The woods whispered joyously. They smelled of resin. It seemed that scores of fiddlers were scattered all over the woods. They had grown tired and gradually had ceased their playing. But seeing the barefooted children hand in hand on the soft ground, they began to feel younger, and rubbed their bows rapidly against the yellow resin, and the tall pines trembled like tightly stretched violin strings, and they roared like a far, quiet sea--Youth, O Youth. When they came out of the wood the two sat down on the bank of the Vistula, and began to bathe their muddy feet in the clear water. Wide green fields spotted with yellow flowers stretched on the other margin of the Vistula. A white stork with a black tail startled over the field. He lifted his red legs like stilts. He raised proudly his long neck with its red beak, and noisily swallowed small green toads. When the sun appeared from behind a cloud, and began to shine, the stork stood up on one leg, hid its beak and half of its head under its wing, and remained standing in the middle of the field as if it were painted. “Rachel, you know what would be nice?” “What?” “Swear you won’t tell anybody.” “I swear.” “Go ’way. I think you will tell.” “I swear I won’t, Zelik.” “Remember now.” He lifted a finger to his nose. “You know what I’ve thought of?” “What?” “You’ll never guess,” he laughed. “Oh, tell me,” Rachel begged, taking Zelik’s hand and rubbing a little wet foot against his. “You know, if we could get a goose-egg, it would be so nice.” “Why do you need a goose-egg?” “I would put it into the stork’s nest, and it would hatch out a half-stork, half-goose.” “Will the stork let you do it?” “I’ll put it in before dawn, when both aren’t in the nest.” “Zelik, you know what brings babies? Braina says that a stork brings the babies in a little basket. Where do the babies live?” “In heaven.” “And when it rains?” “When it rains? I don’t know. I suppose they hide when the clouds come down to the Vis’la to drink.” “And the stork that stands over there, can it bring babies, too?” “Of course,” and Zelik stretched his hands. “Such a heap of babies.” “Go ’way, I’d be ashamed of Braina to bring a baby home. A little girl mustn’t have babies. You must marry first, no?” “Well, why did the Forester’s Franka have a baby? She never married.” “But she’s not a Jewess.”