THE LITTLE GRAY PARROT
A Fletcher Publishing Children's Book
PAGE 3
he Little Gray Parrot made quite a sound pulling her red wagon through the
dry leaves! From high up in the trees the Scarlet Parrot looked down to see what
all the noise was about. "Hello!" he called. Then he mimicked the
wagon wheels. And he made the sound of the crunching leaves. He was so clever
the Little Gray Parrot stopped on the path. She listened carefully for her echo.
But she heard nothing. As soon as she started to pull her red wagon again, she
heard the Scarlet Parrot mocking her high up in the trees.
"Scarlet Parrot! I was looking for you," said the Little Gray
Parrot. "You are very beautiful. Your color is of fire, red and gold,
yellow and brightness! Your eyes are ringed in silver, and your wings are cobalt
arrows! Please, may I have some of your colors? Then I will be beautiful,
too."
But the Scarlet Parrot simply mimicked the monkey jabbering in the tree. He
babbled like the brook, and roared like a chainsaw! He sang like all the birds,
at once! He barked like a dog and growled like a tiger!
The Little Gray Parrot stamped her small gray foot. "You are very
rude," she said. "Why do you make such a fuss, and repeat everything
you hear? What good is that?"
But the Scarlet Parrot laughed like a girl child. He cried like a piglet.
Finally he said, "I record everything in the forest. Man must work hard all
day and night. He does not have time to listen to the birds singing. He does not
have time to remember what dangers lie here. I record all these things for the
time man will ask me for them. When he is sad, I will sing like the nightingale–even
at noon! When he is careless, I will speak in the tiger’s tongue to make him
wary."
The Little Gray Parrot hung her head. She felt ashamed for her words, and
said, "You are right, Scarlet Parrot. You are the most beautiful of all
parrots. But your true beauty is in being a storehouse of knowledge. I came to
ask you for some of your colors, but I will put your wisdom in my red wagon
instead." And the Little Gray Parrot did, and walked on through the forest.
Of a sudden the Little Gray Parrot heard a bird talking like a clock.
"Cuckoo!" he said. "Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" The Little Gray
Parrot stopped to listen. She stood beneath the green umbrella of a palm. She
turned her gray eyes to the blue sky. She searched among and between the green
leaves and their gray/black shadows. Finally the Little Gray Parrot found a
bright black and white bird shining in the shadows. The Little Gray Parrot sat
on the edge of her red wagon and admired him for a full minute. Then she raised
her wing politely.
"Cuckoo Bird," she said, "Why are you so happy today, filling
the trees with noon and dinner songs?" The Cuckoo Bird closed his beak and
hopped to a branch an inch from the Little Gray Parrot’s gray beak, and said,
"I am very happy. I have five new babies, all fat and healthy, and I am
going on a vacation tomorrow."
The Little Gray Parrot looked into the eye of the father Cuckoo Bird. He did
not look tired. He looked well rested and full of life, so the Little Gray
Parrot said, "Your babies must be very good indeed! You have slept well
lately, and your breast feathers are sleek and smooth. You would hardly know you
have five babies to take care of. You must be very proud!"
The father Cuckoo Bird replied, "Oh, I am very proud! They are all so
beautiful, and so big each one fills a whole nest!" The Little Gray Parrot
was astounded. "Every baby has his own nest?" she asked. She
remembered when she was small she had warm brothers and sisters around her like
a blanket. "How wonderful," said the Little Gray Parrot. "Can I
see your babies?"
The Cuckoo Bird puffed up with pride, "Oh surely," he said,
"Here is one above us in this tree. And the others are scattered like
leaves throughout the forest."
The Little Gray Parrot looked high up in the tree. In a crooked crotch she
saw a neat, small nest nestled against the black bark. A big chick spilled over
the edges of the nest. His mouth gaped open, red and yellow like a flower. He
demanded food loudly, and soon a small Yellow Wren flew to him and stuffed his
beak with worms and bugs. The Little Gray Parrot could hardly believe her eyes,
for this was the very Yellow Wren she was looking for to ask for her color!
