ones on either side of him
a little way behind.

Hitherto I have always been content with the explanation that we
received and gave one another as boys, viz., that the birds chose this
formation in order to cleave the air, like a snow-plough clearing a way.

But it suddenly occurred to me the other day that this was pure
nonsense--an association of ideas called forth by the resemblance to a
plough, which moves in earth or snow, but which has no meaning up in the
air.

What _is_ cloven air? And who gets any benefit by it?

Yes, if the geese flew as they walk--one directly behind the
other--there might perhaps, in a contrary wind, be some little shelter
and relief for the very last ones. But they fly nearly side by side in
such a manner that each one, from first to last, receives completely
'uncloven' air right in the breast; there can be no suggestion that it
is easier for the last than for the first bird to cut a way.

The peculiar order of flight has quite another meaning, viz., to keep
the flock together on the long and fatiguing journey; and if we start
from this basis, the reasoning thought becomes also evident in the
arrangement itself.

Out here by the broad Aarre Water there pass great flights of
wild-geese; and in bad weather it may happen that they sit in thousands
on the water, resting and waiting.

But even if the flock flies past, there is always uneasiness and noise
when they come over Aarre Water. The ranks break, for a time the whole
becomes a confused mass, while they all scream and quack at the same
time.

Only slowly do they form again and fly southward in long lines, until
they shrink to thinner and thinner threads in the gray autumn sky, and
their last sound follows them upon the north wind.

Then I always believe that there has been a debate as to whether they
should take a little rest down on Aarre Water. There are certainly many
old ones who know the place again, and plenty of the young are
tender-winged, and would fain sit on the water and dawdle away a
half-day's time.

But when it is eventually resolved to fly on without stopping, and the
lines again begin to arrange themselves, it has become clear to me that
each seeks his own place in the ranks slanting outwards behind the
leaders, so that by this means he may be conducted along with the train
without being under the necessity of troubling about the way.

If these large, heavy birds were to fly in a cluster for weeks, day and