The Eagle Who Lived Like a Hen

In a forest an eagle lived on a tree. It had built a nest wherein to lay its eggs. There the eagle would hatch its eggs all through the day.

Under the same tree there lived a hen. The hen had also laid eggs during the same period when the eagle had laid its eggs.

One day, while the eagle had gone for hunting, a bear climbed up the tree to eat the eagle’s eggs. The bear had finished three of the eggs when the fourth one slipped off its hands and fell into the hen’s nest. On returning, the eagle could not find her eggs. Feeling terribly upset, she decided to leave the place.

The hen which lived under the tree saw the eagle’s egg by the side of her eggs. She felt eggs pity on the eagle’s egg, and decided to hatch it too. After a few days, the hen’s chicks hatched. The eagle’s chick hatched, too.

The hen would feed all the chicks, including the eagle’s chick, as if it were her own. Soon the chicks began to grow.

The young chicks would listen to their mother’s sounds and try to imitate her. The eagle’s chick also picked up the hen’s sounds. The chicks would all play together and make lots of noise.

Within no time the hen’s chicks as well as the eagle’s chick grew up to their full size. The eagle’s chick never realized that it was an eagle and not a hen. Considering itself a hen, the eagle would. eat hen’s food, would walk and run like other hens and would make sounds like hens. The eagle never learnt to fly like other eagles and lived its whole life like a hen only.

THE MORAL

It is difficult to fly like eagles when you live with hens. The people with whom you associate have a great influence on how you think and behave. Choose your friends carefully.