“I dare say I can convey your message,” Agar replied, “but I can’t understand how the little boy will be able to help the swans.”

“Nor do I,” said Smirre, “but he can do almost everything, it seems.”

“It’s surprising to me that Daylight should send his messages by a fox,” Agar remarked.

“Well, we’re not exactly what you’d call good friends,” said Smirre smoothly, “but in an emergency like this we must help each other.  Perhaps it would be just as well not to tell Akka that you got the message from a fox.  Between you and me, she’s inclined to be a little suspicious.”

The safest refuge for water-fowl in the whole Maelar district is Hjaelsta Bay.  It has low shores, shallow water and is also covered with reeds.

It is by no means as large as Lake Takern, but nevertheless Hjaelsta is a good retreat for birds, since it has long been forbidden territory to hunters.

It is the home of a great many swans, and the owner of the old castle nearby has prohibited all shooting on the bay, so that they might be unmolested.

As soon as Akka received word that the swans needed her help, she hastened down to Hjaelsta Bay.  She arrived with her flock one evening and saw at a glance that there had been a great disaster.  The big swans’ nests had been torn away, and the strong wind was driving them down the bay.  Some had already fallen apart, two or three had capsized, and the eggs lay at the bottom of the lake.

When Akka alighted on the bay, all the swans living there were gathered near the eastern shore, where they were protected from the wind.

Although they had suffered much by the flood, they were too proud to let any one see it.

“It is useless to cry,” they said.  “There are plenty of root-fibres and stems here; we can soon build new nests.”

None had thought of asking a stranger to help them, and the swans had no idea that Smirre Fox had sent for the wild geese!

There were several hundred swans resting on the water.  They had placed themselves according to rank and station.  The young and inexperienced were farthest out, the old and wise nearer the middle of the group, and right in the centre sat Daylight, the swan-king, and Snow-White, the swan-queen, who were older than any of the others and regarded the rest of the swans as their children.

The geese alighted on the west shore of the bay; but when Akka saw where the swans were, she swam toward them at once.  She was very much surprised at their having sent for her, but she regarded it as an honour and did not wish to lose a moment in coming to their aid.

As Akka approached the swans she paused to see if the geese who followed her swam in a straight line, and at even distances apart.

“Now, swim along quickly!” she ordered.  “Don’t stare at the swans as if you had never before seen anything beautiful, and don’t mind what they may say to you!”