THE BIRDS FUNERAL One summer afternoon I was playing out in the storeroom by myself, and I must have left the door open, because all of a sudden a little bird flew in, and then couldnt find its way out. Well, I watched him for a few minutes, until, I decided he needed some help, so that’s when I started to chase him with a broom. I chased him around and around for a few minutes until slam, Bam! Oops! I didn’t mean to do it, but I must have pushed him too hard with my broom, Because, suddenly, crash, bang! The poor little bird goes smack into the closed window. The crash must have done him in, because the poor little thing fell onto the table, among all my dads junk. He must have broken his neck when he hit the window, because he just lay there with his eyes closed and his legs in the air. No, I really didn’t try to kill on it purpose. Nevertheless, he was now dead, and what was I going to do with a dead bird? I had to think of something really quick. Well, all of a sudden , my mind started to spin, and it came to me. A Bird Funeral! Yes, this would be a perfect time to have a funeral. So, the first thing I did, was to go out back of the store room and dig a hole. The second thing was, I went in the house and found an old toothpaste box for his coffin, and a piece of white cloth to wrap him in. The third thing was, telling my little sister Hilda, and finding a few kids to come to the funeral. Of course, I was the oldest kid, and it was all my idea in the first place to have the funeral, therefore, I should be the minister. Then again, if I was going to the minister, I had to look like one. Well, that’s when I went into the house and found Mom’s big black scarf, and put it around my shoulders. It took me a little while to find a piece of white cardboard to make a collar. No, we couldn’t have a service without a prayer book, so I went and got my church prayer book. In fact, the prayer book also had all the hymns in the back. By the time I returned to the grave sight, Hilda was there, with her friends, and now we were ready to go on with the service. So, the first thing I did, was to read a few prayers from the book, then we sang the hymn, Abide With Me. I thought that was an honorable hymn to sing, because I remember singing that at Mom’s aunt’s funeral last week. The next part of the service was sad, because that was when we put the toothpaste-coffin down in the ground with the little bird inside it. Meanwhile, when I started covering it with dirt, I said in my best Preacher’s voice. “Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust. He’s now gone to Heaven, to wait for us.” Then I looked at my friends, and said, “OK, now, we are all going to cry really loud. I told them we had to cry, because that’s what you’re suppose to do at funerals. So we tried to cry a little louder!” We might have been crying, but there wasn’t any tears flowing. After the funeral was over, and my friends had all gone home, I decided to make a head stone for his grave. In fact, I made it out of the cardboard that I had left over from making the minister’s collar. And with a pencil, I wrote this in big block letters. Here lies a bird Who hit his head On the window And fell down dead Yes, that was the end of my little feather friend! It wasnt until the next summer that I decided to dig him up again, because I just wanted to see if he went to “Heaven or Not.” Well, he must have gone somewhere, because there wasnt anything left in the ground, except for a few little feather and bones. ~Rose Oldford Pestrue~ A chapter from my book “unpublished “ LESS MEANT MORE BACK THEN
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 01:58:53 +0000
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