Atatürk's Childhood

Mustafa went to his uncle's farm with his mother and sister.

His uncle greeted them very warmly, when they arrived at the farm in the evening. After some chat about their health and compliments, they had dinner. After the dinner, the chat continued nearly one hour more and then they went to bed.

Next morning, in the early hours, his uncle took Mustafa around the farm and showed him every part of it. They went to bean field in the afternoon. When they arrived by the field, his uncle pointed to the crows, which were eating the seeds in the field with his finger and said: “Look Mustafa, do you see those crows? They are our enemy number one. I work and strive; they come and eat the seeds. How nice! Those damned crows are no good for anybody. They only do harm and loss. Besides they descend on the head and shoulders of that scarecrow and are not ashamed to crow like "cro… cro…" The scarecrow is just a name. Look at this. Four or five crows have descended on it, they have eaten the seeds; they are full and sunbathing. He said: 'Come on Mustafa, let's drive them away."

The crows flew away when they saw Mustafa and his uncle coming. Later when they were sitting under a tree taking a rest, Mustafa asked to his uncle: “"Dear uncle, is this field always like that? “. “I mean, do the crows eat the seeds, when there is no one working and watching the field? “

His uncle answered:

“They do my dear Mustafa, yes they do. They shouldn't see a field with no one in it. Ten – twenty of them come together and attack the field. If you don't watch, they don't even leave one seed in the earth in a few weeks. “ Mustafa needed to summarize: “Ok uncle, then, you have to watch every day in order not to allow the crows to eat up the seeds. “

“Yes, Mustafa exactly. While there is a lot of work to do on the farm, I come here to drive the crows away. What else can I do? This bean field is very important. When the beans ripen, we both eat them and take them to the bazaar to sell; I make good money by selling them.

“This means watching here hinders your work greatly, dear uncle. Then, let me wait here from tomorrow on with my sister Makbule. Then you can be busy with the other work of the farm. I want you to know that I won't let the crows eat even one seed in your field. “

“Long live Mustafa, you smart boy! I had not thought of this before. You have easily remedied this big issue, which I have thought of many times, but could not find a solution. Let's stay here until the evening today. You will learn how to guard a field. It is not really hard, dear. Be somewhat careful and watch the crows. I will tell your mother in the evening, when we go back to the farm. We have to persuade her, too. “

Next morning, Mustafa has put the flans his aunt had cooked, in a bag and came to his uncle's bean field with his sister Makbule. As soon as they came, they began to drive out the crows, which were descending on the field. Both were very tired near the lunchtime. The reason was: First, the field was quite large. Whenever the crows came to eat the seeds on one side of the field, Mustafa and Makbule ran and drove them out. The same crows were taking off and descending on the other side of the field. They were tired of running from one side of the field to another. When other crows came, the situation became much more unbearable. At lunchtime, when they were sitting and eating the flans his aunt had cooked, Mustafa told Makbule that he had found a way to solve the issue completely and added:
“Makbule, did you notice how the crows are tricking us?
They understood that we are novices as soon as we came to this field. The method I want to implement is quite simple. Let's suppose that we draw a line through the hut in the middle of the field, which divides the field into two by its width. This line would divide the field into two equal parts. The upper part is somewhat inclined, I should take this part. The lower part is very flat, you should take this part. Each of us will be responsible for driving out the crows in our own parts. If you try to stay somewhere near the middle of your part, you will see that your fatigue will be half of that of the morning. Now, do you have any questions? “

“What can I say brother? You have told me exactly what we have to do. Here, my duty is to do what you have told me, completely. “

“Bravo, Makbule. It is an honor for me to work with an assistant like you, who follows my advice and has strong comprehension. This success will not only belong to me but both of us. Now, let's hurry up, eat our flans and start working. Look at the crows, how they have come together when they have seen nobody around. Although they are doing nothing more than flying over the field, but I am sure they will begin to descend on the field one by one if we don't hurry. I have promised my uncle that I wouldn't let the crows eat even one single seed from the field. “

The method Mustafa invented was successful. In the evening, when the crows returned to their places of sleep, they were hungry and tired. After dinner at the farm, when Makbule told about what happened that day and how the crows left in a sad and miserable situation, the ones in the room could not help laughing out loud. His mother Zübeyde Hanım said "My Mustafa is very smart." and kissed her blond and blue eyed son on the forehead. Meanwhile Mustafa kept his solemn demeanor, but he was smiling just a little bit.

THE END