When Grnadfather Journeys Into Winter by Craig Kee Strete Read Free Book Online Page A

families,
and when the winter comes each bird is on his own, each little bird must make his own journey. So
it is with you, so it is with me."
    "But why must I make my journey without
you?" asked Little Thunder. "Why can't you be with me always?"
    "If the old birds never died, if they lived
forever, there would be no place in this world for any new birds. My wings are weak with my old
age. I am too tired to fly. A bird who cannot fly. No, it is not a good thing. But you are young.
Your wings are strong with youth, Little Thunder, so I know that there will be one bird who will
fly for me. Will you fly for me when I am gone?" The old man's voice was soft and
gentle.
    "Yes, Grandfather," said Little Thunder with
a catch in his voice. "I'll fly for you. But I don't want you to leave me!"
    Tayhua smiled and shook his head. "Even
though I must go away. I will never leave you. As long as you remember me, as long as you
remember that I loved you, that I loved you always in my heart, then I shall always be with
you."
    Tayhua coughed. "Bring me some water," he
whispered, licking his lips. "My story-telling tongue is all dried out."
    Grandfather winked at Little Thunder, who
managed to smile a little, but only a little. Little Thunder went over and got a gourd full of
water and brought it back to his grandfather. He tilted it up to Tayhua's lips, and the old man
drank a little bit of it.
    "Thank you," said Grandfather when he had
had enough to drink. "Now listen closely, because this is the most important thing I have to tell
you. Do you remember the year when the barn swallows did not come?"
    "I remember. I went out every day to look
for them. The nest was empty that year," said Little Thunder. "I guess they went someplace else
that year."
    "And you remember what happened the next
year. Do you remember what we saw after the last snows of winter had melted?"
    "They came back! They came back to their
nest!" said Little Thunder. "They had two babies that year."
    "No," said Tayhua. "They did not come back.
You were young, and I did not have the heart to tell you then. Now I must tell you. Those were
not the same swallows we had watched through the years."
    "But if they were not the same..." Little
Thunder did not understand. "They looked like the same ones to me."
    "Yes," said Tayhua. "They looked very much
like our old friends but they were....the children of our friends. The little female swallow
had...returned to raise a family of her own."
    "But what happened to the barn swallows we
knew? Where did they go?" asked Little Thunder. "Did they move away?"
    "The old ones? Who is to say what happened
to them. It was a cold winter that year. Perhaps they did not survive. It may have been their
time to leave this world, as now it is for me, my time. But the little female swallow built a
life of her own. The life of her father and mother she continued in the life of her children. So
it is with you and me."
    "I think I understand," said Little
Thunder.
    Grandfather nodded his head very slowly. He
said, "Now you see why you should not be so sad. Life must give way to life. It is the way of the
world."
    Little Thunder managed to smile a little,
even though, down deep, he did not feel like smiling.
    Tayhua coughed again. He seemed to be
getting weaker and weaker.
    Little Thunder rubbed his grandfather's
hands with his own. The veins and wrinkles on Tayhua's gnarled hands were like a map of the
world, with rivers and mountains and plains.
    "Listen!" suddenly whispered Tayhua.
"Listen! Do you hear it?" The old man seemed excited.
    Little Thunder cocked his head to one side
and listened. At first he couldn't hear anything, and then, from very, very far away he heard the
same sound his grandfather was hearing.
    It was the cry of the wild geese, flying
south for the winter.
    "Do you hear them?" asked Tayhua. There was
a smile on his face now, and he seemed at peace. "I was hoping to hear them before I left