Hatto the hermit, who drove the little children away from his hole telling them that it had been best for them if they had never been born, he who rushed out into the mud to hurl curses after the joyous young people who rowed up the stream in pleasure-boats, he from whose angry eyes the shepherds on the heath guarded their flocks, did not return to his place by the river for the sake of the little birds.  He knew that not only has every letter in the holy books its hidden, mysterious meaning, but so also has everything which God allows to take place in nature.  He had thought out the meaning of the wagtails building in his hand.  God wished him to remain standing with uplifted arms until the birds had raised their brood; and if he should have the power to do that, he would be heard.

But during that day he did not see so many visions of the Day of Doom.  Instead, he watched the birds more and more eagerly.  He saw the nest soon finished.  The little builders fluttered about it and inspected it.  They went after a few bits of lichen from the real willow-tree and fastened them on the outside, to fill the place of plaster and paint.  They brought the finest cotton-grass, and the female wagtail took feathers from her own breast and lined the nest.

The peasants, who feared the baleful power that the hermit’s prayers might have at the throne of God, used to bring him bread and milk to mitigate his wrath.  They came now too and found him standing motionless, with the bird’s nest in his hand.  “See how the holy man loves the little creatures,” they said, and were no longer afraid of him, but lifted the bowl of milk to his mouth and put the bread between his lips.  When he had eaten and drunk, he drove away the people with angry words, but they only smiled at his curses.

His body had long since become the slave of his will.  By hunger and blows, by praying all day, by waking a week at a time, he had taught it obedience.  Now the steel-like muscles held his arms uplifted for days and weeks, and when the female wagtail began to sit on her eggs and never left the nest, he did not return to his hole even at night.  He learned to sleep sitting, with upstretched arms.  Among the dwellers in the wilderness there are many who have done greater things.

He grew accustomed to the two little, motionless bird-eyes which stared down at him over the edge of the nest.  He watched for hail and rain, and sheltered the nest as well as he could.

At last one day the female is freed from her duties.  Both the birds sit on the edge of the nest, wag their tails and consult and look delighted, although the whole nest seems to be full of an anxious peeping.  After a while they set out on the wildest hunt for midges.

Midge after midge is caught and brought to whatever it is that is peeping up there in his hand.  And when the food comes, the peeping is at its very loudest.  The holy man is disturbed in his prayers by that peeping.