Hung-bu was the younger brother of Nol-bu. But ever since their father died, poor Hung-bu and his family had struggled to survive while selfish Nol-bu and his family enjoyed the comfort and wealth of their ancestral home.
One spring day when Hung-bu returned home from working in a nearby field, he noticed a snake near the corner of his house where a pair of swallows had nested. He chased away the snake with a hoe, but soon realized that he didn’t hear any chirping coming from under the eaves. The nest was empty and on the ground was a tiny swallow. Hung-bu knew at once what had happened. The snake had devoured the other chicks but in doing so had pushed this one out of the nest.
Hung-bu picked up the baby swallow and found one of its legs broken. Hung-bu gently bound the leg with string and put the bird back in its nest. His children lovingly cared for it, feeding it worms and insects, and soon it was flittering about the yard. In late autumn it flew southward with all the other birds.
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