First in Flight

Lilly had heard about the Wright brothers before. What bird hadn’t? They were the two human men who had given people the gift of flight. Now, just like birds, people could fly through the air from place to place. Lilly was very happy someone had done that!

However, Lilly also felt a little embarrassed when she heard about the two brothers. After all, they could fly. Millions of people could fly every day. But she, a bird, could not!

Every day, her brothers and sisters flitted out of the nest, doing loop-the-loops and swooping through the air. They had lots of fun playing all day. But Lilly sat in the nest and watched. She couldn’t fly.

Lilly knew there wasn’t a good reason she couldn’t fly- she just knew she couldn’t. It looked way too hard! Her friends told her that was a silly thing for a bird to think. Her friend Wilbur, especially, told her just to try it. But Lilly knew that if she didn’t make it, she would fall right to the ground.

One day, Lilly was sitting on the edge of the nest with her friend Wilbur when she saw something awful. Her friend Orville was flying overhead when a toy plane hit him and knocked him right out of the air!

Worse still, Orville was falling right towards the ground far below! Without thinking, Lilly jumped out of the nest after Orville. She caught him and batted her wings hard to slow their fall. Finally, she let him go right above the ground, where he landed with a gentle “flump.”

“Wow, Lilly! You did it! I knew you could!” Wilbur yelled from the nest.

“Do what?” Lilly called back. She couldn’t see anything going on.

“Fly!” Wilbur yelled.

Lilly looked around. Sure enough, there she was! Flying in midair like every other bird. She let out a bright chirp of excitement and flew up to the tree to play with the other birds. She could fly.