40 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
40 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
THE VAIN CROW
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Once upon a time . . . a restless crow decided to go farther away than
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usual from home and friends. Suddenly, in a farmyard, he met a pair of
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peacocks. What wonderful birds they were! The crow had never seen such
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beautiful feathers, and he timidly asked the regal-looking birds what they
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were.
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"We're peacocks," one of them replied, spreading its tail. And as the
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peacock strutted about, showing the crow his magnificent feathers, he
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screamed, as peacocks do. Bursting with admiration, the crow said goodbye and
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flapped away, but as he flew home, he could not forget the two peacocks. "What
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fine feathers! They must be so happy, being so beautiful." And he gazed down
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sadly at his own ugly plumes. From that day on, he could not help thinking
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about the spiendour of the peacocks and his own plain feathers. He even
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stopped looking at himself in the pond water, for every time he did so, it
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made him even more depressed. He got into the habit of spying on the peacocks,
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and the more he watched them strut royally around, the more envious he was of
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their beauty.
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One day, he noticed that one of the peacocks had dropped a feather. When
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the sun went down, the crow picked it up and hid it away. For days on end, he
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watched the peacocks and found another feather. When he had four, he could
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wait no longer: he stuck the peacock feathers onto his own tail, using pine
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resin, and started to parade up and down for his friends to admire.
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"Just look at my gorgeous tail!" he said proudly.
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"I'm not ugly like you! Out of my way, you moth eaten crows!" The crows'
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amazement soon changed to indignation, then they started to laugh and jeer at
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their vain companion. "You're nothing but a crow yourself, even with those
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flashy feathers!" they jeered.
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"And you're silly as well as ugly," replied the conceited crow haughtily,
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and off he went to live with the peacocks. When the peacocks set eyes on the
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stranger, they thought the crow was just another peacock who, for some reason,
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had lost most of his feathers, and they felt sorry for him. But the crow,
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vainer than ever, wanted to attract greater admiration and a foolish idea came
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into his head. He tried to scream the way the peacocks do when they fan their
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tails. But the harsh "Craw! Craw! Craw!" quickly betrayed the crow. The
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furious peacocks pecked the stolen feathers off and chased the crow away. Poor
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crow! For when, sad and downcast, he went back to his frlends, he was given
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exactly the same rough treatment. Nobody would speak to him and all the crows
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turned their backs on him for trying to be what he was not.
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