The Little Red Hen An Old English Folk Tale

Excerpt

The Little Red Hen

Little Red Hen lived in a
barnyard. She spent almost all of
her time walking about the barnyard

in

her

picketty-pecketty

fashion,

scratching

everywhere

for

worms.

he dearly loved fat, delicious worms and felt they were absolutely necessary to the health of her children. As
often as

she

found a

worm

she

would

call

“Chuck-chuck-chuck!” to her chickies.

hen they were gathered about her, she would distribute choice morsels of her tid-bit. A busy little body was she!

A cat usually napped lazily in the barn door, not even bothering herself to scare the rat who ran here and there as

he pleased.

And

as for

the pig

who lived

in the

sty—he

did

not care what

happened so long as he could eat and grow fat.

ne day the Little Red Hen found a Seed. It was a Wheat Seed, but the Little Red Hen was so accustomed to bugs and worms that she supposed this to be some new and perhaps very delicious kind of meat. She bit it gently and found that it resembled a worm in no way whatsoever as to taste although because it was long and slender, a Little Red Hen might easily be fooled by its appearance.

arrying it about, she made many inquiries as to what it might be. She found it was a Wheat Seed and that, if planted, it would grow up and when ripe it could be made into flour and then into bread.

When she discovered

that, she knew it ought

to be planted. She was

so busy hunting food for

herself and her family

that, naturally, she

thought she ought not

to take time to plant it.

o she thought of the Pig—upon whom time must hang heavily and of the Cat who had nothing to do, and of the great fat Rat with his idle hours, and she called loudly:

“Who

will

plant

the

Seed?”

But the Pig said, “Not I,”

and the Cat said, “Not I,”

and the Rat said, “Not I.”

“Well, then,” said the Little Red Hen, “I will.”

And she did.

hen she went on with her daily duties through the long summer days, scratching for worms and feeding her chicks, while

the Pig grew fat,

and the Cat grew fat,

and the Rat grew fat,

and the Wheat

grew tall and

ready for

harvest.

o one day the Little Red Hen chanced to notice how large the Wheat was and that the grain was ripe, so she ran about calling briskly: “Who will cut the Wheat?”

The Pig said, “Not I,”

the Cat said, “Not I,”

and the Rat said, “Not I.”

“Well,

then,”

said the

Little

Red Hen,

“I will.”

And she did.

he got the sickle from among the farmer's tools in the barn and proceeded to cut off all of the big plant of Wheat.

On the ground lay the nicely cut Wheat, ready to be gathered and threshed, but the newest and yellowest and downiest of Mrs.

Hen's chicks set up a “peep-peep-peeping” in their most vigorous fashion, proclaiming to the world at large, but most particularly to their mother, that she was neglecting them.

oor Little Red Hen! She felt quite bewildered and hardly knew where to turn....