THE LARK AND THE WHIPPOORWILL.
A LARK had nearly fallen asleep in the dusk of the evening, when a whippoorwill began calling loudly to its mate, that was lodged in another part of the wood:
“Whippoorwill! Whippoorwill!”
“Why do you disturb me,” asked the lark, “here at the close of the day, when I am so tired and just ready to take my rest?”
“I will try to be quiet, then,” replied the whippoorwill.
So, with a great effort, the bird kept still. Occasionally, when its mate called from a distance, its bill would open and a faint note, “Whip! Whip!” escape. But a look at the lark, with its head under its wing, was enough to quiet it again. And so all night long it hopped about in silence hunting its food.
At last the rosy dawn appeared, and it flew down to its humble perch near the ground and made ready to go to sleep for the day. But just then the lark suddenly burst forth with a loud song, and started up in its flight toward the sky.
“Stop! stop!” cried the whippoorwill. “How is this? You made me keep silence when you wanted to sleep, and now, when it is my turn, you make more noise than I did.”
“It is my nature,” cried the lark, “in the early morning to shout out my glad song.”
“And it is mine,” replied the whippoorwill, “in the quiet twilight to call to my loving mate.”
“I suppose what you say is true,” said the lark, “but I am sure that I can’t help singing. Why do you not sing in the daytime, as I do? That is the proper time.”
“Nay,” replied the whippoorwill; “as you are made to wake and sing in the daytime, I am made to wake and sing in the night. Now, as we can neither of us have the woods alone, let us try and put up with one another’s songs, and so each of us enjoy its lot.”
As long as we live we shall find something to put up with in other people. It will be easier to do this if we remember that they in like manner have to put up with something in us.