The Storks

In a tiny village, there was a final house where a family of storks made their home. The mom stork sat in their big nest, which was on top of the house, with her four little babies. The babies had small, black beaks that hadn’t turned red yet like their parents’ beaks. They were very curious and were always stretching their necks to explore the world around them. Nearby, the daddy stork stood tall and stiff on the roof's edge. He didn’t want to be completely still, so he lifted one of his legs and balanced on the other. He was so still that he looked like a statue made of wood. “I bet it looks really impressive,” he thought to himself. “My wife must feel very important with me guarding her nest like a soldier. Even though they don’t know I’m her husband, people will think I’ve been given this job because I’m special.” So, he kept on standing on one leg, looking very important.

Down on the street, some kids were playing around. When they saw the storks, one of the bravest boys started singing a song about them. Soon enough, all the other kids joined in, and they were all singing together about the storks. The kids sang the song, but each of them remembered different parts of the words, so they sang it in their own way. The song went like this:

“Stork, stork, fly away,

Don’t just stand on one leg all day.

Your wife is in her nest up high,

With her babies resting nearby.

But watch out stork, you must beware,

Hunters may come and cause a scare.

They might catch one, and cook another,

Shoot the third and eat his brother.”

The young storks heard the song the boys were singing and were worried. “Listen to what those boys are singing,” they said. “They’re saying that we’ll be hung up and cooked!”

“Don’t worry about what they’re saying,” said the mother stork. “Just ignore them. They can’t hurt us.”

Even though the mother stork told her babies not to worry, the boys kept singing and teasing the storks. They pointed at them and made fun of them. But one boy named Peter didn’t think it was right to make fun of animals. He didn’t join in with the other kids at all. The mother stork tried to make her babies feel better. “Don’t worry,” she said. “Look at your father, he’s standing very still on one leg, and he’s not bothered by the boys singing.”

“We’re still scared,” said the young storks. They pulled their heads back into the nest, trying to hide.

The kids saw the storks again the next day while playing and sang the same song again:

“They might hang one,

And cook another.”

The young storks asked their mother, “Are they really going to hang us up and cook us?”

“No, of course not,” said the mother stork. “I’ll teach you how to fly, and when you’re ready, we’ll fly to the meadow and visit the frogs. They’ll bow to us in the water and say ‘Croak, croak’. Then we can eat them up! Won’t that be fun?”

“And then what?” asked the young storks.

“Next,” replied the mother, “all the storks in the country will come together and practice flying for the upcoming season. It’s essential for everyone to know how to fly correctly, or else the general will poke them with his beak and kill them. Therefore, you must learn and try your best, so you’ll be ready for the training.”

The young storks were worried and said, “Maybe the boys are right, and we will be killed.” They heard the boys singing again and became more scared.

“Ignore what the boys are saying and listen to me,” said the mother stork. “After our important practice is finished, we’ll fly to hot countries far away, where we can find mountains and forests. We’ll go to a place called Egypt, where we’ll see houses with three corners made of stone, with tops that almost reach the clouds. In those warm countries far from here, there are buildings called Pyramids that are very old. Also, there is a river that sometimes floods and leaves behind a lot of mud. We can walk in that mud and find lots of frogs to eat.”

“Wow,” said the young storks very excitedly.

“The place we’re going to is very lovely. We will spend all day eating, and in that place, there are no worries. But in this country, it will be too cold for us to stay. The leaves of the trees will disappear, and the clouds in the sky will freeze and fall like little white rags on the earth.” The mother stork wanted to say that it would snow in their current country, but she couldn’t find any other way to explain it.

“Will the mean boys freeze and break into small pieces?” asked the young storks.

“Of course, no. But it will be so cold that they will feel very uncomfortable and have to stay indoors all day. They won’t be able to play outside like us. But we will be flying to warm and beautiful countries, where there are pretty flowers and lots of sunshine.”