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Written for Charlene's grandchildren. Visit her and George on the web at gwmiller.com. Illustrations by Charlene. Photo on the right by George Miller. (Based on a Cherokee story)
The bird we know as Cardinal wasn't always red. He had a plain brown coat. He never thought much about what he was wearing because he had a hungry family to feed and had to gather nuts, berries, and insects for his growing family. He would bring these things to the nest so his wife could break up the food in bits and feed it to their little girl and boy. His wife stayed in the nest to keep those little rascals from falling out of the nest. His wife was always worried about the little boy baby bird falling out of the nest because he was so active and she was always worried about the little girl baby bird choking. (You know how mother's came be!)
One day while Male Bird was out gathering food he heard some sobbing and found a red fox with mud caked and dried over it's eyes crying that he couldn't see. Bird asked the Fox what happen. Fox told him that he had an argument with a raccoon and chased the raccoon up the tree and while waiting for the raccoon to come down he feel asleep. That mean old raccoon must had put mud on his eyes but now the mud was dried and he couldn't get it off his eyes and could not see where the river was to wash it off!
"I can help you", said Male Bird, "I will peck the dried mud from your eyes!" "Now don't open your eyes until I tell you to open them." He hopped on the Fox's head and pecked carefully around his eyes. "Now shake your head and open your eyes!" Fox did as he was told and said, "I can see but I feel like I still have bits of mud or sand in my eyes, so Male Bird led Red Fox step by step to the river where Fox washed the rest of the bits from his eyes.
Fox was so grateful he decided that Male Bird needed a bright red coat like his to show the world that Male Bird was a nice hardworking friend of Fox. So Fox gave Male Bird some red clay paint and painted the bird. It is the same red clay paint that the Cherokee paint on them before their ball games
Male Bird was now Red Bird. Red Bird looked at his reflection in a quiet pool of water and said that his wife would be envious so Fox told him to bring his wife over to get some paint too. Red Bird was happy that Fox was willing to share the paint with his wife too.
When Red Bird got back to his nest his wife was most impressed with her new red husband and of course she wanted some of the red paint too. So she went flying off to find Red Fox and while she was putting on her paint she started worried about Red Bird feeding little girl baby too big of pieces and that she might choke and she was afraid that little boy baby would fall from the nest (you know how mother's can be!) so before she finished painting herself she flew back home! Of course, the babies where just find because Red Bird is a good father but that is why Cardinal males are brighter red than the females.
Charlene has written many wonderful stories for her grandchildren. Watch out for more! Visit her and George on the web.
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