Hi and welcome to Homeschool Story Time: Week 9.
Peterlin is an adventuresome young chick who wants to see the world.
His mother tells him that he’s not ready.
What happens when, one day, Peterlin decides to go on a journey by himself?
Read on to find out.
Peterlin on His Travels
From the German
Peterlin was a chick just five days out of the shell. He began to think he was somebody now. The old cornfield became too narrow for him. He must start out on his travels, and see something of the world.
Biddy, his mother, clucked and scolded away at him, and told him how he might lose himself in the grass, and never find his way home.
But it was of no use. The mother’s warnings were unheeded. Off started Peterlin; and, before he was well aware of it, the cornfield lay far behind him, and he found himself standing on a rock, and gazing forth over the wide world.
The valley lay open before him. Dear me, what a world it seemed!—so very vast! With fright and amazement Peterlin looked down on all the magnificence till he felt himself growing giddy.
He stood on the brink of an abyss; and far beneath him flowed a stream through the blooming land; and over the waters moved proud vessels with their white sails and their waving flags.
All at once Peterlin saw a bird in the air. “Oh, dear! what if it should be a vulture?” thought he, trembling in every joint. “Oh, if I were only once more under my good old mother’s wing! Oh! how I wish I had minded her warning!”
Off ran Peterlin back through the grass, back over the ploughed field, along by the edge of the wood; and then he heard a noise,—”cluck, cluck, cluck!” “Oh, joy, joy! That is my mother’s voice!” thought he.
Yes, it was Biddy’s voice, calling her runaway child. She approached him at a quick run; and it was not till he was safe under her wing that the quick beat of his heart slackened, and he felt once more at peace. Peterlin then and there resolved that he would wait till he was older before he started again on his travels.
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Many blessings,
