The Lark and Her Chicks in the Wheat Field

A mother lark had built her nest with her young chicks directly in the middle of a farmer's wheat field, the tall stalks providing excellent cover throughout the growing season. As the wheat ripened toward harvest, the chicks grew increasingly anxious each time they overheard the farmer discussing his plans for cutting it.

One day, the chicks reported anxiously that they'd heard the farmer say he would ask his neighbors to come help cut the wheat tomorrow. Their mother, unbothered, told them there was no need to worry or move yet. "Neighbors asked to volunteer their own time for someone else's harvest rarely come promptly, if at all," she explained. "We're safe for now." Sure enough, no neighbors came the next day, and the wheat stood uncut.

Days later, the chicks reported the farmer had said he would ask his relatives to help instead. Again, the mother lark remained calm, explaining that relatives, too, tend to delay and make excuses when asked to donate their own labor for free. Once more, she was right, and nothing happened. But when the chicks finally reported that the farmer had said, in evident frustration, that he would simply cut the wheat himself first thing the next morning, the mother lark immediately began moving the family to safety without a moment's further delay. "Now we must go," she told them, "for a person's own direct intention to act, unlike a plan depending on others, is the one thing reliable enough to actually happen." The wheat was cut the very next day, exactly as the farmer himself had promised.