CHAPTER 5
Pleasing Others Doesn’t = Acceptance
The best idea the chicks had come up with was for me to look like them, so I went to my mammie and asked her what she thought about making a suit for me.
Mammie was excited, which made me excited. “Why, of course! What a great idea. Then you’ll look exactly like everyone else and fit right in. And maybe you’ll start to act right, too.”
I could hardly wait to look like everyone else! I imagined how that was going to feel. I daydreamed about fitting in, and it helped me forget about what I liked, like snake for dinner.
We began collecting feathers from the plucking’s the humans left behind. None of the others wanted to help gather them, but I didn’t care. I was willing to do it all by myself if it would make a difference in how I was treated around the farm. Anyway, I hoped they’d be looking over their wings and seeing how hard I was trying. Surely, that was also worth something!
Mammie worked all day on my new chick suit, and I went to sleep that night with great anticipation of what I’d look like by the next day.
I was up before the rooster crowed. I stood over Mammie, staring until she opened her eyes. She just had to finish my hat, and soon I’d be just like them. I wanted so badly for this day to be a new start. I didn’t even want to go outside to peck for breakfast until I was in my new suit.
Now, to pull this off, Mammie also had to make a grayish sleeve-type thing that slipped over my beak and attached to a beautiful red hat perched on top of my head and topped off by a scarf that went under my neck. I looked like I had shopped at the same coop as everyone else and never left the farm!
Before she let me strut outside, Mammie warned me, “If you stretch out those big, bulky wings of yours, you’ll probably pop the zipper, and then I’ll have mending to do.”
“You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how little they do.”
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT | FIRST LADY
The suit had shorter wings built onto it, and I crammed my big old floppy wings inside them. Now they were hidden. I didn’t have to worry about flying, but I was going to have to remember not to spread my wings. Besides, the other chicks usually mistook my movements, and it intimidated them. I sure didn’t want to do that. On top of that, Mammie had worked so hard to help, and I didn’t want to disappoint her either. She had made the suit a little long and fluffy-haired, so the feathers covered my white collar around my head and my feet. Now they wouldn’t be so noticeable. She had thought of everything!
I asked Mammie, “Do you think this is too fancy? I don’t want them to think my hat or feathers are nicer than theirs.
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