By Sandy Macintyre

There once was a magnificent rooster who was considered by many to be superior in intellect and social grace to all the other animals that lived on the farm. The rooster was the pride and joy of its owner, Joshua, who felt that someday the rooster would reward him by producing offspring of an equally high standard.

Unfortunately for Joshua, the rooster appeared to show no interest in any of the hens that lived on the farm. Joshua even began traveling, every once in a while, to neighbouring farms and distant townships to acquire new hens that might appeal to his prize rooster, but the rooster continued to show no interest in any of the hens.

Then one day the farmer's son Kofi trapped a wild dove and brought it home. When Joshua saw the dove he ordered Kofi to release the bird immediately. Joshua was firm in his decision in spite of Kofi's protest. He recognized the dove as one of a rare variety found only on an island far away in the middle of a lake. How it came to have traveled so far from its natural home he knew not. It was a bird of delicate and incomparable beauty and he knew that such creature would not survive if held captive for long. He instructed Kofi to release the dove the next day.

In the shimmering mists of the new dawn, the rooster awoke to cry in the new day, and as he lifted his head to sing he caught sight of the dove. Immediately, his interest was aroused by the beautiful captive. Never did the dawn seem so dazzling to the rooster and he sang loud and long to let the whole world know it. Although his head said wait, his heart too precedence and the rooster fell hopelessly in love. The dove was equally enthralled at the sight of the magnificent rooster, who sat fondly watching over her. To the dove, he was the hero of her dreams, what she had sought after since love awakened in her breast. It was not surprising then to any of the occupants of the farmyard that when Joshua ordered the cage door opened the dove refused to fly away.

Joshua laughed heartily at the sight of the great rooster humbled by his love for the wild dove. As the days that followed turned into weeks Joshua's joy turned to despair as he saw his rooster pine away waiting for the dove to leave the confines of her prison and come to him willingly. Try as hard as he could the rooster could not persuade the dove to leave the cage. In a deep but tender voice the rooster said, "You are the loveliest creature I have ever set eyes on, and although I did not think so before, I have grown tired of sitting beneath the trees looking over the farm yard, I don't know what life will be like away from the farm yard but at least we will have a life together." In a soft cooing whisper expressed in clear and limpid notes the dove replied, "You are the handsome stranger of my dreams. Yet, somehow, although I long to be embraced by you, I cannot bring myself to leave this cage". For a moment the rooster was pensive. Then he gently replied, "Beautiful daughter of the island in the lake, I will wait for you to come out of your prison and I will never leave your side, not matter what happens". With this promise singing in her heart, the dove was cheered and she grieved no longer for her home. Her fear of the unknown and the uncertain, however, was stronger than her love for the rooster.

A few days later, when Joshua found the rooster and the dove dead beside the empty cage, he shook his head and wept bitterly. He knew that the love they had for each other had destroyed them but that their souls would be quietened now that they were together. He tore his hair and cursed the day his son had brought the wild dove home.