A boy heard the voice of the whippoorwill one nightand went out to find where he was singing. He had towalk quite a ways through a big field, because thesong of the whippoorwill carried so well in the wind hesound much closer then he really was. And on the waythe boy found a well worn trail, so he stayed on it for awhile. And sitting in the middle of the trail was coyote,and coyote was singing too. He turned and saw theboy and he said "
Why are you follow me?" The boywas frightened and said "
Well the trail you madehappened to be a short and easy way through thisfield. Then coyote asked "
Well if your not followingme then why are you here?" "
Well I heard the beautifulsong of the whippoorwill and wanted to watch himsing." "
Well do you not think my songs are beautiful?",said coyote. "
Oh", said the boy, "there good but I hearyou all the time. I much prefer the songs of thewhippoorwill" This made coyote furious and he wasjealous of the whippoorwill's song. He said "
Listen tomy night song you might like this one" And he pulledback his head and yodeled out a tune. The boycovered his ears and politely said, "
Thank you for thesong, but I must be going now." "
Well", coyote said, "
Ican show you a short cut to the whippoorwill boy, andwhere he sings is just over there." Pointing his claw,smiling out of the side of his mouth. The boy paused,looked around, he knew the night was passing fast sohe agreed to follow coyote. But coyote's trail wasrough and rocky. And the boy fell in quite a fewgopher holes along the way. Coyote turned aroundand laughed and he yelled to the boy. "
Were almostthere, hurry up." Coyote was at a full trot but the boyhad just fallen again and hurt his knee. And by the timehe got to the place where the whippoorwill had beensinging all night, it was morning. Whippoorwill wasgone. And so was coyote, in fact he could hearcoyote's songs in another field. So the boy turned andheaded for home, covered with burrs, misq bites and askinned up knee. And it was many summers laterwhen the boy became a wiser man. And he realized,there are no shortcuts to find something you reallylove. But there are many trails in this life. So you muststay true to your path, and always keep and eye outfor coyote.
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