Teresa Hornish, age 10, of Nitro, West Virginia, for her question:

What are Mother Carey's chicken?

Mariners of old sailing ships prayed to the Virgin Mary as Mater cares, Dear Mother. In time, the Mater cares became Mother Carey. And this Mother Carey was a favorite guardian of sailors in distress. They thought of her also as the guardian of their favorite ocean ¬going birds. Wherever they sailed the seven seas, they saw graceful little swallow type birds. They skimmed low over the waves and when stormy weather was brewing, flocks of them soared ahead of the oncoming gale.

These sea birds are petrels and they still fly like flocks of swallows over all the oceans of the world. They still fly with the strong seasonal winds, usually on their way to their nesting grounds. We call them the stormy petrels. The sailors of olden days called them 'Mother Carey's chickens.