The Lazy Little Bird

There was once a little bird who was very nice, but very, very lazy. Every day, when it was time to get up, they had to shout at him again and again before he would finally struggle out of bed. And when there was some job he had to do, he would keep putting it off until there was hardly enough time left to do it. People kept telling him "What a lazy bird you are! You can't just keep leaving everything to the last minute”.

"Bah! There's really no problem", answered the little bird, "I just take a bit longer to get around to doing things, that's all".

The birds spent all summer flying and playing, and when autumn came and you could start feeling the cold, they began to prepare for the long journey to a warmer land. But our little bird, lazy as ever, kept putting it off, feeling quite sure that there would be plenty of time to prepare for the journey. That was, until one day when he woke up and all the other birds were gone.

Just like every other day, several of his friends had tried to wake him, but - half asleep - he told them he would get up later. He had gone back to sleep and only woke up again much later. That day was the day of the great journey. Everyone knew the rules: you had to be ready to leave; there were thousands of birds, and they weren't going to wait around for anyone. So the little bird, who didn't know how to make the journey alone, realised that because of his laziness, he would have to spend the long cold winter all on his own.

At the beginning, he spent a lot of time crying, but he had to admit that it was his own fault. He knew he could do things well when he put his mind to it so, putting his laziness aside, he began to prepare for the winter. First, he spent days looking for the place that was best protected from the cold. He found a place between some rocks, and there he made a new nest, well built with branches, stones and leaves. Then, he worked tirelessly to fill the nest with fruits and berries, enough to last the whole winter. Finally, he dug a little pool in the cave, so he would have enough water. When he saw that his new home was perfectly prepared, he began to train himself on how to get by on very little food and water, so that he would be able to endure the worst snowstorms.

And, although many would not have believed it, all these preparations meant that the little bird did survive through the winter. Of course, he suffered greatly, and not a day of that winter went by without him regretting having been such a lazy little bird. When the spring finally arrived, and his old friends returned from their voyage, they were all filled with joy and surprise at seeing that the little bird was still alive. They could hardly believe that such a lazy bird had managed to build such a wonderful nest. And when they realised that not even a bit of laziness remained in his little body, and that he had turned into the most hard-working bird of the flock, everyone agreed that he should be put in charge of organising the great journey next year.

When that time came, everything was so well done and so well prepared that they even had time left to invent an early morning wake-up song, so that from that day on no little bird, however lazy, would have to spend the winter alone again.