"
"No, wait, wait! We haven't had anything like enough," said the
followers.
"You surely don't believe that I intend to let you eat so much that you
will not be able to move?" said the leader, and flapped his wings and
started off. Along the outermost sea-weed banks lay a flock of swans.
They didn't bother about going on land, but rested themselves by lying
and rocking on the water. Now and then they dived down with their necks
and brought up food from the sea-bottom. When they had gotten hold of
anything very good, they indulged in loud shouts that sounded like
trumpet calls.
When the boy heard that there were swans on the shoals, he hurried out
to the sea-weed banks. He had never before seen wild swans at close
range. He had luck on his side, so that he got close up to them.
The boy was not the only one who had heard the swans. Both the wild
geese and the gray geese and the loons swam out between the banks, laid
themselves in a ring around the swans and stared at them. The swans
ruffled their feathers, raised their wings like sails, and lifted their
necks high in the air. Occasionally one and another of them swam up to a
goose, or a great loon, or a diving-duck, and said a few words. And then
it appeared as though the one addressed hardly dared raise his bill to
reply.
But then there was a little loon--a tiny mischievous baggage--who
couldn't stand all this ceremony.
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