Bedtime stories for kids

Be Prepared

               Once upon a time, in a thick forest, was a big tree on top of which was a nest of Sparrow. The Sparrow laid 5 eggs, out of which 4 of them became healthy little sparrows. The last egg had some trouble while hatching which resulted in a little sparrow being born with flight difficulties. As time passed, the little sparrows grew up and the four healthy sparrows accompanied mother everyday in search of food. The other sparrow was very weak and it could not join rest of the folks as it could not fly like them. All the four sparrows used to make fun of their little weak sister as she was of no use to the family. Poor sparrow used to sit at home all day and cry. The mother sparrow used to console the little sparrow and said she never thought of her as useless.

             One day, when all the four little sparrows had left with mother in search of food, the weak little sparrow was in the nest cleaning it up. She was trying to do her bit to the family. At the same time, she heard a meager "meow" from her branch of tree. She immediately became alert and saw that a cat was heading towards their nest. The Cat got to know that the sparrow noticed it, and with the anxiety of losing the prey, it tried to run towards the nest, lost balance and fell down from the top. Since it got hurt, it did not attempt to climb again and just left the place thinking "next time".

            The little sparrow was horrified and was in a state of shock for some time. After it recovered, it started to think. "Anybody can attack me anytime as I always stay at home and can't fly to defend myself. I must start finding ways to protect myself and my nest". From that day on wards, once all her companions left from house, she learnt to manage to get down the tree, and started collecting sharp stones, wooden pieces with sharp edges and hard items that she can throw at her predators.

          One night when all the sparrows were sleeping in the nest, the little weak sparrow got up suddenly listening to a "hisss" sound. It immediately recognized that a snake is going to attack her nest very soon. Without wasting any time, it went to the branch hiding place where she had kept all her weapons and came to her nest and woke up everyone. Everyone got up and she handed over the sharp stones and wooden pieces she had collected to everyone and told them to be ready. Everyone including mother were terrified but kept calm and just followed whatever the little sparrow instructed them. When they were able to make out the snake's distance from them was not too far, they started throwing the weapons at it constantly. The snake, unable to bear the attack of six birds all at once, gave up and started moving away from the nest. They hit the stones until they could not see or feel the presence of snake. Thus, the little weak sparrow had saved the life of five strong and healthy birds.

Mother sparrow was very proud of her little daughter and all the siblings thanked the little sparrow and hugged her very tight. Mother then asked her how she managed to handle this situation so efficiently. The little sparrow narrated her narrow escape from the cat and how important it is to be prepared for the worst possible rather than panicking at the very moment of danger. She said she learnt to be more sensitive to sounds and learnt to fly slowly so much so to at least collect weapons lying nearby.

From then on all the sparrow family worked together in keeping their nest safe and nobody ever hurt the little sparrow again.