The Eagle and Her Chicks

-- a beast fable

            On the day they were born, the old mother eagle named her chicks Faith, Hope, and Charity. The two stronger youngsters gobbled up every single scrap of food their mother brought to the nest. Thus Charity, the weakest chick, pushed away by the other two, soon withered and died.

            Soon Faith ventured out onto the edge of the nest to test her wings. She flapped them a dozen times and then a dozen more.  A serpent lurking nearby took the opportunity and dispatched Faith with a quick bite to the head, grabbed her, and slithered off. The mother eagle was aging and not as agile as she had once been and so was unable to assist her second offspring.

            That left only Hope, who hovered in the rear of the nest, losing her down and growing in size but chastened by what had happened to her siblings. The mother eagle saw that her remaining child was becoming tentative and afraid and would not even test her wings. 

            So the mother eagle, being wise, pecked out the eyes of her last child and set her on the rim of the nest and gave her a hard nudge. Off the last child flew.

            MORAL:  Hope is the last to go. And, of course, to have any chance of succeeding at all, it must be blind.