The Swallows Depart

“What, already?” said the Rat, strolling up to them. “What’s the hurry? I call it simply ridiculous.”

Our swallows have departed, leaving us as dismayed as Rat was to see his swallows readying themselves for departure. But this is how the swallows describe it:

“First, we feel it stirring within us, a sweet unrest; then back come the recollections one by one, like homing pigeons. They flutter through our dreams at night, they fly with us in our wheelings and circlings by day. We hunger to inquire of each other, to compare notes and assure ourselves that it was all really true, as one by one the scents and sounds and names of long-forgotten places come gradually back and beckon to us.”

And like Rat, we wish it were not so.

“Couldn’t you stop on for just this year?”suggested the Water Rat wistfully. “We’ll all do our best to make you feel at home. You’ve no idea what good times we have here, while you are far away.”

...from The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame.