Music Welcome to Snewscast, the podcast designed to help you fall asleep. Find us at snewscast.com and if you enjoy our show, please write a review on the Apple Podcasts app. Your review helps new listeners find us and we appreciate everyone's feedback. This episode is brought to you by Flight's by Moonlight. Tonight we'll read the story of the herons from a collection titled Moon Shrine and Clover, written by Lawrence Houseman and published in 1922. The second half of this story will air next week. Houseman was an openly gay man during the Victorian era when homosexuality was severely stigmatized. He was an activist for both the woman's right to vote and the acceptance of gay people in society. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to the first voyage, Sinbad the Sailoror which aired on July 18th, 2022. Herons are long-legged, long-necked, long-build freshwater and coastal birds. They include eagrets which are differentiated simply by their typical white feathers instead of gray. Although herons resemble birds in some other families, such as the storks and cranes, herons differ from these in flying with their necks retracted, not outstretched. Let's get cozy. Close your eyes. Relax your body into the softness of your bed. Now, take a few deep breaths. A long time ago, there lived a king and a queen who loved each other dearly. They had both fallen in love at first sight, and as their love began, so it went on through all their life. Yet this, which was the cause of all their happiness, was the cause also of all their misfortunes. In his youth, when he was a beautiful young bachelor, the king had had the ill luck to attract the heart of a jealous and powerful fairy, and though he never gave her the least hope or encouragement, when she heard that his love had been won at first sight by a mere mortal, her rage and resentment knew no bounds. She said nothing, however, but binded her time. After they had been married a year, the queen presented her husband with a little daughter. Before she was yet a day old, she was the most beautiful object in the world, and life seemed to promise her nothing, but fortune and happiness. The family fairy came to the blessing of the newborn, and she, looking at it as it lay there beautifully asleep in its cradle, and seeing that it had already as much beauty and health as the heart could desire. Promised it love as the next best gift. It was within her power to offer. The queen, who knew how much happiness her own love had brought her, was kissing the good fairy with all the warmth of gratitude. When a black kite came and perched upon the windowsill crying, and I will give her love at first sight, the first living thing that she sets eyes on, she shall love to distraction, whether it be man or monster, prince or pauper, bird, beast or reptile. And as the wicked fairy spoke, she clapped her wings and up through the boards of the floor and out from under the bed, and in through the window came a crowd of all the lumpiest and strangest shapes in the world. They can fast they came, gathering about the cradle and lifting their heads over the edge of it, waiting for the poor little princess to wake up and fall in love at first sight with one of them. Luckily, the child was asleep. the good fairy, after driving away the black kite and the crowd of beasts it had called to its aid, wrapped the princess up in a shawl and carried her away to a dark room where no glimmer of light could get in. She said to the queen, to like and devise a better way, you must keep her in the dark, and when you take her into the open air, you must blindfold her eyes. Someday, when she is of a fit age, I will bring a handsome prince for her, and only to him shall you unblindfold her at last, and make her love safe with him." She went, leaving the king and queen deeply stricken with grief. They did not dare to present even themselves before her eyes, less love for them, fatal and consuming, should drive her to distraction. In utter darkness, the queen would sit and cherish her daughter, clasping her to her breast, and calling her by all sweet names. But the little face, except by stealth, when it was sound asleep, she never dared to see. Nor did the baby princess know the face of the mother who loved her so dearly. By and by, however, the family fairy came again, saying, Now, I have a plan by which your child may enjoy the delights of seeing and no ill come of it. And she caused to be made a large chamber, the whole of one side of which was a mirror. High up in the opposite wall were windows so screened that from below no one could look out of them. But across onto the mirror came all the sweet sights of the world, glimpses of wood and field, and the sun and the moon and the stars, and of every bird as it flew by. So the little princess was brought and set in the screened place looking towards the mirror, and there her eyes learned gradually all the beautiful things of the world. Over the screen, in the glass before her, she learned to know her mother's face and to love it dearly in a gentle, childlike fashion. And when she could talk, she became very wise, understanding all that was told her about the danger of looking at anything alive, except by its reflection in the glass. When she went out into the open air for her health, she always wore a silk scarf over her eyes, lest she should look and love something too well. But in the chamber of the mirror, her eyes were free to see whatever they could. The good fairy, making herself invisible, came and taught her to read and make music and draw, so that before she was fifteen she was the most charming and accomplished, as well as the most beautiful princess of her day.

