Once, there was a beautiful lake in a forest. The animals in the forest came there every day to drink water. In that lake, there lived a mother duck with her babies. The ducklings were very small and had not learned to fly.

One morning, the mother duck was playing with the ducklings near the lake. Many birds from the nearby trees had also joined them. As they played merrily around the lake, they heard the rustling of the bushes. A fox was hiding there. “Oh, it’s a fox! Quick, let’s go!” said the birds and flew away to their nests.

“Mother, he will eat us! Please do something!” the ducklings cried out in horror. The mother duck was very scared. She was worried about her babies as they couldn’t fly. She thought for a while and said to them, “All of you rush to the lake immediately.”

As they moved towards the lake, the mother duck walked away from them. She dragged her wings on the ground. Seeing this, the sly fox thought, “The duck must be injured. If I catch her, she won’t be able to fly.” He sneakily went behind her.

The mother duck walked very fast. She went ahead and took the fox far away from the lake. She looked towards the lake. Her babies had reached the middle of it. “Now they are safe. The wicked fox can’t harm them anymore,” she assured herself.

As the fox came closer to the mother duck, she swiftly stretched her wings and flew back to the lake. Her children were overjoyed to see her. Their lives had been saved by their devoted mother. The fox watched this and sighed. He felt ashamed of his mischief and went away.

Moral: The safety of children is a mother’s first concern.