The white owl’s tale

White Owl

White Owl spread her wings and said to Little Owl, “Hop on my head and I’ll do the flying today. That way, we can go exploring in far-away places.”

Little Owl fluttered onto his mum’s head. And White Owl set off to show him proudly to everyone who would listen.

First they visited the cave under the table. Ben was there, making all the dinosaurs run around and attack each other.

“Little Owl is growing big and strong,” said White Owl. “See how well she holds her wings out!”

“Show off!” said Ben, and went back to his dinosaur fight.

White Owl twittered crossly. Ben was being horrible today.

She flew out of the cave and soared into the air. She loved the feel of the wind under her wings. Soon Little Owl would be able to fly as well as she could. “Hold tight, Little Owl!” she said. “We’re coming in to land.”

And she folded her claws in and landed on the doll house roof.

Jodi was helping the dolls cook tea. “Don’t land there,” she scolded White Owl. “You’ve rattled everything and made it fall over.”

“Sorry!” said White Owl. “I just wanted you to see how Little Owl is growing so big and strong.”

“I’ll visit you another day” said Jodi. “I’m busy now.”

White Owl felt cross again. Nobody wanted to talk to her.

Well, maybe the puppets would like to see Little Owl…

“Hold tight!” she said to Little Owl. “We’re off to see Lion and Koala. They’re always friendly.”

White Owl flexed her wings – it was a long way across the room to puppet land.

The puppets were all busy. Lion and Tiger were talking about their hunting trip. Frog and Rabbit were having a competition to see who could hop the highest. Dog and Cat were chasing each other round in circles. No one even saw White Owl and Little Owl land.

“Er… HELLO!” called White Owl. “We’ve come to visit!”

No one answered.

Little Owl fluttered down off White Owl’s head and wobbled over to where Wolf and Monkey were huddled in the corner, discussing something loudly.

“Don’t go far!” White Owl called. “I want everyone to see how big and strong you’ve grown.” She was so proud of him, she didn’t notice anyone else.

Suddenly, Little Owl called, “Twit-twoo, Mum! Come here! Quickly!”

White Owl went to see what all the fuss was about. And what she saw was terrible.

“Oh twit-twoo, twit TWOO” she cried, looking over the ledge down to the floor. “Poor Giraffe. How did he fall?”

“He tripped on this rock,” said Wolf, pointing to a huge brown stone. “It’s too far down for me to jump.”

“And it’s too steep for me to climb,” said Monkey.

“Well, that’s easily sorted,” said White Owl. “I will fly down and carry him back in my strong claws.”

And she did. The puppets all clapped when she set Giraffe back on the ledge. “Thank you, White Owl,” they said.

And then, while Wolf and Monkey gave Giraffe some leaves to eat, Little Owl looked at his mum.

“You were the star of the show,” he said. “But can we go home to bed now? I’m too tired to visit anyone else.”

So White Owl flew them quickly back to their tree, and they slept for the rest of the day, as owls do.

The moral of this tale is that if you want friends, it’s best to be interested in other people and not yourself.