Tonight, we’ll read the second half of “The Story of the Herons,” from a collection titled Moonshine and Clover written by Laurence Housman and published in 1922. The first half aired last week.

In the previous episode, a princess was placed under a peculiar curse—destined to fall in love at first sight with whatever creature she saw. To protect her, her parents kept her hidden from the world, allowing only carefully supervised walks in the forest while wearing a blindfold. But a spiteful fairy intervened, and when the blindfold was removed, the princess’s eyes fell upon a solitary heron fishing in a stream. Overcome by enchantment, she loved him instantly.

Moved by their daughter’s longing, the king and queen consented to have her transformed into a heron so she could be with her chosen mate. A kindly fairy offered a small hope: if the heron could love her with the depth and devotion of a human heart, they could both regain human form. But as the story left off, news arrived that the princess had laid two eggs in her nest—an event that may bring the tale to a very different ending than anyone expected.