At last, the fairy said that the time was come for her world of reflections to be made real,

and she went away to fetch the ideal prince that the princess might at first sight fall in love with him. The very next day after she was gone, as the morning was fine, the princess went out with one of her maids for a walk through the woods. Over her patient eyes, she wore a bandage of green silk, through which she felt the sunlight fall pleasantly. Out of doors the princess knew most things by their sounds. She passed under rustling leaves and along by the side of running water. And at last she heard the silence of the water and knew that she was standing by the great fish pond in the middle of the wood. Then she said to her waiting woman, is there not some great bird fishing out there? For I hear the dipping of his bill and the water falling off it as he draws out the fish. And just as she was saying that, the wicked fairy, who had long bite at her time, coming softly up from behind, pushed the waiting woman off the bank into the deep water of the pond. Then she snatched away the silk

bandage, and before the princess had time to think or close her eyes, she had lost her heart to a great Heron that was standing halfway up to his feathers fishing amongst the reeds. The princess, with her eyes set free, left for joy at the sight of him. She stretched out her arms from the bank, and cried most musically for the bird to come to her, and he came in grave stately fashion, with trailing legs, and settled down on the bank beside her. She drew his slender neck against her white throat, and laughed and cried with her arms round him, loving him so that she forgot all in the world beside. And the heron looked gravely at her with kind eyes, and, bird-like, gave her all the love he could, but not more, and so, presently, casting his gray wings abroad, lifted himself and sailed slowly back to his fishing among the The-woman had got herself out of the water, and stood, ringing her clothes and her hands beside the princess. Oh, sweet mistress, she cried with lamentation, now has come about which it was our whole aim to avoid, and what, and what will the queen your mother say? But the princess answered, smiling, foolish girl, I had no thought of what happiness meant till now. See you where my has gone, and did you notice the bend of his neck in the exceeding length of his legs, and the stretch of his gray wings as he flew? This pond is his hall of mirrors wherein he sees the reflection of all his world. Surely I, from my Hall of Mirrors, am the true mate for him. Her maid, seeing that no worse could now happen, ran back to the palace. The king and the queen and all their nobility rushed down. And there they found the princess with the hair and once more in her arms, kissing it with all the marks of a sweet and maidenly passion. Dear Mother, she said, as soon as she saw the queen, the happiness which you feared would be sorrow has come, and it is such happiness I have no name for it." The Heron had become quite fond of the princess, wherever she went it followed her. And indeed, without it, nowhere would she go. Whenever it was near her, the princess laughed and sang. And when it was out of her sight, she became sad as night. When the good family fairy came, for she was at once sent for by the queen and told of all that had happened, she said, dear Madam, there are but two things you can do.

Either you can get rid of the heron and leave the princess to grieve. Or you can make the princess happy in her own way by. Her voice dropped, and she looked from the king to the queen before she went on. At her birth, I gave your daughter love for my gift. Now it is hers. Will you let her keep it? The king and the queen looked softly at each other. Do not take love from her, said they, let her keep it. There is but one way, answered the ferry. Do not tell me the way, said the queen weeping, only let the way be. So they went with the fairy down to the great pond, and there sat the princess with the gray hair in against her heart. She smiled as she saw them come. I see good in your hearts towards me," she cried.

Dear Godmother, give me the thing that I want, that my love may be happy. Then the fairy stroked her but once with her wand, and two grey herons suddenly rose up from the bank and sailed away to a hiding place in the reeds. The fairy said to the queen, You have made your daughter happy, and still she will have her voice and her human heart, and will remember you with love and gratitude, but her greatest love will be to the Grey Heron and her home among the reeds. So the changed life of the princess began. Every day, her mother went down to the pool and called, and the princess came rising up out of the reeds, and folded her gray wings over her mother's heart. Every day, her mother said, daughter of mine, are you happy? the the princess answered her, yes, for I love and am loved. Yet each time the mother heard more and more of a note of sadness come into her daughter's voice.

