Storkling

The owner of a house found a single egg in the nest of a pair of storks, built on the chimney, and substituted for it a goose’s egg, which in due time was hatched and produced a gosling instead of the expected storkling. The male bird was thrown into the greatest excitement by this event, and finally flew away. The female, however, remained on the nest, and continued to care for the changeling as though it were her own offspring. On the morning of the fourth day the male reappeared accompanied by nearly five hundred storks, which held a mass meeting in an adjacent field. The assembly was addressed by several speakers, each orator posting himself on the same spot before beginning his harangue. The deliberations and discussions occupied nearly the entire forenoon, when suddenly the meeting broke up and all the storks pounced upon the unfortunate female and her suppositious young one, killed them both, and, after destroying the polluted ness, took wing and departed, and were never seen there again. The story is told of a pair of storks who had lived together for many years in a village. One day, while the male was absent, a younger suitor appeared and began to pay court to the wife. She received his attentions at first with indifference, but she finally fell into the snares of her passionate and persistent adorer. His visits became more frequent, and at last he succeeded in so completely fascinating the matron that she was persuaded to accompany him to a marshy meadow, where her unsuspecting husband was engaged in catching frogs, and to join her gay paramour in putting the old stork to death.