House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) by Ian

George and the Happy New Year

~ by Emma Foster

   In the countryside, where farms dotted the land along the hills and the only sounds that could be heard were birds chirping and cows mooing, there lived a small finch named George. He lived in a small red barn out in the countryside. George had built his nest up in the rafters where he could look down at all the other farm animals during the day. In the barn, he had a clear view out the window of the sky and the big city very far away.

New Year’s Day was drawing near, and every night for the past week, George and the other animals were kept up late because of all of the fireworks being set off outside the city. One night, George decided he would fly to the city. He had always wondered what people did on New Year’s Eve and how they celebrated the coming year. George figured the city was the perfect place for celebration.

That morning, on December thirty-first, George flew out the window while all the other farm animals were still sleeping, and began flying to the city.

House Finch Resting

The dirt road that stretched to the farm eventually turned into a gravel road as George flew farther on. He flew past many apple tree orchards and corn fields until the gravel road split off into two concrete roads. Here there were many different houses and stores.

Every now and then George would take a break from flying and land on a powerline. He was able to see how far he had to fly before arriving at the city.

By the time George could see large skyscrapers up ahead it was late evening. When he entered the city, he could see many other birds flying around looking for tall buildings to land on so they could see the celebration with a good point of view. George passed by lots of buildings, but none of them seemed good enough. He wanted to be able to see everything, including all the people celebrating.

Finally George spotted a large, shiny ball on top of a tall building in the middle of a busy street. Flying to it, he decided this would be the perfect place to watch the celebration because he could see throngs of people standing in the street below eagerly cheering. By then it was late at night, and George hoped he hadn’t missed much.

Times Square Ball

Landing on the ball, he watched the crowd, and he remarked how bright the ball was and wondered what it was for. Suddenly it started lowering and everyone began counting down from ten. When they all reached one, everyone cheered. George didn’t know why, but afterwards, everyone started to leave and call for taxis to take them home. George realized this must have been the celebration.

It was late in the afternoon when George arrived back at the farm, and all of the animals were eager to hear where he had been. George was glad to tell all the animals what he had seen, and of how people celebrated New Year’s Day. None of the animals ever understood exactly why people celebrated the day by counting backwards from ten, and George never understood what the huge ball was used for other than to go up and down.

The End

Lee’s Addition:

O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth. (Psalms 96:1 KJV)

Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord and joyfully celebrate His mighty acts, for great is the glory of the Lord. (Psalms 138:5 AMP)

What a celebration for George even if he didn’t quite figure out what it was all about. Thanks, Emma, for another great bird tale. Sounds like you must have stayed up and watched the celebration New Years Eve. At least you didn’t have to fly to see it.

You can see all of Emma’s other great articles here: