时间：2022-10-18 10:51:28
On the last house in a little village stood a Stork' s nest. The Mother Stork sat in it with her four young ones, who stretched out their heads with the pointed black beaks, for their beaks had not yet turned red. A little way off stood the Father-Stork, all alone on the ridge of the roof, quite upright and stiff; he had drawn up one of his legs, so as not to be quite idle while he stood sentry. One would have thought he had been carved out of wood, so still did he stand. He thought,"It must look very grand, that my wife has a sentry standing by her nest. They can't tell that it is her husband. They certainly think I have been commanded to stand here. That looks so aristocratic!" And he went on standing on one leg.
Below in the street a whole crowd of children were playing; and when they caught sight of the Storks, one of the boldest of the boys, and afterwards all of them, sang the old verse about the Storks. But they only sang it just as he could remember it:
Stork, stork, flyaway;
Go and stay at home today.
Your wife is lying in the nest,
With four young beneath her breast.
The first he will be hanged,
The second will be banged,
The third he will be burned,
And the fourth one will be turned
Outside in!
"Just hear what those boys are singing!" said the little Stork-children. "They say we' re to be hanged and burned."
"You' re not to care for that!" said the Mother-Stork."Don't listen to it, and then it won't matter."
But the boys went on singing, and pointed at the Storks mockingly with their fingers;only one boy, whose name was Peter, declared that it was a sin to make jest of animals, and he would not join in it at all.
The Mother-Stork comforted her children. "Don' t you mind it at all," she said; "see how quiet your father stands, though it's only on one leg."
"We are very much afraid," said the young Storks, and they drew their heads far back into the nest.
Now today, when the children came out again to play, and saw the Storks, they sang their song:
The first he will be hanged,
The second will be hanged--
"Shall we be hanged and banged?" asked the young Storks.
"No, certainly not," replied the mother." You shall learn to fly; I'll exercise you; then we shall fly out into the meadows and pay a visit to the frogs; they will bow before us in the water, and sing'Co-ax co-ax!' and then we shall eat them up. That will be a real pleasure."
"And what then?" asked the young Storks.
"Then all the Storks will assemble, all that are here in the whole country, and the autumn exercises begin. Then one must fly well, for that is highly important, for whoever cannot fly properly will be thrust dead by the general' s beak; so take care and learn well when the exercising begins."
"But then we shall be killed, as the boys say: --and only listen, now they're singing again."
"Listen to me, and not to them," said the Mother Stork.
"After the great review we shall fly away to the warm countries, far away from here, over mountains and forests. We shall fly to Egypt, where there are three cornered houses of stone, which run up to a point and tower above the clouds; they are called pyramids, and are older than a Stork can imagine. There is a river in that country which runs out of its bed, and then all the land is turned to mud. One walks about in the mud, and eats frogs."
"Oh!" cried all the young ones.
"Yes! It is glorious there! One does nothing all day long but eat; and while we are so comfortable over there, here there is not a green leaf on the trees; here it is so cold that the clouds freeze to pieces, and fall down in little white rags！"
It was the snow that she meant, but she could not explain it in any other way.
"And do the naughty boys freeze to pieces?" asked the young Storks.
"No, they do not freeze to pieces; but they are not far from it, and must sit in the dark room and cower. You, on the other hand, can fly about in foreign lands, where there are flowers, and the sun shines warm."
Now some time had elapsed, and the nestlings had grown so large that they could stand upright in the nest and look far around; and the Father-Stork came every day with delicious frogs, little snakes, and all kinds of stork-dainties as he found them. Oh! It looked funny when he performed feats before them! He laid his head quite back upon his tail, and clapped with his beak as if it had been a little clapper; and then he told them stories, all about the marshes.
