He therefore prepared to climb to the chimney on the land-side and establish a nest.  There was a broken cart-wheel in the warehouse, which Nanking procured and drew to the roof, and when daylight broke upon the town the earliest loungers and fishermen saw the happy simpleton working like a chimney-sweep, as they thought, except that instead of brushing he was piling brush around the chimney on the cart-wheel.  His mother came out and looked joy to see him back; the soldiers strolled down from the fort and the boys and women from the town.  Uncle Van Swearingen was there, smiting the ground with his shodden staff, and ejaculating, “Foei! weg! fychaam u! Fie! leave off! fie on you!  What absurdity is this on the property of our hoofstad, our metropolis?”

“Never mind, uncle!” answered the beaming Nanking.  “I have been a great man in the last few days.  I have lived among the fierce Susquehannocks.  Presently you shall see something that you shall see!”

Peter Alrichs also came down to the quay with his pretty daughter, who could no longer keep her secret.  “Good Nanking,” she whispered, “is building a nest for a real stork.  He has found one, just like the dear creatures in Holland!”

The news was presently dispersed, and all felt an interest, until finally Nanking produced his stork.

“It is like a stork, indeed!” uttered Peter Alrichs; “’tis big as one, too, but its wings are all white!”

“’Tis a stork, yah, op myne eer!  Upon my honor, it is!” muttered uncle Van Swearingen.

“Nanking is not an idiot, papa!” said Elsje, overjoyed.

The widow was delighted at the enterprise of her son.

When Nanking had carried the great bird to the nest he made a little speech: 

“Worshipful masters and good people all, I have been at great pains to get this stork, not for my own gratification entirely, though there are some here I expect to please particularly. (He looked at Elsje and his mother.) This stork will pick up the offal and eat it, and we shall have no more bad fevers here for want of a good scavenger.  By and by he will bring more storks, and they will multiply; and every house, however humble, shall have its own stork family to ornament the chimney-top and remind us of our dear native land.  I have done all this good with the hope of being useful, and now I hope nobody will call me wicked names any more.”

Nanking cut the fastenings on the bird and set it on the new-made nest.  In a minute the stork stood up on its short legs, poked its beautiful head and neck into the air, and with its wings struck Nanking so heavy a blow that it knocked him off the roof of the house, but happily the fall did not hurt him.  As he arose the huge bird was spreading its wings for flight.  Before Nanking could climb the ladder again, it was sailing through the air, magnificent as a ship, toward its winter pastures on the bay of Chisopecke.