The old man had no thought of moving.  He had made a vow to pray without moving with uplifted hands all day in order to force the Lord to grant his request.  The more exhausted his body became, the more vivid visions filled his brain.  He heard the walls of cities fall and the houses crack.  Shrieking, terrified crowds rushed by him, pursued by the angels of vengeance and destruction, mighty forms with stern, beautiful faces, wearing silver coats of mail, riding black horses and swinging scourges, woven of white lightning.

The little wagtails built and shaped busily all day, and the work progressed rapidly.  On the tufted heath with its stiff sedges and by the river with its reeds and rushes, there was no lack of building material.  They had no time for noon siesta nor for evening rest.  Glowing with eagerness and delight, they flew to and fro, and before night came they had almost reached the roof.

But before night came, the hermit had begun to watch them more and more.  He followed them on their journeys; he scolded them when they built foolishly; he was furious when the wind disturbed their work; and least of all could he endure that they should take any rest.

Then the sun set, and the birds went to their old sleeping place in among the rushes.

Let him who crosses the heath at night bend clown until his face comes on a level with the tufts of grass, and he will see a strange spectacle outline itself against the western sky.  Owls with great, round wings skim over the ground, invisible to any one standing upright.  Snakes glide about there, lithe, quick, with narrow heads uplifted on swanlike necks.  Great turtles crawl slowly forward, hares and water-rats flee before preying beasts, and a fox bounds after a bat, which is chasing mosquitos by the river.  It seems as if every tuft has come to life.  But through it all the little birds sleep on the waving rushes, secure from all harm in that resting-place which no enemy can approach, without the water splashing or the reeds shaking and waking them.

When the morning came, the wagtails believed at first that the events of the day before had been a beautiful dream.

They had taken their landmarks and flew straight to their nest, but it was gone.  They flew searching over the heath and rose up into the air to spy about.  There was not a trace of nest or tree.  At last they lighted on a couple of stones by the river bank and considered.  They wagged their long tails and cocked their heads on one side.  Where had the tree and nest gone?

But hardly had the sun risen a handsbreadth over the belt of trees on the other bank, before their tree came walking and placed itself on the same spot where it had been the day before.  It was just as black and gnarled as ever and bore their nest on the top of something, which must be a dry, upright branch.

Then the wagtails began to build again, without troubling themselves any more about nature’s many wonders.