The Very First Rainbow.

A very long time ago, in a canyon very far away, lived the last dodo bird. He was very lonely and shy, and being that he had no colors, he didn't think that the rest of the birds would want to play with him. One day, he decided that if he was colorful like the other birds, then he could play with them. So he went to the wise old owl, and asked him how he could get colors like the other birds.

"Father Owl," he said, "how can I be as colorful as the other birds?"

"Why do you want to be colorful? It doesn't matter if you're like everyone else."

"Oh, but Father Owl, it does! If I had colors, I could play with the others."

"But won't they let you play now?" wise Father Owl said.

"I don't know. But I do know that if I had colors, they most definitely would."

Father Owl knew better than that, though. He knew that if the dodo would just be himself, the rest of the birds would like him. But he was a kind old owl, and wanted to help the dodo.

"What you need to do," Father Owl said, "is to find colored clay, and rub it into your feathers. But you must be most careful not to get caught in the rain. If you do, the colors will wash out."

"Oh, I will be careful, Father Owl. Thank you!" said the dodo, and off he went. Knowing that there was brightly colored clay along the riverbank, he made straight for the river. Once there, he rubbed the clay into his feathers. There was red, yellow, blue, purple, green, and orange clay, and when the dodo was done, he was the most beautiful bird around. The dodo flew into the air, and all the birds thought that he was the most beautiful bird they had ever seen. The dodo felt that since he was the most beautiful bird, the sun, and the clouds should see him. So up, up, up he flew, and right into a gray rain cloud. He didn't know that gray ones were the ones that made the rain. So through the cloud he flew, but the raindrops washed away all his colors, and streaked them in the sky in a brilliant rainbow. The dodo, however, was struck in the wing by lighting, and plummeted to the earth. He landed in the river with a big SPLASH. He swam to shore, and noticed that his wings were too small to allow him to fly anymore. So he decided to sue the cloud factory that made the raincloud that he had flown through. He did, and won, then used the money to build thousands and thousands of low birdhouses with built-in jacuzzis so all the birds would have someplace nice to live. All the birds loved him, but never told him that they always liked them the way he used to be.

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