The Diamond Swan When the Flatheads had gone away the Diamond Swan swam back to the boat and one of the young Skeezers named Ervic said to her eagerly: "How can we get back to the island, your Majesty ?" "Am I not beautiful ?" asked Coo-ee-oh, arching her neck gracefully and spreading her diamond-sprinkled wings.

"I can see my reflection in the water, and I'm sure there is no bird nor beast, nor human as magnificent as I am!" "How shall we get back to the island, your Majesty ?" pleaded Ervic.
"When my fame spreads throughout the land, people will travel from all parts of this lake to look upon my loveliness," said Coo-ee-oh, shaking her feathers to make the diamonds glitter more brilliantly.
"But, your Majesty, we must go home and we do not know how to get there," Ervic persisted.
"My eyes," remarked the Diamond Swan, "are wonderfully blue and bright and will charm all beholders." "Tell us how to make the boat go--how to get back into the island," begged Ervic and the others cried just as earnestly: "Tell us, Coo-ee-oh; tell us!" "I don't know," replied the Queen in a careless tone.
"You are a magic-worker, a sorceress, a witch!" "I was, of course, when I was a girl," she said, bending her head over the clear water to catch her reflection in it; "but now I've forgotten all such foolish things as magic.

Swans are lovelier than girls, especially when they're sprinkled with diamonds.

Don't you think so ?" And she gracefully swam away, without seeming to care whether they answered or not.
Ervic and his companions were in despair.

They saw plainly that Coo-ee-oh could not or would not help them.