“Who feeds you?” asked the poor man’s birds.
“Our master’s servants, of course.”
“But our master,” replied the others, “feeds us himself. We thank you for your invitation, but would rather stay where we are.”
Summer passed and cold weather came on, and one snowy morning the pigeons at the barn were astonished to see their grand neighbors alight near them again.
“We are of the same mind still,” the poor pigeons cried, “and can only repeat what you have heard already. We will not go with you.”
“Ah!” said their rich neighbors, “we have not come, this time, to ask it, but rather to ask whether you haven’t got a corner here in the barn where we may come and stay; for our master has gone away for the winter, and his servants have forgotten us, and we’re likely to starve in our beautiful home.”
The nearer we get to the source of the good that we need, the more sure we may be of a continued supply of it.