y cheeks, and the women said "Before this old
moon is gone our King will come here to wed you."

Then one day I found on the shore the cup that my sisters had brought
and the draft from the Secret Well was in it. I took the cup in my
hands and I brought it where I lived. "Come to us," said the women,
"so that we may undo your hair and tell the King when he may come to
wed you." They loosened my hair and then they said "there is no shade
of green here at all. Bid the King come as early as he likes
to-morrow."

I lay that night with the cup beside me. When I rose I knew that day I
should drink from the cup my sisters had sent me--drink the draft that
would change me into what I wished to be--a bird of the sea.

And while I sat with the cup beside me and my hair spread out,
Branduv, the King of the Island, came to the door of the house. It may
have been that I was becoming used to the sight of people of the
earthly kingdoms, for, as I looked upon him he did not seem terrible
to me. He looked noble, I thought, and eager to befriend me and love
me. But the cup was in my hands when he came to the door. I put it to
my lips when he entered the house. I drank it when he took a step
towards me. And thereupon I became what I had wished to be--a
Sea-Swan.

O my listeners! Maybe it would have been well for me if I had wed that
King, and be now as the women of the islands. For now as I fly over
the sea the King's look comes before me, and I think that he was
eager to befriend me and eager to love me. So I am not content when I
am flying over the sea. And I am lonely when I am on these islands,
for I am now a Swan, and what has a Swan to do with the lives of men?

* * * * *

Such was the story that the Sea-Swan told the pigeons of the rock, and
the Boy who knew what the Birds said heard it all, and remembered
every word of it.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: What the Peacock and the Crow Told Each Other]

What The Peacock and the Crow Told Each Other When the Crow Came to
Steal the Peacock's Feathers

[Illustration]

Said the Lapwing "Crow,
I never have seen
Such a one as you,
Such a one as you
For stealing eggs."

Said the Crow "Caw, caw,
I never have seen
Such a one myself,
And I am, I am sure
Longer in the world."

Then the Crow flew away and the Lapwing went on complaining.

The Crow flew away and he came to where the Peacock w