​The Kind Woodpecker

Every bird has its song. Do you know why?

Once upon a time it was very quiet in the forest. In those days birds didn’t know how to sing.

But one day someone came to the forest and began to give out songs among the birds. They made a big noise. Every bird wanted to get the most beautiful song.

“Can you give me a beautiful song?” asked a bird.

“And I want a beautiful song too,” said another bird.

All the birds of the forest came to ask for songs.

Only the grey nightingale sat quietly in the tree. He didn’t ask for a song. “I hope they will leave some song to me”, thought he.

The woodpecker came later that day because he had had much work in the forest. He asked for a song too. “Give me a beautiful song, please,” he said. “I’ll meet the sun with it.”

The woodpecker got a song too. The longest and the most beautiful. The woodpecker thanked and was ready to fly away when he saw the nightingale.

“And what song did you get?” he asked the nightingale. “Sing it for me, will you?”

“There’s no song left for him,” the birds said. “He sat there quietly and didn’t ask for anything.”

The woodpecker saw that the nightingale was not happy because he had no song. So the woodpecker gave his song, the longest and the most beautiful, to the nightingale.

“I’ll listen to other birds when I want to hear a song,” he said. And so the kind woodpecker does not sing, he has no song. But all the birds in the forest like him all the same.