Excerpt 2

Excerpt 2

 

Meindert introduces Ytsje to what he has learned about nature and birds from his grandpa; and that knowledge will apply to migrating people too, as the story unfolds.

 

“Ytsje, pay close attention to nature.  Notice how the lapwings at the end of September begin to flock together.  Does the girl know why the birds do that?  They gather to make plans as migrating birds.  They pose the question to themselves: Where shall we spend the winter, where and when should we commence the big journey?  Today or tomorrow they will depart from us, and we from them.”

   “And next spring they will come back,” adds his little female friend.

   “Exactly.  You’re right.  Listen, Ytsje.  In the beginning of March we will see the first lapwings returning, then they will entrust to us their nests and the first laying of their eggs.  They do that because we as people of the field protect and take care of the meadow birds.  We really are the housekeepers of the whole business.  Do you know, Ytsje, that the first lapwing egg is always laid here before noon on March 19? That has to do with the light; the days are lengthening then.  In March, winter will still try to stay on its throne, but the springtime can then no longer be held back.”

   “How does the boy know all that?”

   “I learned all these kinds of things from Grandpa.  Right after the terrible hard winter of 1837 he found the first lapwing egg in the whole country, and do you know where it lay?  Between two small ice floes in a ditch.  It was in the field of Mensonides, and that's a man who records everything that happens through the weeks.”

   “Oh, my goodness.”  It’s been as music to her ears.

   “Well, my girl, that’s enough for now.  Yes.  I like it too, you don’t learn these things in school.  This is how Grandpa thinks of it: the behavior of persons has much in common with the migratory bird; both dislike short days and long shadows.  But all right, a person is not a bird; a person cannot take his soul along like the migratory bird on long journeys across the ocean.  That is why Grandpa avoids long ocean journeys.”