（To be continued）
在一个小村子最后面的一座房子上，有一个鹳的窝，鹳妈妈和自己的四个孩子住在里面。孩子们伸长了脑袋，翘起带着黑点的喙，因为他们的喙还没有变红呢。旁边不远是鹳爸爸，他一个人站在屋脊上，笔直地挺立着。他收起一条腿，好让自己在站岗放哨的时候不至于太无聊。人们会以为他是木头刻的，因为它站着一动不动。他想：“我老婆有个哨兵站在她的窝边，这看起来一定很气派。人们不知道我是她老公，肯定以为我是奉命站在这里的。这看上去太高贵了!”他继续用一条腿站着。
在下面的街道上，一大群孩子正在玩耍。当他们看见鹳的时候，先是一个胆子最大的孩子，然后所有的孩子，都唱起了一首关于鹳的老歌谣。但他们只会唱还记得的几句：
鹳呀鹳，飞呀飞；
今天飞回家里面。
夫人躺在窝里边，
四个孩子藏在她的身下眠。
第一个被吊死啦，
第二个被打死啦，
第三个会被烧死的，
第四个会从窝里摔下来！
“听听那些孩子们唱的什么玩意！”小鹳鸟们说，“他们说我们会被吊死、烧死!”
“别理他们！”鹳妈妈说，“别听他们瞎唱，就没有什么关系啦。”
但孩子们还是一个劲地唱着，还用手指着鹳鸟取乐。只有一个名叫彼特的孩子，宣称取笑动物是种罪过，所以他没有加入歌唱的队伍。
鹳妈妈一个劲地安慰自己的孩子。“别在意，”她说，“瞧爸爸站得多么自如，尽管是用一条腿!”
“我们太害怕了，”小鹳们说。他们把头深深地缩回窝里。
今天，孩子们又出来玩耍了。他们看见了鹳，又唱起了歌儿：
第一个被吊死啦，
第二个被打死啦――
“我们会被吊死、打死吗？”小鹳们问。
“不，当然不会，”妈妈答道，“你们要学会飞，我要帮你们练习。我们要飞到草地上去，去拜访青蛙。它们会在水里向我们鞠躬，唱‘呱――呱!’然后我们就吃掉它们。那才快活呢!”
“然后呢？”小鹳们问。
“然后所有的鹳都聚到一起，大家来自全国各地，秋天的大检阅就开始了。谁都得好好地飞，这十分重要，因为谁要是飞得不像样，就会被鹳将军用嘴啄死。因此你们得注意点，从开始练习就得好好学。”
“然后我们会被杀死的，就像孩子们说的那样――听，他们又唱起来了!”
“听我的话，别理他们。”鹳妈妈说。
“大检阅以后，我们就要飞到温暖的地方去了，离这儿很远很远，要越过高山和森林。我们要飞到埃及去，那儿有三个角的石屋，冒着尖顶，高耸人云。这叫做金字塔，它们比我们所有鹳想像的都要古老。那个国家有条河，经常泛滥，让国土变成了沼泽。鹳可以在沼泽地里，一边走一边找青蛙吃。”
“哇!”小家伙们叫起来。
“是的!那儿真是个好地方!在那里只管吃就可以了。当我们在那里舒舒服服生活的时候，这里的树连一片绿叶都没了。这儿会很寒冷，连云都冻成了小碎片，像小白布片一样落下来!”
她指的是雪花，但她没有别的好办法来说清楚。
“那些淘气的孩子也会变成碎片吗?”小鹳们问。
“不，他们不会变成碎片的，但他们也舒服不到哪儿去。他们得坐在黑屋子里，缩手缩脚的。而你们，却可以在外国的土地上飞翔，那里鲜花盛开，阳光普照。”
一段时间以后，小鸟们就长大了，可以在窝里站起来，向周围眺望。鹳爸爸每天都带些美味的青蛙、小蛇以及各种鹳喜欢吃的好东西来。啊!当他在孩子们面前表演各种绝技的时候，真是好玩极了!他把头一下子缩进尾巴里，还让自己的喙发出叭嗒叭嗒的响声。然后他就讲故事给他们听，都是和沼泽地有关的。