Coming and Going is a nice story of how parent birds take care of their
young ones and then when winter approaches how these migratory birds fly
off in search of summer and sunshine. The love of these parent birds
sets an example of ideal parenthood. The story is as follows:
There came to our fields a pair of birds that had never built a nest
nor seen a winter. How beautiful was everything! The fields were full of
flowers and the grass was growing tall, and the bees were humming
everywhere. Then one of the birds began singing, and the other bird
said, "Who told you to sing?" And he answered, "The
flowers told me, and the bees told me, and the winds and leaves told me,
and the blue sky told me, and you told me to sing." Then his mate
answered, "When did I tell you to sing?" And he said, "Every
time you brought in tender grass for the nest, and every time your soft
wings fluttered off again for hair and feathers to line the nest."
Then his mate said, "What are you singing about?" And he
answered, "I am singing about everything and nothing. It is because
I am so happy that I sing."
By and by five little speckled eggs were in the nest, and his mate
said, "Is there anything in all the world as pretty as my eggs?"
Then they both looked down on some people that were passing by and
pitied them because they were not birds.
In a week or two, one day, when the father bird came home, the mother
bird said, "Oh, what do you think has happened?" "What?"
"One of my eggs has been peeping and moving!" Pretty soon
another egg moved under her feathers, and then another and another, till
five little birds were hatched! Now the father bird sang louder and
louder than ever. The mother bird, too, wanted to sing, but she had no
time, and she turned her song into work. So hungry were these little
birds that it kept both parents busy feeding them. Away each one flew.
The moment the little birds heard their wings fluttering among the
leaves, five little yellow mouths flew open wide, so that nothing could
be seen but five yellow mouths!
"Can anybody be happier?" said the father bird to the mother
bird. "We will live in this tree always, for there is no sorrow
here. It is a tree that always bears joy."
Soon the little birds were big enough to fly, and great was their
parents' joy to see them leave the nest and sit crumpled up upon the
branches. There was then a great time, the two old birds talking and
chatting to make the young ones go alone! In a little time they had
learned to use their own wings, and they flew away and away, and found
their own food, and built their own nests, and sang their own songs with
joy.
Then the old birds sat silent and looked at each other, until the
mother bird said, "Why don't you sing?" And he answered, "I
can't sing - I can only think and think." "What are you
thinking of?" "I am thinking how everything changes. The
leaves are falling off from this tree, and soon there will be no roof
over our heads; the flowers are all going; last night there was a frost;
almost all the birds have flown away. Something calls me, and I feel as
if I would like to fly away."
"Let us fly away together!"
Then they arose silently, and, lifting themselves far up in the air,
they looked to the north. Far away they saw the snow coming. They looked
to the south. There they saw flowers and green leaves. All day they
flew, and all night they flew and flew, till they found a land where
there was no winter - where flowers always blossom, and birds always
sing.
