literature

Doves

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Literature Text

    There were once two men living in the country near a village.  Each one had a spacious lot of property and a humble store of possessions.  Prized by both men were white doves, each man having one he treasured dearly, for the wide country was lonely without a companion.

    Each man’s dove had free roam of their properties.  One day the first man’s dove was out looking over his fields, when she was lured to the village by a pair of boys with a bag of seeds.  The boys offered her their seeds, if she agreed to come and play with them.  Tired from flying about so much, she was eager to regain her strength and accepted.

    The boys brought her to a barn where they played hide-and-seek, tag, and some other lighthearted games.  But the boys, mischievous as they were, kept the seeds from her until she was completely spent.  Once she was too tired to fly, the boys caught her and began tossing her back and forth.  The dove was very frightened by this, because being thrown so much was hurting her.  After a time, the boys left, as their mothers were calling them to supper.  The dove hobbled to the seed sack, ate a bit, and struggled to get home.

    When the dove returned to the first man, he saw her injuries and asked, “What has happened to you?”

    The dove, very shaken, explained.

    “You should never have left our lands!” The man scolded. “Would you like me to go and teach those boys a lesson?”

    The dove shook her head and said no.

    But, when the man heard her reply, his ears changed it to “No, you aren’t man enough.” So he, filled with anger, left his dove alone to pursue the boys.  When he found them at their homes, he and their fathers whipped them with willow branches.  The boys, knowing how to fool their fathers, pretended to be hurt more than they were and apologized to the man with fingers crossed behind their backs.

    So the first man returned home to the dove and told her what he had done.  When he finished he asked her, “Now, are you happy?”

    But the dove shook her head.

    The man was very upset by this and left again.  He went outside and dug up a store of gold he’d hidden a long time ago.  When morning came, he went back into the village and used his gold to buy seeds and a silver cage filled with cushions.  When he returned home again he gave his dove the delicious seeds and placed her in the cage.

    “There,” he said, “now you are happy, because you have the seeds you wanted and you are safe.”

    The dove agreed with him but only because she didn’t want him to go out and do anything more.  She spent the rest of her days unhappily locked up.

    Now at about the same time, the second man’s dove went out into his fields and was lured to the village by those same boys and their bag of seeds.  The boys did to her exactly as they had done to the first dove, and she returned home, hurt and afraid.

    When the second man saw his dove he asked her what had happened, and she explained.

    After hearing of what had happened to his precious dove, he gently scooped her up and held her to his chest.  Then he said simply, “You will always be safe here.”

    And the second man’s dove was very happy.

A parable?  Written in a simple style, I hope it conveys the importance of real comfort.
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LaurenIpsome's avatar
This story makes me sad... It ended a little abruptly though, I think. You don't need to re-tell the whole thing, but maybe a little more description of how things turned out, so to speak? Maybe... I dunno... Don't listen to me.