e raven and even the black stork! It was early in the
year; some of the nests were full of eggs, while in others the young
ones were just hatched. What a flying and screaming was there! Then came
the sound of the axe, blow upon blow; the forest was to be felled.
Waldemar Daa was about to build a costly ship, a three-decked
man-of-war, which it was expected the king would buy. So the wood fell,
the ancient landmark of the seaman, the home of the birds. The shrike
was frightened away; its nest was torn down; the osprey and all the
other birds lost their nests too, and they flew about distractedly,
shrieking in their terror and anger. The crows and the jackdaws screamed
in mockery, Caw! caw! Waldemar Daa and his three daughters stood in the
middle of the wood among the workmen. They all laughed at the wild cries
of the birds, except Anna Dorothea, who was touched by their distress,
and when they were about to fell a tree which was half-dead, and on
whose naked branches a black stork had built its nest, out of which the
young ones were sticking their heads, she begged them with tears in her
eyes to spare it. So the tree with the black stork's nest was allowed to
stand. It was only a little thing.

'The chopping and the sawing went on--the three-decker was built. The
master builder was a man of humble origin, but of noble loyalty; great
power lay in his eyes and on his forehead, and Waldemar Daa liked to
listen to him, and little Ida liked to listen too, the eldest
fifteen-year-old daughter. But whilst he built the ship for her father,
he built a castle in the air for himself, in which he and little Ida sat
side by side as man and wife. This might also have happened if his
castle had been built of solid stone, with moat and ramparts, wood and
gardens. But with all his wisdom the shipbuilder was only a poor bird,
and what business has a sparrow in a crane's nest? Whew! whew! I rushed
away, and he rushed away, for he dared not stay, and little Ida got over
it, as get over it she must.

'The fiery black horses stood neighing in the stables; they were worth
looking at, and they were looked at to some purpose too. An admiral was
sent from the King to look at the new man-of-war, with a view to
purchasing it. The admiral was loud in his admiration of the horses. I
heard all he said,' added the wind. 'I went through the open door with
the gentlemen and scattered the straw like gold before their feet.
Waldemar Daa wanted gold; the a