"Fly, Eagle, Fly! An African Tale"
retold by Christopher Gregorowski

Student Edition
Unit 4, pp. 116–129

This is a folk tale, a story or legend from another land that is handed down from one generation to the next.

One day a farmer went to search for a lost calf. He looked and called by the river and in the reeds. He searched the hillside, the valley, and the forest. Finally he began to climb the mountain. His voice echoed. Nothing. He looked in a gully to see if the calf was hiding there. Instead, on a rocky ledge, he saw something very strange. It was the day-old chick of an eagle, the king of birds. The farmer gently picked up the frightened baby bird. He would take it home. "We shall train it to be a chicken," he said.
The baby bird got along with the chickens. It learned to scratch in the dirt for food. But it began to look different as it grew older. One day a friend came by. He saw the bird with the chickens and said that it was an eagle. The farmer smiled. It was a chicken, he insisted.
The friend asked to show he was right. He caught the bird. Holding it high above his head, he told the bird it was an eagle. "You belong not to the earth but to the sky. Fly, eagle, fly!" he said. The bird stretched out its wings. Then it looked down and saw the chickens scratching. It jumped to the ground. The farmer laughed.
The next day the friend came back to try again. He asked for a ladder and took the bird with him to the top of the tallest hut. Again the friend told the eagle, "Fly, eagle, fly!" Again the bird scrambled back to the chickens. The farmer laughed even harder.
Very early the next day, before it was light, the friend woke the farmer. This time, he begged, they would go to the mountain. They would let the eagle see the sunrise. The farmer finally agreed. The two friends walked until the path grew narrow. They began to climb. The friend found a ledge and carefully set down the bird. He talked to the bird about the sun. "When it rises, rise with it," he said. Sunlight began to fill the sky. "Fly, eagle, fly!" he called one last time.
The bird slowly stretched its neck. It straightened its wings. It leaned forward, and its claws clutched the rock. Then, as the wind rose, the eagle leaned forward even more and was carried up into the sky. It disappeared, never to live with the chickens again.

From Fly, Eagle, Fly! Text copyright © 2000 by Christopher Gregorowski. Reprinted with permission of Margaret K. McElderry Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division. All rights reserved.

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