The bird sang, "Away! away! or you will never see the Princess more!
The real world lies beyond the gates of the sunset!"

But when the traveler asked the youths what the bird sang, they
answered that they had only heard "Tweet-tweet," and "Chirp-chirp."
Then he was really angry, but not with them, as you would perhaps
have thought. No, he was angry with the bird, and ashamed of it
and of himself. And he threw it from him into the air, and clapped
his hands to drive it away; and all the youths and girls that stood
around him clapped theirs too. "Sh-shsh," they cried, "be off,
you are a good-for-nothing hedge-finch, and may be thankful your
neck has not been wrung to punish you for making such a noise!"

So the bird flew away, away beyond the sunset, and I think it went
back to the Princess and told her all that had happened. And the
traveler went, and danced and sang and feasted to his heart's
content with the worshippers of Queen Beauty, not knowing that he
really had fallen among the sirens after all!





III.




Meanwhile the two other travelers had gone on their way, for neither