“Kind they certainly are,” said Uncle Thomas, “beyond any thing recorded of unreasoning animals. The young Storks have often been observed to lavish the most affectionate and assiduous care on their aged and infirm parents, when they were no longer able to seek food for themselves; and so kind and attentive are they to their young, that both parents never leave the nest at the same time, one of them always remaining to watch over it during the other’s absence, and steadily keeping its eyes all the while fixed on its little charge. A great many years ago, a fire broke out in a house in Holland, on which was built a Stork’s nest containing a brood of young nestlings unable to fly. On the mother’s returning laden with food, she discovered the danger which threatened her offspring, and made several attempts to save them, but finding all her efforts ineffectual, she at length spread her wings over the nest to protect them, and in that attitude expired with them in the flames!” [Illustration: “He once saw a tame Stork, frolicking with some children, who were playing at ‘hide and seek.’” Page 135. ] “Even when reduced to a state of domestication,” continued Uncle Thomas, “and excluded from the society of its species, the kindness of the Stork shows itself towards human beings. A gentleman relates that he once saw a tame Stork frolicking with some children which were playing at ‘hide and seek,’ running its turn when touched, and distinguishing the child whose turn it was to pursue the others so well as to be on its guard as watchfully as any of its young companions.” “Wouldn’t you like to have a Stork in our garden, Harry?” asked Jane. “Yes,” said Harry, “if it would run about like this one; but I want to hear about the migration of the Stork. It must surely be something singular, since it is spoken of in the Bible.” “I do not know that there is any thing peculiar in the migration of the Stork,” said Uncle Thomas, “or that it displays more instinctive sagacity in the matter than the ‘Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow,’ with which it is mentioned. Perhaps their abundance in the Holy Land, and the reverence in which the Stork was held, had some influence on the Prophet’s language. A traveller in the East says, ‘Returning from Cana to Nazareth, I saw the fields so filled with flocks of Storks that they appeared quite white with them; and when they arose, and hovered in the air, they seemed like clouds.’