fly away to the warm countries with his companions, but had fallen exhausted to the earth, and had lost all power of recollection, so that it did not know how it had come there.
The little swallow remained here the whole winter, and Ellie tended him and liked him better and better every day; but she told the mole and the field-mouse nothing of the matter, for she knew very well that neither of them could bear the poor bird.
As soon as summer was come and the genial rays of the sun penetrated the earth, the swallow bade Ellie farewell; for she had opened the hole in the ground through which the mole had let in the light. The sun shone so cheerily that the swallow asked his faithful nurse if she would not fly away with him. She might sit on his back, and then they would fly away together to the wood. But Ellie thought it would grieve the old field-mouse if she were to leave her in secret, and therefore she felt obliged to decline the kind invitation of the swallow.
