The story of Gabby and the Rainmaker.   

      One day a little sparrow wandered off shore while just exploring. She found a post sticking out of the water a few hundred yards out and she thought it would make a nice place to lay her eggs and raise her babies. She gathered pieces of grass and an assortment of small soft things that she could carry and she built her nest. “This is the perfect place” she thought, no bugs or pests to bother her chicks and they will be safe while she hunts for food each day. As time went on she had her babies, two beautiful eggs were now in the nest and she sat and sat on them. Soon they hatched and before long they were always hungry and the little sparrow did what a good mother does, she ventured all over finding food and bringing it to them. It was an all day job.

      The little sparrow made a lot of friends while searching for food on shore each day and she loved to tell them about her perfect hiding place for the baby chicks. She was so friendly that she talked and chatted to everyone that she met and because of her tireless effort to take such good care of the chicks, everyone thought a lot of her.

       One day as she was on shore the wind began to pick up and she thought she had better hurry back as soon as she could. But the wind coming in to shore began to get stronger and stronger and as she tried to fly into it, it blew her right back to where she started. She was upset now and worried about the chicks. She had planned well for the safety of her nest but had not thought that something like this could happen.

       The little sparrow was in obvious need and her friends knew it. But most of them were no match for the strong wind either and although they each tried to help her, they couldn’t carry or even pull her into the wind. As the little sparrow clung to a tree branch along the shore and thought about her chicks, she realized what a big mistake she had made. She wondered if the wind would blow the nest into the water. She wondered if the chicks had any chance of making it in to shore if it happened. She prayed for a miracle.

       What the little sparrow didn’t know was that because she was so nice to others, she had many friends. Some she had never even met! And as the friends tried to work out just how they could help her, they were spreading the word farther and farther. And as she clung to the tree thinking all is hopeless, she saw a huge bird coming up the coastline towards her. It was being pushed around and battered by the wind, but it was on a mission.

       The big bird fought and fought and continued on its course until it came and clung to the same tree as the little sparrow. “Hello”, she said weakly to the big bird. “I was told you needed my help,” said the big bird. “Thank you but I don’t know if you can help,” the sparrow said. “They call me Gabby because I talk a lot to all my friends and I made a big mistake putting my nest off shore. I cannot get to my babies in this wind, and I am afraid that they will not survive much longer.”

      “They call me Rainmaker,” the big bird said, “because when I take a bath I throw so much water around it looks like it’s raining. I am a pelican. I was quite a ways down the shoreline when word reached me that you needed my help. We have never met, but those who know you speak well of you and I will be honored to get you to where your chicks are.” “I don’t know if you will be able to make it,” Gabby said, “but if you are willing to try, I will be forever grateful.

        “Climb in,” said Rainmaker, “it doesn’t look like it will get any better, we need to go now.” So Gabby climbed into the mouth of Rainmaker and stood in the big pouch of the pelican, shouting directions from time to time. And the big pelican fought and fought the wind as it did it’s best to push them back to shore. But Rainmaker was determined to succeed for he was on a mission of mercy and after several attempts, he did.

       And as the wind pushed the big bird from side to side, Rainmaker maneuvered his way to the post, reaching it just as the nest was about to topple. The chicks were about to fall into the water as Rainmaker scooped them up with his big beak and without so much as a moments rest, the big bird headed for shore. After landing in a small clearing behind a group of trees, Rainmaker released Gabby and her chicks onto some soft grass. He hadn’t realized that he had the nest as well, but that was fine he thought, he would place it anywhere Gabby chose and save her the trouble of making a new one. But only if it was on shore!

      Before they knew it they were surrounded by hundreds of birds of every type; all happy to see Gabby and her chicks and all very grateful to Rainmaker for saving the day.   You see friends are not that hard to make, just be friendly and kind to everyone you meet because when making one you never know when you may need them.

                                    Glen C. Schulz. © Copyright. 2005.