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I waited for the school bus to pick me up every morning. My place to wait was by our mailbox. One morning mom walked with me to the bus stop. She mailed some letters and went back towards the house. A few minutes later Mom was back with a “treasure” for me to take to school. It was a bird nest with one blue egg in it. Mom said she thought it was a Hummingbird nest.
I was thrilled to have something to share at school. When I got there my teacher said she thought it was a Hummingbird nest too. Upon close inspection to the egg we noticed it now had a crack in it. I tried to be careful with my treasure so it would still be in shape to share when the time came during the day. At our first recess my teacher came to inspect the egg again. It now had three or four cracks in it. My teacher got all excited and said she thought the egg was hatching. The nest had begun to fall apart so I was now holding the egg.
She made me feel important. It was my job to protect the egg as it hatched. I thought I was a hero. The egg did finally hatch. A tiny little Hummingbird lay in the palm of my hand. The whole class was excited. Everyone got to watch. I remember it had tiny feet, a huge belly, huge eyeballs, and a little fuzz on its head.
It was then, as everyone was bending over to get a peek at this little wonder in my palm my teacher asked, “Joyce, what are you going to do with it now?” My heart sank as I had no answer. No food. No mother bird. No nest. I continued holding the bird through the lunch hour and on into the afternoon. By the time last recess came the little fellow had stopped moving and my teacher took it away.
I felt a lot of things that day. I felt important for having such a grand thing to share at school, I felt excited when the egg hatched, and I felt miserable when the bird died. I remember telling my mom about the whole day when I got home. She told me the cat had eaten the mother and the baby was doomed anyway. She assured me I was not responsible for the bird dying. Mom convinced me God let her find the nest so that I could see the baby bird hatch. I felt a little better after mom talked to me and hugged me for a while.
Wonderful and sad story. I had a very terrible incident, that looms on my memory to this day.
ReplyDeleteWhen we retired and moved here, I was cleaning dirt and junk from underneath the outside blind on the far side on the house. What I thought was a clump of dirt, when I knocked it down was a birdnest and and egg and one tiny bird that of course died and the other egg broke. As a grown woman I cried, as I buried the egg and bird.
As a result to redeem myself, I have a wonderful back yard full of bird feeders and birds.