THE LITTLE GRAY PARROT
A Fletcher Publishing Children's Book
PAGE 5
he Little Gray Parrot was very pleased. This was the voice of the Peacock,
and she followed his song along a crooked path until she found him sitting in a
flowering tree.
How beautiful the Peacock was! His neck was like the sky, and it shimmered
like water! On his head he wore a crown that bobbed around on long stalks
growing from his brow. And his tail was made of thousands of green, blue and
golden eyes, each looking in a different part of the forest. And when the
Peacock danced his tail rustled like a bride’s dress, and all her ladies’
together! Surely the Peacock could spare a feather for the Little Gray Parrot to
make God happy.
Soon the Peacock jumped down from his perch. He gathered the ball-gown of his
tail around himself, and began to tap his yellow feet lightly. Dust rose around
his yellow ankles, and dry leaves too. In figure eights the Peacock danced, life
on the parched earth. Green like Mother he was, and Blue like Father too, mixing
the two worlds.
The Little Gray Parrot watched the Peacock for a while feeling something akin
to envy. Then she said, "Peacock! How beautiful you dance!" The
Peacock stopped his stamping on the ground and looked at the Little Gray Parrot.
"Thank you," he said, and resumed his dancing. Dust sprang up from the
ground and mingled gold and green, and the Peacock danced and danced.
The Little Gray Parrot was bewildered. "Peacock," she said, "I
do not understand. People say you dance a beautiful dance when you are thankful
for the rain."
The Peacock bobbed his head beneath his crown. "Yes," he said,
"I am thankful for the rain." The Peacock circled the Little Gray
Parrot. He dropped one gold wingtip into the dust and drummed hollowly. "I
am thankful for the rain," he sang as he danced. "Thank you God for
the rain," he sang.
The Little Gray Parrot coughed and brushed the dust from her feathers. The
Peacock’s dance was very dusty indeed! The Little Gray Parrot watched the
Peacock dance. Finally she could not contain herself. She stamped her small gray
foot and said, "Peacock! How can you be thankful for the rain? It has not
rained for several weeks, and people say we are in a drought!" The Little
Gray Parrot thought the Peacock was certainly silly!
The Peacock stopped dancing. He cocked his head to one side. Then he cocked
his head to the other. Finally he said, "I am thankful for the rain even
when it does not come. Should I only pray when I get my way?" he asked.
The Little Gray Parrot looked at the Peacock. He was very beautiful with his
backdrop of tail. He was beauty standing on two long, long legs. Finally the
Little Gray Parrot sighed and said, "You are right, Peacock. We should be
grateful whatever the weather. I came to ask for one of your beautiful feathers
for you are rightly called the most beautiful bird in the forest. But your
gratitude is more beautiful still. I will put that in my red wagon
instead." And she did.
The Peacock nodded to the Little Gray Parrot. His blue crown bobbed on the
stalks on his head, and he began to dance again. The Little Gray Parrot turned
her red wagon around and said, "Thank you, Peacock. I must go now for it
will soon be dark and it is a long walk home."
The Little Gray Parrot could hear the Peacock singing as she pulled her red
wagon through the forest. The wishing star was already in the sky when she got
home, and she was very tired as she put her red wagon away.
"I don’t have any more color now than I had this morning," she
said. "My wagon is empty except for the ideas I put there. I will never be
able to please God as much as the colorful birds do." She was very tired as
she climbed into her bed high up in the tree. It was not long before she fell
sound asleep as Mother drew her cobalt and white bed curtains around her.
But God was still awake. He had watched the Little Gray Parrot pulling her
red wagon all day. He watched her as she talked to the Jungle Bird and the
Scarlet Parrot. He watched her as she talked to the Yellow Wren and the Peacock.
And God was very pleased with the Little Gray Parrot for trying to please Him,
and he looked down on her gray head sleeping on her gray bed and said, "My
Little Gray Parrot. You went to ask the other birds to give you things to make
you worthy of Me. But you could see what was truly beautiful in my creation. You
gathered the most pleasing things into your wagon, although it appears to be
empty. For this reason I will have you pull your red wagon behind you for the
rest of time. In this way everyone on earth will know how you have pleased
Me."
But the Little Gray Parrot simply slept, dreaming of the creation of stars.
She woke again the next day to the voice of the Jungle Bird calling his brother
into the sky. The Little Gray Parrot was still tired from the long walk of the
day before. She was still disappointed she had no gifts for God. But she was a
good little parrot, and got up to groom herself as she had been taught. Like the
other parrots the Little Gray Parrot wore a little comb inside her beak to comb
her feathers, and she began to preen and stretch her wings. How long and sleek
her flight feathers were! How soft the storm-cloud gray feathers on her belly!
After the Little Gray Parrot combed the feathers on her legs; she turned her
head around to comb her back.
But what a surprise! The Little Gray Parrot could hardly believe her gray
eyes! For, much to her amazement, her tail had turned bright, bright red! She
stared and stared at her new shining tail. But it did not change at all; it
stayed bright red! It was redder than the Scarlet Parrot! It was red just like
her wagon!
All that day the Little Gray Parrot looked at her tail. When she walked
through the forest she looked back to make sure it had not changed back to gray.
And that night she tucked her beak under her wing looking back at her tail. All
night she opened her eyes to look at her tail. But even the darkness did not
change it back to gray. Even in the night the Little Gray Parrot’s tail was
red. How happy the Little Gray Parrot was now! She had the most beautiful red
tail in all the forest! And to this day her tail is bright, bright red. And to
this day it follows her everywhere she walks, swaying back and forth behind her
just like a red wagon.
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