“That is the drake,” said the gull. “The other two are females and not so smart, although they don’t look bad either.”
The three eider-ducks had now come so near that the sparrow and the gull could hear what they were talking about.
“Dear lady,” said the drake, “I cannot understand why you stay on the ice. Do come to the open water and let us all enjoy ourselves.”
“I must stay with my niece,” said the elder eider-duck. “She is my sister’s child.”
“And why should not Miss Eider-Duck come too?” said the drake. “In the summer, she was the gayest of us all in the Faroes.”
“That was then,” said Miss Eider-Duck. “But now I have begun to think of other and more serious things.”
The drake tried just a little longer to persuade them, but to no purpose. Then he flew back across the ice.
“Are there no cliffs here, auntie?” asked the young eider-duck. “I am dying to get married and to build a nest.”
“If I may venture to make a remark,” said the sparrow, “I should say that it is still a little too cold. And there are no cliffs in this country.”
“But you can brood in the sand,” said the gull.