The Eaglet Story

A young naturalist once was on a field trip when he came upon a small village. At the edge of this village was a small farm where a brood of new born chicks were pecking at some grain. He looked at the brood and thought something was odd. So he called the farmer and told him that one of the chicks was actually an eaglet.

The farmer looked at the naturalist and insisted that they were all chicks, after all they all looked just the same. But the naturalist too insisted that one of them was not a chick at all but an eaglet and that he wanted to take that eaglet away from this brood of chicks.

The farmer shrugged his shoulders. What was one chick less to him who had several hens. So he let the naturalist take the little bird with him.

A few days later, when he thought the time was right, the naturalist took the little bird and climbed a tree. At the top to the tree he whispered to the little bird:

"You are an Eagle, the king of the Sky,
So my little bird, Spread your wings and Fly."

He then stretched out his hand and let go of the little bird. But the little bird just flapped its wings and tumbled to the ground. There it promptly began pecking at some grain, just as it had been doing all this while.

The naturalist waited a few day more and this time took the little bird to the top of a much larger tree and again whispered:

"You are an Eagle, the King of the Sky,
So my little bird, Spread your wings and Fly."

But the bird merely flipped and flapped its way to the ground.

So he waited some more and this time took the little bird to the top of a large hill. There he again whispered the same thing to the bird and let it go. This time the little bird flapped a bit harder and it felt a surge of wind below its wings. It liked the feeling so it flapped harder still and by and by it began to soar. Soon it was doing all that eagles do... it flew high and fast.

Way down below the farmer saw the bird fly and knew it was indeed an Eagle. So he rushed to the naturalist and asked him:

" My friend, tell me how did you know the little bird was really an eagle"

The naturalist simply replied:

"How does it matter what it really was, I just believed that it was an Eagle".