It was a
cold spring day and the air had the smell of creation with all of life coming
into flower and bloom. The snows of winter had passed and the trees were
opening their foliage to greet the birth of a new season. Mother sparrow had
built her nest high in the rafters of the old barn. The nest was a masterwork
of construction made with twigs and leaves and held together with mud. It was
fashioned from instinct without a lesson in design. She had labored long to
build the nest and when her time came she laid three eggs.
She gazed at them with pride and could sense the power
of life that lay within each shell.
“My children,” she thought to herself, “will grow up
healthy and strong.”
She sat on the eggs and warmed them with the soft
feathers of her breast and the heat from her body.
The days passed and mother sparrow could feel a stir
within the eggs. “Soon they will hatch and new life will fill the nest,” she
said to herself.
Several days later on a brisk spring morning the first
of the eggs hatched. A thin crack appeared in the shell of the egg and it
gradually became larger. A beak pecked at the shell and tiny wings quivered and
shivered seeking their way to freedom.
This birth was followed soon after by the hatching of
the other two until all three hatchlings had come into life. The nest was now
alive with the chirping of the young as Mother Sparrow proudly watched over her
offspring.
Governed by the laws of instinct she left the nest
unguarded and went in search of worms and small insects to feet her young.
They had no names and in the eye of the parent they
needed none. Mother Sparrow flew over the land and sought a worm or insect
suitable for her children to devour. As a doting parent their needs came before
her own and she worked now for their nourishment and survival.
The sparrows grew quickly and chirped from morning
till night. Although they had no names, they soon became easy to distinguish as
they took on characteristics of their own. First there was the oldest who had
the strongest beak of all, then there was the second oldest who had beautiful
feathers and finally there was the youngest who had very weak wings. It wasn’t
that his wings were so very weak, it was just that he was really not very interested in flying. So they were called Big Beak,
Beautiful Feathers and Weak Wings respectively.
The three of them got along very well in the nest and
never quarreled or fought but, as they got older, the nest became more crowded
and the space more confining. After several weeks it was necessary for them to
learn how to fly.
“Oh,” said Mother Sparrow, “now you must leave the
nest. At first for a short time and then you must make longer trips. It is time
for you to find you own food.”
Big Beak and Beautiful Feathers were eager to see the
world. Their mother had often told them of life beyond the nest and the barn but warned
them of the dangers of the cities inhabited by men.
“You must be careful when you enter cities,” she
warned. “There are often wires which connect poles and cats which prowl the
streets. They can be our enemy. But, worst of all the cities are dirty and
ugly. Keep to the parks and forests, and if you must explore the world of man,
only venture into the back lawns of rich people in the suburbs. Some of them
may even have a plant seeder for you to use.”
Having been warned of the dangers of life outside of
the nest, Big Beak and Beautiful Feathers could not wait to see the world for
themselves and to even tempt the taste of danger.
But, Weak Wings was not at all interested. He didn’t
have the slightest curiosity. He was happy just sitting in the nest and looking
out at the world through the eaves of the roof or the branches of a nearby
tree.
At first his mother was very patient with him and
figured he would fly in due time. Maybe he was just a late bloomer and needed
more time to become confident enough to leave the nest.
Mother sparrow continued to feed him worms and insects
which he quickly devoured and he took it for granted that she would always be
there to feed him.
His siblings Big Beak and Beautiful Feathers always
returned to the nest in great excitement. The described the wonders of the
world they saw on their travels, the breadth of the rivers, the height of the
mountains, the fields of clover, the expanse of the sky.
But sparrow Weak Wings didn’t seem to care enough to
explore on his own. He was always eager to learn of their new adventures when
they returned to the nest but never eager enough to try for himself. He would
just shrug his wings and say, “Oh, maybe someday I’ll see for myself” Then he
would open his beak, let out a yawn and fall asleep.
Mother sparrow was becoming worried about sparrow Weak
Wings. As the months passed she realized that it was becoming a hopeless case.
He was becoming fatter and fatter by the day and very demanding whenever he was
hungry.
One day he commanded his mother, “Please, I am hungry.
Go find me a worm or a spider or something I can eat for lunch.”