And at last one day she said, Answer me truly as the mother who brought you into the world, Whether you be happy in your heart of hearts or no. Then the Heron Princess laid her head on the Queen's heart and said, Mother, my heart is breaking with love. For whom then asked the Queen astonished? for my gray hair whom I love, and who loves me so much, and yet it is love that divides us, for I am still troubled with a human heart, and often it aches with sorrow, because all the love in it can never be fully understood or shared by my Heron. And I have my human voice left, and that gives me a hundred things to say all day, for which there is no word in Heron's language, and so he cannot understand them. Therefore, these things only make a gulf between him and me. For all the other grey herons and the pools there is happiness, but not for me, who have too big a heart between my wings. Her mother said softly, Wait, wait, little Heron daughter, and it shall be well with you. Then, she went to the fairy and said, My daughter's heart is lonely among the reeds, For the grey herons love covers but half of it. Give her some companions of her own kind, that her hours may become merry again. So the fairy took and turned five of the princesses' ladies' maids into herons and sent them down to the pool. The five herons stood each on one leg in the shallows of the pool and cried all day long, and their tears fell down into the water, and frightened away the fish that came their way, for they had human hearts that cried out to be let go. Oh, cruel, cruel, they wept whenever the heron princess approached, see what they have made of us for your sake. The princess came to her mother and said, dear mother, take them away, for their cry worries me, and the pool is bitter with their tears. They only awake the human part of my heart that wants to sleep. Presently, maybe, if it is let alone, it will forget itself. Her mother said, It is my coming every day also that keeps it awake.

The princess answered, This sorrow belongs to my birthright. You must still come, but for the others, let the fairy take them away. So the fairy came and released the five ladies-maids whom she had changed into herons. And they came up out of the water, stripping themselves of their grey feather skins, and throwing them back into the pool. the fairy sad.You foolish maids, you have thrown away a gift that you should have valued. These skins you could have kept and held as heirlooms in your family.� The five maids answered, �Who we want to forget that there are such things as herons in the world

After much thought the Queen said to the fairy You have changed a princess into a heron and five maids into herons and back again. Cannot you change one heron into a prince? But the fairy answered sadly. Our power has limits. We can bring down, but we cannot bring up. If there be no heart to answer our call. The five maids only followed their hearts that were human when I called them back, but a heron has only a heron's heart, and unless his heart becomes too great for a bird and he earn a human one, I cannot change him to a higher form. How can he earn a human one? Ask the Queen. Only if he loved the princess so well that his love for her becomes stronger than his life answered the fairy, then he will have earned a human body, and then I can give him the form that his heart suits best. There may be a chance if we wait for it and our patient, for the princess's love is great, and may work miracles. a little while after this. The queen watching saw that the two herons were making a nest among the reeds. What have you there?" said the mother to her daughter. A little hollow place, answered the Heron Princess, and in it the moon lies. A little while after she said again, what have you there now little daughter? And her daughter answered, only a small hollow place, but in it two moons lie. The queen told the family fairy how in a hollow of the reeds lay two moons. Now, said the fairy, we will wait no longer. If your daughter's love has touched the heron's heart and made it grow larger than a bird's, I can help them both to happiness. But if not, then birds, they must still remain. Among the reeds, the heron said in bird language to his wife, Go and stretch your wings for a little while over the water. It is weary work to wait here so long in the reeds. The Heron princess looked at him with her bird's eyes, And all the human love in her heart strove, like a fountain that could not get free to make itself known through them. Also, her tongue was full of the longing to utter sweet words, but she kept them back, knowing they were beyond the heron's power to understand. So she answered merely in heron's language, come with me and I will come. They rose, wing beating beside wing, and the reflection of their grey breasts slid out under them over the face of the water. Higher they went and higher, passing over the tree tops and keeping time together as they flew. All at once the wings of the grey heron flagged, then took a deep beat. He cried to the heron princess, turned and come home, yonder there is danger flying to meet us. Before them hung a brown blot in the air that winged and grew large. The two herons turned and flew back. Rise, cried the grey heron, we must rise. And the princess knew what was behind, and she struggled with the whole strength of her wings for escape. The grey heron was bearing ahead on stronger wing. With me, with me, he cried. If it gets above us, one of us is gone. But the Falcon had fixed his eye on the princess for his quarry, and flew she fast, or flew she slow. There was little chance for her now. Up and up she strained, but still she was behind her mate, and still the Falcon gained. The herons swung back to her side. She saw the anger she feared of the storm. Thank you. you you you