A little girl loved watching birds fly in the sky. Almost every day, she would spend some time gazing up at the birds as they soared from one point to another.
One afternoon, she decided she wanted to fly like the birds. She stood at the end of the verandah, stretched out her hands, and flapped them as hard as she could while jumping up. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't fly.
She tried again, flapping her hands on the verandah, but as soon as she lifted her legs off the ground, she felt an invisible force pulling her back down.
"Look, Mummy, I'm trying to fly like the birds!" she exclaimed, turning to her mother, who was hanging clothes on the line. "But I keep coming back down to the ground."
Her mother smiled. "Do you know why you can't fly like the birds?" she asked.
"I think it's because I'm not flapping my hands hard enough," the little girl replied. "Let me try again."
She flapped her hands once more, but still couldn't stay in the air like the birds. Her mother smiled at her efforts.
"Princess, the reason you can't fly is because of something called gravity," she explained. "Gravity is a force that pulls everything towards the ground."
The little girl's eyes widened in wonder. "Gravity?" she repeated.
Her mother nodded. "Yes, gravity. Watch this." She tossed a cloth peg into the air, and it fell back down to the ground. "See? Gravity pulled it down."
The little girl tried the same experiment with a cloth peg, and it fell back down to the ground.
Her mother smiled. "Gravity is what keeps us on the ground, so we can walk and play safely. But birds can fly because their wings are special. They're shaped in a way that helps them lift off the ground and rise into the air."
The little girl thought for a moment. "So, my hands can't help me fly?" she asked.
"No, princess," her mother replied with a smile. "But we can make a kite together and watch it soar through the sky, just like the birds."
The little girl smiled at the idea of making a kite.
The End!
If you enjoyed this story, you might also like: The little girl and the Dew
Comments