The Summer of Saving Peep Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind. -Henry James One sunny afternoon in June, my sister Jenny and I were walking home from school when we noticed a loud chirping coming from an empty trashcan on the curb. We walked over to it and peered inside. A sad little sparrow was sitting at the bottom of the trashcan, chirping his heart out. His right wing stuck out from his body at a strange angle. Jenny said it was probably broken. She reached in and cupped the bird in her hands, cooing to him so he wouldn't be scared. The sparrow chirped all the way to our house, his little, fuzzy head poking through Jennys fingers. My mom took one look at the little bird and said, No way! Im not having another animal in the house. But once she got a closer look at those big, sad eyes and heard that pathetic chirping, her heart melted. We were counting on that. Mom sent me into the bathroom for tape and an eyedropper and gently set the sparrow on the kitchen table to get a better look at him. She said his right wing was definitely broken, so she designed a splint out of a Popsicle stick and carefully taped it to his wing. Our dog, Buttons, kept trying to get a look at the bird, but we shooed her away. Once the splint was on, we fed the bird water with an eyedropper and gave him bits of bread and berries. At first he wouldn't eat, but then after awhile, he wouldn't stop. The little bird earned the name Peep. We kept him in an old hamster cage, former home of Pepper, the hamster, whod recently passed away from old age. Every night, we put a towel over the cage, and Peep went right to sleep. And every morning, we put his cage outside and opened the door so he could wander around and get some fresh air. Peep couldn't fly, which seemed to frustrate him. He wasn't used to walking everywhere. Eventually, Peep made friends with Buttons. I swear it's true! Peep would jump onto Buttons back for a free ride around the back yard. After awhile, Peep's wing got better, and Mom told us it was probably time to take off the splint. We put Peep on the kitchen table, and Mom cut off most of the splint with little scissors. She couldn't get all of it, so there were bits of white tape stuck to his wing, but he didn't seem to mind. He started flapping his wing like crazy, and the next morning when we opened the cage door, he flew about fifty feet into the air before coming back. We watched from the ground like proud parents. From then on, Peep flew further each morning, but he always came back. Two weeks later, on a Sunday morning, when Jenny let Peep out of his cage, he just kept flying. We left his cage outside with the door open, but he never came home all that day. As it became dark, we faced the truth that Peep would never come back. My mom said he probably found some other sparrows and decided it was time to be with his own kind. My eyes filled with tears, a Excerpted from Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul 2: Read-Aloud or Read-Alone Character-Building Stories for Kids Ages 6-10 by Mark Victor Hansen, Patty Hansen, Irene Dunlap, Jack Canfield All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
