The Ant and the Dove
One day there was an adventurous ant that was walking along a steep
slope near a riverbank with some of his other ant friends after school. The
ants were playing rough as young boys usually do, and after getting pushed one
of them eventually fell into the river. None of his friends could save him
because none of them were capable of swimming. Luckily, there was a dove
sitting in a tree nearby that heard all of the yelling. As the drowning ant began
to get washed away by the river the dove swooped down and gently pulled the ant
from the river with her beak. She warned the boys to be more careful and
flew away.
After dropping the ant back off on the bank of the river, the dove
returned to her perch on the tree. While the ant was still drying himself off
and starting to calm back down, he heard a rustling noise walking through the
trees. He and his friends climbed the riverbank to get a better view. The ants
looked up to see a huntsman pointing his slingshot directly at the dove who had
just earlier saved their friends life. Feeling panicked for his newfound hero,
the ant that had almost drowned scurried over to the huntsman and bit his
leg.
The bite startled the hunter just enough for his shot to miss the dove. Having
no more stones, the hunter gave up and walked back home. The dove flew down to
the ants and thanked them for saving her life. The ants warned her to be more
careful and she flew off and thanked the ants for their generosity again as she
flew by. The ant said thank you as well and they both happily went on knowing
they each saved a life that day.
Author's Note:
The original fable has an ant fall into some water. The Dove puts straw into the water that the ant floats on back to safety. Then the ant sees that the dove is about to get killed by a man and stings his leg. The stone misses and the dove flies off.
Bibliography:
The Aesop for Children by Aesop (2006). Web Source: The Project Gutenberg Ebook.
The dove shown is a grey-fronted dove. Web Source: Wikipedia.
I am so glad you picked this story, Jeremy; it is not a famous fable like some of the others, but it has such a positive message. Most Aesop's fables are built on negative messages (don't be like the grasshopper...), and this positive fable is an exception to that rule! And I love the details you included, like the ants rough-housing by the water, which is how the ant fell in - that is so cute! I don't think I've ever read a version of this story that tells how things got STARTED like that. Perfect! It makes sense to have the ants together like that too because that's how ants are: you expect them to come in a crowd. It all works! Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteJeremy,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Laura. This is a story I enjoy from Aesop's fables. I really liked your spin on the original story and how you described the pretext of the story. I also loved the part in your story where you talked about the bird gently picking the ant up from the river. I thought this was a cute feature to add because it makes the experience intimate and adorable.