He looked over at the handsome groom and spoke: “On my head, you will notice, I have a plume, a plume nearly as fine as the plume on your own head. Please have sympathy for a kindred soul and remove a splinter from my foot.”

The groom turned away. He wasn't about to take out that splinter.

So the peacock swiveled his narrow face in the other direction and appealed to the bride: "I have a plume and you a tiara. Please, my queen and bride, bestow a great favor upon me and remove the splinter lodged in my foot."

“Agh!” the bride screamed in disgust. “Go! Get out of here, you vile thing! You think I want to touch that dirty claw of yours? Why should I?”

Now intelligence and stupidity don’t just wash over us like a summer rain. These things are born somewhere deep inside.

So, a little later, a sudden impulse took hold of the groom. “Well! Well! Well! Wouldn’t this old peacock look fancy wearing all our new jewelry! It would be fun to see him really spiffed up. And no need to worry about him getting away…With that splinter in his foot, he’s too wounded to fly.”

So the bride and groom worked together putting their newly acquired wedding finery onto the exotic peacock. They fastened a string of pearls around his slender neck, golden anklets at his feet, and gem-inlaid rings on his toes. The jewels looked splendid next to his deep green and blue feathers, so splendid that they emptied the contents of the jewelry box in an instant.

The bride and groom stood back to admire the fine figure he cut. What a lovely thing they had done!

Suddenly they noticed him clucking “Dhekoom-dhekoom.” That peacock was flying away!

The husband and wife cried out together:  “Oh, peacock, peacock, our dearest friend! Come back and let us take out that nasty splinter! Come and we’ll take it out for you!”

They looked at the peacock flying away and they looked at each other. And they looked at each other again.