chipping-birds

Updated: June 16, 2025

In the mean time, afraid to ask any more questions, he yet kept his ears open to gather any scraps of information that might be useful for his journey. Listening ears can always hear; and Alba very soon began to learn, from the old trees overhead, from the dry rustling leaves around him, and from the little chipping-birds that chatted together in the sunshine.

Jane Andrews - The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children

But he had no will to resist the gentle motion, which seemed, after all, to be exactly what he wanted: so he presently found himself lifted out of the dark earth, feeling the sunshine again, and stirred by the breeze that rustled the dry leaves that lay all about him. Here again were all his old companions, the chipping-birds, his cousins, old grandfather Rubra, and, best of all, his dear mother.

Jane Andrews - The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children

But the little brown chipping-birds said, one to another, "No, no, no, they never came back! they never came back!" All this sent a chill through Alba's heart, but he still held to his purpose; and in the night a warm and friendly rain melted the frozen gateway, and he boldly rolled out of his cradle forever, and, slipping through the portal, was lost to sight.

Jane Andrews - The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children

Now he began to understand why the chipping-birds said, "They never came back! they never came back!" for they truly came in so new a form that none of their old friends recognized them.

Jane Andrews - The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children

It was a soft, helpless, little baby hand. Its folded fingers lay listlessly in the fairy's gentle grasp. "Now we will go up," she said. He had thought he was going down, and he had heard the chipping-birds say he would never come back again.

Jane Andrews - The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children