“I don’t want to waste any more time listening to nonsense,” said the gray-headed crow. She flew to the ass’s back and plucked out some of the felt. “I’ll take this for my own habitation,” she said, and flew back to the cliff. The ass would have kicked up his heels only two of his legs were fastened with the straw rope. He turned away, and without a word of farewell to the seal went scrambling up the bank of the island. The seal stayed for a while moving his head about intelligently. Then he slipped into the water and paddled off. “One feels their lives in music,” he said; “great tones vibrate round the island where men live. It is very wonderful.” “That,” said the King’s Son, “is the first story in ‘The Breastplate of Instruction,’--‘The Ass and the Seal.’ And now you must tell me a story while we are crossing the field of blue flowers.” “Then it will be a very little story,” said Fedelma. They crossed a little field of blue flowers, and Fedelma told The Sending of the Crystal Egg XI The Kings of Murias heard that King Atlas had to bear The world upon his back, so they sent him then and there The Crystal Egg that would be the Swan of Endless Tales That his burthen for a while might lie on his shoulder-scales Fair-balanced while he heard the Tales the Swan poured forth--North-world Tales for the while he watched the Star of the North; And East-world Tales he would hear in the morning swart and cool, When the Lions Nimrod had spared came up from the drinking pool; West-world Tales for the King when he turned him with the sun; Then whispers of magic Tales from Africa, his own. But the Kings of Murias made the Crane their messenger--The fitful Crane whose thoughts are always frightening her She slipped from Islet to Isle, she sloped from Foreland to Coast; She passed through cracks in the mountains and came over trees like a ghost; And then fled back in dismay when she saw on the hollow plains The final battle between the Pigmies and the Cranes. Where is the Crystal Egg that was sent King Atlas then? Hatched it will be one day and the Tales will be told to men: That is if it be not laid in some King’s old Treasury: That is if the fitful Crane did not lose it threading the Sea! They were not long going through the little field of blue flowers, and when they went through it they came to another field of white flowers. Fedelma asked the King’s Son to tell her another story, and thereupon he told her the second story in “The Breastplate of Instruction.” The Story of the Young Cuckoo XII The young cuckoo made desperate attempts to get himself through the narrow opening in the hollow tree. He screamed when he failed to get through.