Three score years ago, and ten..during a scarey winter storm in western Canada, my father made up this little morality tale. I sat curled on his lap while his dramatic Scottish voice rumbled and soothed....
Once upon a time there was a little baby bird named Betty who lived with her brothers and sisters in a cozy nest high up in a tree in the woods. Every day she watched her mother teach her older siblings to fly. She would gently shove them off into the currents of soft warm wind. Baby Betty was SO jealous, and begged her mother to let her fly....and every day her mother said, "Not quite yet, Betty...soooooon".
One day when her Mother went hunting for food, wee Betty hopped right to the edge of the nest, wavered there, and then with an impetuous jump, dropped from the nest into the huge grey sky....FALLING, falling, falling, until suddenly her little damp wings opened and she sailed on the breeze. "This is super", she thought, Mama was wrong, I can do it!" The very next minute a HUGE roll of thunder ROARED through the sky, and a GIANT black cloud full of white cracks of lightning tossed her up in the roiling air, and pummeled her tiny frail body...She cried out, terrified, but her little peep was lost in the WILD STORM.
The sky raged and the rain fell and the thunder boomed and poor little Betty was tossed and torn almost to bits. Then suddenly, when her little heart was filled with despair, she felt a strong body sail in under her, lifting her up out of the black clouds...."MAMA, she cried, I'm so sorry, I'll never disobey you again!"
And Mama smiled a knowing smile and flew bad little Betty back to her warm nest in the woods.
