"Can anybody be happier?" said the father bird to the mother bird. "We
will live in this tree always, for there is no sorrow here. It is a tree
that always bears joy."

Soon the little birds were big enough to fly, and great was their
parents' joy to see them leave the nest and sit crumpled up upon the
branches. There was then a great time, the two old birds talking and
chatting to make the young ones go alone! In a little time they had
learned to use their own wings, and they flew away and away, and found
their own food, and built their own nests, and sang their own songs with
joy.

Then the old birds sat silent and looked at each other, until the mother
bird said: "Why don't you sing?" And he answered: "I can't sing--I can
only think and think." "What are you thinking of?" "I am thinking how
everything changes. The leaves are falling off from this tree, and soon
there will be no roof over our heads; the flowers are all going; last
night there was a frost; almost all the birds have flown away. Something
calls me, and I feel as if I would like to fly away."

"Let us fly away together!"

Then they arose silently, and, lifting themselves far up in the air,
they looked to the north. Far away they saw the snow coming. They looked
to the south. There they saw flowers and green leaves. All day they
flew, and all night they flew and flew, till they found a land where
there was no winter--where flowers always blossom, and birds always
sing.