The Beautiful Peacock Backs Down From The Ladybug

"That noisy old Jeep scared me. I had to scream a little. I hope no one sees me up here."
Marlee could see through the timber that Grandma Lu and her husband were raking leaves. She was not a bit happy when her husband said that ladybugs were beautiful. She was the beautiful one. After all she had many many different colors in her feathers. I have so many beautiful colors. There are three different shades of green and beautiful blues. There are even yellow and copper colors. Yes I am so very beautiful. Ladybugs only have two colors; red and black maybe a little bit of yellow or gray, but they are ugly."

 "My tail feathers can get to over seven feet long. I am the most gorgeous bird there ever was. Silly ladybugs They don't even smell nice."
"I love to sit in these beautiful trees. All ladybugs do is crawl around and get dirty. I have a wonderful diet of fruit and berries. Hmm, I even eat a few bugs. I wonder how a ladybug would taste. I think I will sneak around this big old tree and watch to see where she goes. She can't be far away. I'll catch her for sure."

What Marlee didn't know was that ladybugs have two sets of wings and they can fly really fast. It just takes them awhile to get up off the ground, but when they do they can go as fast as Grandma Lu drives or as fast as a race horse can run and as high as a kite on a windy day. The only thing they can't do is fly in the rain.

Marlee saw the ladybug on the ground and decided that this was her chance. She was going to eat that lady bug, but the ladybug knew she was in danger and started to run, but not fast enough. She quickly laid on her back and pretended to be dead. Well Marlee wasn't fooled, she was going to catch her and eat her, but the ladybug had another trick up her sleeve. She oozed out some drops of bad-smelling, bad-tasting yellow stuff from her legs. "Oh yuk, you not only look ugly but you smell bad too. Yukkie!"
Well the chase was on. Marlee chased that ladybug down the driveway as fast as she could. She was going to prove that not only was she beautiful, but she was the strongest as well.

All of a sudden the ladybug stopped and said, "I am not afraid of you, peacock. You should be ashamed of yourself. Yes, your feathers are gorgeous, but you can't fly like I can. The farmers don't like you like they do me. They love me. And furthermore, I hibernate all winter and sleep with hundreds of my family and friends. How many friends do you have? I bet not very many with your bad manners and naughty mouth. My mama always told me no matter how nice I look on the outside, I have to be nice on the inside too. So now why don't you go back to your park where there are other peacocks and be nice to them."

Well the peacock, (Marlee), felt really bad. She told the ladybug that she was sorry and hung her head. She was sad. She decided that she would always be nice to other bugs and animals. She wasn't going to brag about how beautiful she was anymore. But secretly she smiled to herself. She was from royalty you know. The kings and queens of foreign lands in the olden days would treat their pet peacocks like family. They made special homes for them in their palace grounds or as they called it, the keep.

But then they were also served as a specialty for dinner when they had royal friends visit.....