This is a true tale about an ostrich named Piet. If you live in or near a big town, you may have seen an ostrich in a zoo; he lived on a from in Africa.
Piet had been a great pet ever since he was quite small, because he was not so shy as the other ostriches on the farm.But he had one great fault; he was very, very greedy.
Of course the farmer gave him plenty of corn to eat, but Piet was not pleased with that. sometimes a nail or two; now and again, he would swallow a bit of glass! One day Piet was strutting round the farm-yard, wondering what he might eat next.the window of the farm-kitchen stood open.when piet caught sight of it,he said to himself,'an open window!I must look in.now ,it happened that Sannie,the farmer's daughter,had just poured the boiling water out of the potato pot.she had left the pot,full of steaming potatoes,standing on a table beside the window.
'ah!what a tasty bite for my dinner!'piet thought.'how lucky I am to have such a long neck.'
very quickly he caught up a hot potato in his beak and swallowed it.poor piet!how the potato burnt him,as it went slowly down his long throat.he must have wished now that his neck was not so long.At first he did not know what to do then he tried to run away from the hot potato.
he ran and ran and ran across the fields for a mile or more.of course,the hot potato went with him. when at last it cooled,piet stopped running and walked slowly back to the farm-house. poor piet,said sannie,the farmer's daughter, as she stroked him gently.I lesson,you naughty old thief.Indeed it had taught him a lesson.After that,Piet often ate stones and sometimes he swallowed nails and bits of glass, but never again did he steal food from the kitchen-window.
