from here south, and I believe birds
come north in the same way, following after the frost as it is driven
north. I've noticed it at home near Nordoe. To-day there would be no
birds at all in the spring; next day there would be hundreds of them
flying about. They must have come in the night."

Steve had not a word to say, but stood there silent, listening to the
whirring of the thousands of wings which echoed from the ice and the
sides of the fiord, sounding so close that he felt disposed to stretch
out his hand and try to touch that which seemed to be within reach.
Then he began to wonder how many thousands there would be, and where
they had come from; and then how it was that this plain, homely
Norwegian should know so much better than he, and show that he had
passed his life picking up knowledge peculiar to his surroundings, so
that he was able to teach those around him again and again.

"Isn't there going to be any end of them?" said the boy at last; for the
peculiar whirring had been going on for quite half an hour.

"Oh yes, sir; they'll all be by soon," replied Johannes; and almost as
he spoke the whirring sound grew fainter, fainter, and then died away.

"Hah!" ejaculated Steve, drawing a long breath. "How strange it
sounded!"

He was about to say, "I am glad you were here, for it quite startled
me," when the Norseman spoke:

"I remember hearing one of these night flights, sir when I was quite a
lad somewhere about your age. I was out quite alone, and it frightened
me so that I ran away. It was one night, and I was going straight home
over the mountain when it began. First thing I did was to throw myself
flat on my face; but the noise seemed to come close down to me, and I
was so scared that I jumped up and began to run. But that did no good,
for I started running in the same direction as the wild fowl were
flying, and consequently the