The foolish little ostrich and her friends
Once upon a time there was a clever little ostrich. She was the smartest little ostrich in her whole flock, and maybe on all of the wide plains. She also had a very good nature. She was loved by all of the other ostriches, and in her turn, thought very well of each of them. You see, this little ostrich, like all ostriches, wanted very much to fit in with her fellows, so they could all live together happily and well.
But it happened that this little ostrich also had wise old ostrich parents. These two had seen all of the plains, and had very long memories. When our friend was just a chick, barely able to stand on her nobbly legs, they told her to beware of the cheetahs and the lions and the hyenas that roamed the wide plains where they dwelled. For these animals were predators. And they could eat careless ostriches.
‘This is these animals’ nature’, they told the clever little ostrich:
and you should not be surprised or shocked by it — cheetahs and lions and hyenas eat ostriches, and our friends the gazelles and the zebras, just as we ostriches eat the leaves and the grasses, the roots and the seeds, the nuts, the grains and the little insects.
‘Never forget what we are saying’, her father would say to her, a little sternly:
If you see a cheetah or a lion or a hyena, you…