A Rooster Named Ego There once was a small farm, outside a town, few had ever heard of. It was happy little farm and a quiet little farm, until a young rooster named Ego became big enough to crow.
At first, Ego crowed in morning, like roosters are suppose to. He crowed to let everyone know it was time to get up.
Then one day Ego noticed that every time he crowed the sun came up. “I make the sun come up,” Ego thought to himself. Then he crowed a crow that said, “I am the best. I am greatest. No one is better than me.” He liked crowing this so much he crowed it all day long.
Ego was crowing when the sun went down and he noticed this. Ego said to himself, “My crow made the sun go down.” Then he crowed a crow all night, which said, “No one is greater than me, no one ever has been, and no one will ever be.”
The following morning all the other animals were tired. They hadn’t been able to sleep, because Ego had crowed all night. They thought though, that it was just one night. All the animals knew that every rooster crows too much sometimes. They were sure Ego would stop crowing all the time, about how great he was, but Ego didn’t.
Ego continued to crow day and night. It seemed that Ego didn’t need to sleep. He just needed to crow about how great he was. So the animals decided it was time for Ego to crow someplace else.
Ego the rooster was on top of the chicken coop crowing, when Pig said to him, “My, that’s a mighty fine crow you got there Ego, too bad you’re not up higher.”
Ego stopped crowing for a moment and asked, “Why should I be higher?”
“Well,” Pig said, “If you were up higher, more animals and people could hear you crow?”
Ego realized that Pig was right, that if he crowed from someplace higher, more people could hear him. So Ego look around the farm to see what was the highest place on it. The barn’s roof was the highest place on the farm; so Ego jump into the air and started flapping his wings as hard as he could.
Ego barely made it to the top of the barn. Chickens aren’t the best fliers. Once Ego caught his breath, he looked around. He could see the whole farm and several other farms too. He started crowing so those other farms could hear how great he was too. He crowed and crowed.
Then several barn swallows flew over and landed next to Ego. Pip, a young barn swallow said, “My, that’s such a great crow you have there, too bad you’re not over in that tree on the hill.”
Ego stopped crowing. “Why would I want to be over there?” He asked.
“Well,” Pip replied, “If you crowed from the top of that tree, the whole valley could hear you.”
Ego realized Pip was right and flew down from the barn’s roof. He landed on top of some hay bales, in the back of a truck, driving down the road. When the truck drove past the hill, Ego jumped off. He flapped his wings as hard as he could, until he landed on the highest branch of the tree. After he caught his breath, Ego the rooster started crowing again.
Owl, who had been sleeping, came out of his hole in the tree. “What are you doing up here?” Owl asked Ego.
“I’m crowing.” Ego answered.
“Yes, I know, but why from here?” Owl asked.
“So the whole valley can hear how great I am.” Ego answered.
Owl thought for a moment, then said, “It’s a shame you’re crowing here, and not from town.”
“Why’s it a shame?” Ego asked.
“Well,” Owl said, “They got these very tall buildings in town. If you crowed from the top of one of them, why the whole county could hear you?”
Ego realized that Owl was right, and without so much as a “thank you,” he flew from the tree and landed on the luggage rack of a car headed toward town.
Once the car reach town, Ego started to look around at all the tall buildings. When he saw, what looked like the tallest building, he flew off the car and up to one of the building's ledges. There he rested for a moment, and then few to a higher ledge. Ledge after ledge, he flew until he was on top of the building. Then he started to crow.
Ego crowed and crowed. He let the whole county know how great he was. Soon some pigeons landed next to him.
Curly, a fat pigeon, looked at Ego and asked, “Rooster, why are you crowing here?”
Ego replied, “I'm crowing here, so the whole county can hear how great I am.”
Curly, thought for a moment, then said, “It’s too bad you’re not crowing from the top of that mountain over there?”
“Why would I want to crow from that mountain,” Ego asked?
“Well,” Curly replied, then the whole world could hear you crow.
‘The whole world,” Ego thought excitedly, and flew off the top of the building. He flapped and flapped his wings until her landed on the back of a train, heading toward the mountain.
Occasionally, while Ego was on top of the train, it would blow its horn. When this happened Ego thought the train was trying to crow louder than him, so Ego crowed back. Ego thought his crow was louder. Ego was almost crowed out, by the time the train reached the mountain. He flew off the train, before it went into the tunnel. Then Ego climbed and flew all the way to the top of the mountain.
From the very top of the mountain the next morning Ego crowed to make the sun come up. Then he crowed and crowed and crowed to the whole world, about his greatness. Some say, Ego’s still up on that mountain crowing to the whole world.
The small farm, Ego had once called home, became quiet and happy again. No one missed Ego’s crowing all the time.
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