"His first flight"

The young seagull was alone on his ledge .His two brothers and his sister had already flown away the day before .He had been afraid to fly with them.

Somehow when he had taken a little run forward to the brink of ledge and attempted to flap his wings he afraid .The great expanse of sea stretched down beneath and it such a long way down miles down.

He felt certain that his wings would never support him , so he bent his head and ran away back to the little hole under the ledge where he slept at night.

Even each of his brothers and his little sister , whose wings were far shorter than his own , ran to the brink ,flapped their wings ,and flew away ,he failed to muster up courage to take that plunge which appeared to him so desperate .

His father and mother had come around calling to him shrilly , upbraiding him , threatening to let him starve on his ledge unless he flew away .But for life of him he could not move .that was twenty four hours ago.

Since then nobody had come near to him . The before all day long he had watched his parents flying about with his brother and sister perfecting them in the art of flight , teaching them how to skim the waves and how to dive for fish

He had seen his older brother catch his first herring and devour it , standing on a rock , while his parents circled around raising a proud cackle and all morning the whole family had walked about on the big plateau midway down the opposite cliff taunting him for his cowardice.

Now when sun ascending the sky he felt heat be cause he had not eaten since the previous nightfall . Then he had found a dried piece of mackerel's tail at the far end of his ledge .Now there was not a single scrap of food left.

He had searched every inch , rooting among the rough , dirt caked straw nest where he and his brothers and sister had been hatched . He even gnawed at dried pieces of spotted eggshell . It was like eating part of himself .

He had then trotted back and forth from one end of the ledge to the other , his grey body the color of the cliff , his long grey legs stepping daintily , trying to find some means of reaching his parents without having to fly . But on each side of him the ledge ended in sheer fall of precipice , with sea beneath .

H saw his two brothers and sister lying on the plateau dozing , with their heads sunk into their necks .His father was preening the feathers on his white back only his mother was looking at him . She was standing on little high hump on the plateau , her white breast thrust forward .

Now and again she tore at a piece of fish that lay at her feet , and then scraped each side of her beak on the rock .The sight of the food maddened him . How he loved to tear food that way scraping his beak now and again to whet it !

He uttered a low cackle . His mother cackled too and looked at over him . He cried , begging her to bring him over some food . "GAW OOL AH"she screamed back derisively . But he kept calling plaintively , and after a minute or so he uttered a joyful scream.

His mother had picked up a piece of the fish and was flying across to him with it .He leaned out eagerly , tapping the rock with his feet trying to get nearer to her as she flew across .

But when she was just opposite to him , abreast of ledge , she halted , her legs hanging limp , her wings motionless , the piece of fish in her beak almost within reach of his beak .He waited a moment in surprise , wondering why she did not come nearer , and then maddened by hunger he dive at the fish .

With a loud scream he fell outwards and downwards into space His mother had swooped upwards . He could hear nothing . But it only lasted a moment . The next moment he felt his wings spread outwards . He could feel the tips of his wings .

He was no longer afraid . He just felt a bit dizzy . Then he flapped his wings once and he soared upwards. He uttered a joyous scream and flapped them again . He soared higher . First his mother and then his father flew ove r him screaming .

Then he saw his brothers and sister flying around him . His family proudly flying and praising him .

AND at last he made his first flight .