A Piece of Sound Advice

A Carefree Swallow

  

The little swallow was totally enjoying himself, whizzing around, eating his fill and living life to the full in the warm late summer sunshine.   He was young, independent and carefree.   He knew that his parents had left a few days earlier to fly south back to their winter quarters in South Africa.

  

There was no rush – or so he thought........

As the summer days began to grow shorter, and the nights colder, he thought that it was about time that he too should follow his parents and leave.

As he did so the next morning, he suddenly began to feel the cold but flew steadily on.   Before he reached the south coast, it began to snow.   Still he continued on hoping to reach the sea where he hoped it would be warmer.

It wasn’t..............and as he continued snow began to get heavier and form on his back and wings.   He told himself off for not having listened to his parents and left at the same time as they did.

Suddenly he could not continue.  The snow and cold were too much for him and he began to fall from the sky.

He landed in a pasture and tried to regain his strength.   He was getting colder by the hour and he was just about to give up all hope of surviving.

A passing cow, answering a call of nature, dropped a large cow-pat all over our little friend.   ‘Oh crap’ the swallow exclaimed then suddenly realised that he was getting warmer from the fresh dung.

 

He began to sing.   He sang at the top of his voice and if he had known of God he would have given thanks.

The farmhouse tom-cat heard the singing and went to investigate.   He cleared away the cow-pat picked up the swallow in his mouth and promptly ate him.

The Moral of this story is therefore:

      1.     It is not necessarily your worst enemy who puts you in the crap.

      2.   It is not necessarily your best friend who gets you out of the crap.

     3.     However, when you are in the crap – keep your bloody mouth shut.

 ------Mike----