Trumpet of the Swan

Trumpet of the Swan
by E.B. White

Bird rescue update.  Lou is thriving.  His feathers are filling in nicely. He is eating seeds and trying his wings out with a short flight or two.  This evening, I headed out to our screened in porch and found him and my son studying for a history test together.  Lou was perched on Miller's shoulder and nestled up beside Miller's ear.  As Miller's back began to tire of the slanted posture he had assumed to make Lou the most comfortable, he placed Lou onto the table with its stacks of notes and Lou immediately pooped.

The love between Miller and Lou reminds me of Sam Beaver and Louis, in E. B. White's, The Trumpet of the Swan.  If we would permit it, I am sure Miller would hike Lou onto his shoulder and proudly take him to school, just as Sam did.  I am not sure if our Lou has the intelligence or size to master writing on a chalk board like Louis, but the bond between bird and boy is growing just the same.  When Lou finally flies away from our home, it will be fun to imagine the adventures he is up to and wonder if he, too, is finding a mate and starting a family.

If you have not given this novel a try it is well worth the time.  John Updike was quoted in the New York times as saying, "While not quite so sprightly as Stuart Little, and less rich in personalities and incident than Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet of the Swan has superior qualities of its own; it is the most spacious and serene of the three, the one most imbued with the author's sense of the precious instinctual heritage represented by wild nature."

As a mother, I am a big fan of Louis' father, who risked life and wing to acquire a trumpet for his mute son.  He believed he needed to give his son a voice of his own so he could make his way in the world.  I can only hope to do the same for my son.