The Dove and the Ant

A little ant was drinking at the edge of a stream when her foot slipped and she fell into the water. The current began to carry her away. The ant struggled and cried out, but her voice was so tiny that nobody heard.

Just then a dove was sitting on a willow branch above the stream. She saw the ant struggling. She quickly plucked a leaf with her beak and dropped it right next to the ant. The ant clung to the leaf with all her strength, and the leaf carried her to the bank.

When the ant reached the shore she looked up at the dove. "Thank you," she said. "You saved my life." The dove flapped her wings: "It was nothing, little friend. Everyone should help one another."

A few days passed. The dove was resting again on the willow branch. A hunter came to the stream. He had a trap in his hand and his eye on the dove. He crept closer and began to set the trap. The dove noticed nothing; she was sunbathing with her eyes closed.

The ant saw the hunter. "My friend is in danger!" she said. She climbed straight up the hunter's foot and bit his heel with all her might.

"Ouch!" cried the hunter, shaking his foot. The dove woke at the sound, saw the danger and flew up. The hunter was left empty-handed.

The dove circled once in the sky, then called down to the little ant: "You saved my life too!"

The ant replied proudly: "You helped me, and I helped you. Being small doesn't matter; being a friend does."

From that day on, who helped whom by that stream is hard to say, but the dove on the willow branch and the ant on the leaf were always seen together.