Gwendoline groaned as the group ground to a halt again.
She had been listening to the dawn chorus her whole life, dreaming of the day when she too may be a strong enough musician to join the choir. Today was her first rehearsal but so far it had not gone well.
"Gadzooks' exclaimed the Heron, looking down his nose,what is that garbage?I think I shall gag."
"Your grating on my melody" sang the blackbird
"Gnawing at the base line" cawed the rooks
"The thrush says your gabbling" said the pigeon in a guileless tone
"No, I merely meant it was rather gaudy. It's grating against our Gavotte."
"Say what you mean girls, it's ghastly" glared the haughty gander. "Show her the gate girls"
Gwendoline hung her head. She had hoped for a moment of glory and now they all wished her gone.
With one great leap she vaulted the gate and the great gunnera leaves beyond, for the grass meadows of home, where she rested under a gauzy spider's web. Her friend Penelope let out a thread gliding delicately above her head asked "How did it go?"
"G g g grotesque" was all Gwendoline could manage between gargantuan sobs they said I was gaudy, grating and graceless"
"Pah! what do those birds know. Birds of a feather stick together and they are not worth your good opinions. If you have a song in your heart, you sing it, never mind what anyone else says. They're not the friends for you my gorgeous green goddess, if they can't appreciate your gift. Enjoy the day and sing your song follow your own voice not the voice of others, it will lead you true.
As the sun rose through her arc in the sky Gwendoline followed through gaps in the tall grass of the meadow sipping sweet dew and chewing on the tender shoots, climbing and jumping and finding her springing gait.
And so it was that she came to the grey gravel bed's edge as the sun dipped below the trees. She waited for the rise of the gibbous moon in the gloaming and felt the urge to beat her drum to the rhythm of nature but she stopped herself, feeling again the shame and disappointment she had felt that morning, the beginning of heartbreak she experienced thinking that she would never take part. But then the most wonderful thing happened. All around her, other grasshoppers hidden in the reeds and grasses at the water's edge began to tune up. Gwendoline's heart did a leap of joy. She had followed her voice and it had led her true. She stepped out of the shadow and struck up her rhythm joining it with the syncopated beats of her brethren. She had found her groove.
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