The birds shivered, rustling their feathers against the biting wind.  The air had turned unexpectedly cold for Spring.  It was more like winter.

'A terrible storm is coming,' said the robin.  'Let us shelter in the reeds by the river.'

‘I’ll come with you,' said the swallow.  From her perch in the big tree, she could see people coming along the country road towards the hill where they took the thieves and criminals.  They were leading a man with a cross on his right shoulder. 

'Hurry up if you’re coming, swallow,' said the crow.  'I can hear the thunder in the distance.'

'I'm coming, ' said the swallow, but she remained in the tree, fascinated by the crowd. The man with the cross was a rabbi.  The swallow had seen him cure the sick, feed the hungry.  She had heard him bless the children playing around the well.  Surely a kind and gentle man like him couldn’t have been condemned to die?

'Come away,' called the starling.  'The storm is nearly upon us.  Can you not see the clouds gathering overhead?'

'I'll be along in a second,' said the swallow, but she still stayed in the tree, looking on.  The man walked right past her.  He had no hate in his eyes for the people taunting him, only pain and pity.

The swallow's friends scattered beyond the hills, looking for shelter. It started to rain.

'I must go,' thought swallow, but she could not leave the poor man alone with the rabble.  He looked  so alone, so broken. The soldiers nailed him to the cross, laughing and quarrelling over his robe.

The swallow circled the air above the dying man.  'Svale, svale,' she chirped, which was her way of saying 'Cheer up.  Cheer up.' 

She didn’t know what else to say!  The man heard her and smiled a little in his pain. Then he died.

A bolt of lightning rent the air.  Darkness rolled across the countryside.   The soldiers took the dead man down from the cross and put him in a nearby tomb.  His friends and relatives gathered outside it, grieving.

'Svale, svale,' chirped the swallow at them.  'Cheer up. Cheer up'

She didn't know it, but those people would soon cheer up.  The man in the tomb was the son of God.  In three days' time he would walk again, defying death.  And she, the humble swallow, would be remembered forever as the 'Svale' the cheer-up bird, for she had stayed to comfort the Lord in his hour of need.