Once upon a time there was a little girl who knew the secret of the birds. She did not remember how she knew this secret but she just knew. She was staring into the wheat fields one day and a fox came to her and asked “why do you stare so into the field?” She said to the fox, “I’m whispering to the wind the secret of the birds.” The fox, appalled by the child’s response asked, “Please tell me the secret, so that I may be like the wind.” The child touched him on his shoulders and whispered in his ear, and all of a sudden the fox grew wings and flew away. In the distance, there was a farmer who witnessed the miracle. He ran to the town and told all what he had seen. The townsfolk laughed and told him he was a crazy man and he should return to his field. When the man returned, discouraged by the scorn of the townsfolk, the child was gone.
The next day, he was again working in the field and he saw the child and he came up to her and asked her “Did I see true yesterday? Did the fox grow wings and fly away?” The child responded, “You saw correctly.” The farmer asked “how is this possible?” The girl responded “I know the secret of the birds, would you like me to tell you?” The farmer paused a moment, thinking about his fields, but he said “yes”. The girl told him to lean down, and she touched him on his shoulders and whispered in his ear. The farmer grew wings and flew away. He meant to fly to the town so they would see that he was true in what he saw, but the winds carried him so far that he got lost and never returned.
The townfolk depended on the farmer for the grain, and harvest time, when he did not come to town, they started to grow anxious. They went to his farm and could not find him, but when they looked in the field, they saw the girl. They asked the girl if she had seen the farmer. The girl said “yes, I told him the secret of the birds and he flew away.” The townsfolk were puzzled by this, and the girl, knowing that the townspeople didn’t believe her, touched herself on the shoulders, whispered the words, and she grew wings and flew away. The townsfolk, even having witnessed with their own eyes, still refused to believe it, and never spoke of the farmer or the girl ever again, supposing it had just been a dream. Every now and then, though, they would see a fox flying over the town…
but, of course, it was only their imaginations….
