“Be king, then, O cheat and trickster!” he said.

“Cheat and trickster!” echoed the other birds.  “We will have no such fellow for our king.  Cheat and trickster he is, and he shall be punished.  You shall be king, brave Eagle, for without your strength he could never have flown so high.  It is you whom we want for our protector and lawmaker, not this sly fellow no bigger than a bean.”

So the Eagle became their king, after all; and a noble bird he is, as you must understand, or he would never have been chosen to guard our nation’s coat of arms.  And besides this you may see his picture on many a banner and crest and coin of gold or silver, so famous has he become.

But the Wren was to be punished.  And while the birds were trying to decide what should be done with him, they put him in prison in a mouse-hole and set Master Owl to guard the door.  Now while the judges were putting their heads together the lazy Owl fell fast asleep, and out of prison stole the little Wren and was far away before any one could catch him.  So he was never punished after all, as he richly deserved to be.

The birds were so angry with old Master Owl for his carelessness that he has never since dared to show his face abroad in daytime, but hides away in his hollow tree.  And only at night he wanders alone in the woods, sorry and ashamed.

HALCYONE

The story of the first Kingfisher is a sad one, and you need not read it unless for a very little while you wish to feel sorry.

Long, long ago when the world was new, there lived a beautiful princess named Halcyone.  She was the daughter of old AEolus, King of the Winds, and lived with him on his happy island, where it was his chief business to keep in order the four boisterous brothers, Boreas, the North Wind, Zephyrus, the West Wind, Auster, the South Wind, and Eurus, the East Wind.  Sometimes, indeed, AEolus had a hard time of it; for the Winds would escape from his control and rush out upon the sea for their terrible games, which were sure to bring death and destruction to the sailors and their ships.  Knowing them so well, for she had grown up with these rough playmates, Halcyone came to dread more than anything else the cruelties which they practiced at every opportunity.

One day the Prince Ceyx came to the island of King AEolus.  He was the son of Hesperus, the Evening Star, and he was the king of the great land of Thessaly.  Ceyx and Halcyone grew to love each other dearly, and at last with the consent of good King AEolus, but to the wrath of the four Winds, the beautiful princess went away to be the wife of Ceyx and Queen of Thessaly.