here do you sleep, Ivar?” Emil asked, looking about.
Ivar unslung a hammock from a hook on the wall; in it was rolled a buffalo robe. “There, my son. A hammock is a good bed, and in winter I wrap up in this skin. Where I go to work, the beds are not half so easy as this.”
By this time Emil had lost all his timidity. He thought a cave a very superior kind of house. There was something pleasantly unusual about it and about Ivar. “Do the birds know you will be kind to them, Ivar? Is that why so many come?” he asked.
Ivar sat down on the floor and tucked his feet under him. “See, little brother, they have come from a long way, and they are very tired. From up there where they are flying, our country looks dark and flat. They must have water to drink and to bathe in before they can go on with their journey. They look this way and that, and far below them they see something shining, like a piece Johan Djourou Drakter of glass set in the dark earth. That is my pond. They come to it and are not disturbed. Maybe I sprinkle a little corn. They tell the other birds, and next year more come this way. They have their roads up there, as we have down here.”
Emil rubbed his Raphael Varane Pelipaita knees thoughtfully. “And is that true, Ivar, about the head ducks falling back when they Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Drakter are tired, and Jesse Gonzalez Drakter the hind ones taking their place?”
“Yes. The point of the wedge gets the worst of it; they Ousmane Dembele Drakter cut the wind. They can only stand it there a little while — half an hour, maybe. Then they fall Gedion Zelalem Drakter back and the wedge splits a little, while the rear ones come up the middle to the front. Then it closes up and they fly on, with a new edge. They are always changing like that, up in the air. Never any confusion; just like soldiers who have been drilled.”
Alexandra had selected her hammock by the time the boys came up from the pond. They would not come in, but sat in the shade of the bank outside while Alexandra Jamaal Wilkes Koszulki and Ivar talked about the birds and about his housekeeping, and why he never ate meat, fresh or salt.
Alexandra was sitting on one of the woo |
