Mee and the Tracks in the Mango Grove

Mee helped Mother arrange baskets of mangoes beneath a tree. When she returned with rope, one basket lay overturned, mangoes covered the ground, and buffalo hoofprints marked the soil nearby.

“Tui did it!” Mee cried, but Mother asked her to look at the whole trail. The hoofprints did not only approach the basket. They circled toward a bush and then led back toward the pen.

Under the bush, Mee found a fallen nest with no chicks inside. She also noticed a drag mark from a cord and small shoeprints crossing the hoofprints. Instead of guessing again, she went to ask young Palm.

Palm explained that wind had dropped the nest near the basket. Tui called until Palm came. Palm hurried the chicks to an adult in a basket, and its cord caught the mango basket and pulled it over.

Mee apologized to Tui and Palm, then helped collect the unbruised mangoes. The chicks returned to a nest in a sturdy support basket. That day, the tracks taught Mee that truth must be heard from every direction.

One piece of evidence may not tell the whole story; ask, listen, and check before judging someone.