Mother sparrow was annoyed and snipped back, “You are
now almost six months old and you haven’t even left the nest. What are you
going to do when its time to migrate south. You are nothing but a mamma’s
bird.”
In saying this she became embarrassed and annoyed with
herself because she had overindulged him. She had spoiled him into what he was.
He was a selfish, fat, spoiled bird who would never become independent.
She was also afraid that he would not be in a position
to migrate south when the cold winter came. He would surely freeze to death
unless he learned how to fly. But, he never seemed to care.
“Oh, I’ll take care of that problem when the time
comes.”
Sparrows Big Beak and Beautiful Feathers were in good
shape brought on by their daily exercise. They could soar through the skies and
hunt for themselves. Mother sparrow was proud of them and confided to them one
day her concern for Sparrow Weak Wings.
“I don’t know what to do” she cried in despair. “He
will never be able to care for himself and we must fly south to warmer weather
before the snow and frost come. Please speak to your brother and get him to
fly”
So one afternoon in the early fall, when a chill had
come upon the land, sparrows Big Beak and Beautiful Feathers had a serious talk
with their brother. Big Beak began. He nudged up to the nest where Weak Wings
was sitting smugly in ideal comfort and said, “Brother, it is time for you to
grow up. You are not a child anymore. You must be a bird and fly.”
“Why should I?” said sparrow Weak Wings. ‘Not all
birds fly. Look at the ostrich. I’ve heard that it is a fine bird and does very
well without flying. It has strong legs and can run very quickly.”
“Yes,” said Big Beak with frustration, “But you are
not an ostrich.”
“Well, o. k,” Weak Wings continued, “Then how about
the chicken. It also does very well by itself pecking grains from the grass and
laying eggs.”
“Yes, but you are not a chicken and besides people eat
chickens.”
“Anyway,” continued Weak Wings, “I won’t starve. Even
though I don’t fly I can peck at the insects on a tree, the larvae of moths and
butterflies, the spiders that weave their webs in the branches of trees and
other creatures which crawl around the limbs of the trees.”
“But that’s not the point,” said sparrow Beautiful
Feathers, “The point is that sparrows FLY!‘ and you’ll
never endure the cold winters here in the north”
As hard as they tried, they could not convince him to
change his mind.
Another month passed and soon winter was upon them.
The early morning was filled with frost, and a chill was ever in the air. The
leaves of the trees had already changed a rainbow of colors and fallen from the
trees and it was time for the birds to fly south into warmer clime.
“Come now,” Mother Sparrow advised her children. We
must leave soon for warmer weather. Soon the cold will become bitterer and it
will be impossible for us to find food beneath the blanket of snow”
Sparrows Big Beak and Beautiful Feathers were excited
about their coming departure. Till now they had known only the countryside
where they had lived since birth, but soon they will travel a great distance
over thousands of miles in search of food, shelter and warmth. They also knew
they had to leave their brother Weak Wings behind. There was no way now that he
could follow them.
One cold winter morning Mother sparrow and her
children gathered near the nest they had always known as home and said good-bye
to Sparrow Weak Wings. Over the weeks they had filled the nest with leaves with
the hope of keeping him warm and hoped that the leaves would protect him from
the winter’s cold.
Sparrow Weak Wings became sad and tried to disguise
his feelings for he loved his brother and sister. He knew that he would miss
his siblings and his mother for caring for him. He was too proud to admit that
he was lazy and foolish and was now ashamed to admit that he never learned to
fly.
He had become very fat and his wings were far too weak
and atrophied to support him. He jumped out of the nest on the morning of their
departure and feebly waved his wings to his brother, sister and mother as they
left to fly into warmer climate.
“Good-bye,” he cried as he waved his wings. “Good bye,
I’ll see you in the spring.”
His brother and sister also cried because they knew
that he would never survive the cold. When they return in the spring they knew
they might not find him alive.
They flew at first in a circle over the nest trying to
grasp one last look of Weak Wings.
“Good-bye,” he cried for the last time. His voice
faded on the wind and his mother and brother and sister looked back just once
but they could not hear him as they disappeared into the sky.