{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_18735/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_18735","id":"gutenberg_18735","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18735","summary":null,"tags":["Animals -- Juvenile fiction","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Chickens -- Juvenile fiction","Children's Picture Books"],"text":"Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Sankar Viswanathan, and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                           [Illustration: ]\n\n\n                          THE LITTLE RED HEN\n\n\n                            An Old English\n\n                               Folk Tale\n\n\n                                Retold\n\n                                 and\n\n                             Illustrated\n\n\n                                  by\n\n                       FLORENCE WHITE WILLIAMS\n\n\n\n\n                                 The\n\n                     SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY\n\n                   CHICAGO - AKRON, OHIO - NEW YORK\n\n                         PRINTED IN U. S. A.\n\n                           [Illustration: ]\n\n                           COPYRIGHT, 1918\n\n                                  BY\n\n                   THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nThe Little Red Hen\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nA Little Red Hen lived in a barnyard. She spent almost all of her time\nwalking about the barnyard in her picketty-pecketty fashion,\nscratching everywhere for worms.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nShe dearly loved fat, delicious worms and felt they were absolutely\nnecessary to the health of her children. As often as she found a worm\nshe would call \"Chuck-chuck-chuck!\" to her chickies.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nWhen they were gathered about her, she would distribute choice morsels\nof her tid-bit. A busy little body was she!\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nA cat usually napped lazily in the barn door, not even bothering\nherself to scare the rat who ran here and there as he pleased. And as\nfor the pig who lived in the sty--he did not care what happened so\nlong as he could eat and grow fat.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nOne day the Little Red Hen found a Seed. It was a Wheat Seed, but the\nLittle Red Hen was so accustomed to bugs and worms that she supposed\nthis to be some new and perhaps very delicious kind of meat. She bit\nit gently and found that it resembled a worm in no way whatsoever as\nto taste although because it was long and slender, a Little Red Hen\nmight easily be fooled by its appearance.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nCarrying it about, she made many inquiries as to what it might be. She\nfound it was a Wheat Seed and that, if planted, it would grow up and\nwhen ripe it could be made into flour and then into bread.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nWhen she discovered that, she knew it ought to be planted. She was so\nbusy hunting food for herself and her family that, naturally, she\nthought she ought not to take time to plant it.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nSo she thought of the Pig--upon whom time must hang heavily and of the\nCat who had nothing to do, and of the great fat Rat with his idle\nhours, and she called loudly:\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n\"Who will plant the Seed?\"\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nBut the Pig said, \"Not I,\" and the Cat said, \"Not I,\" and the Rat\nsaid, \"Not I.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\"Well, then,\" said the Little Red Hen, \"I will.\"\n\nAnd she did.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nThen she went on with her daily duties through the long summer days,\nscratching for worms and feeding her chicks, while the Pig grew fat,\nand the Cat grew fat, and the Rat grew fat, and the Wheat grew tall\nand ready for harvest.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nSo one day the Little Red Hen chanced to notice how large the Wheat\nwas and that the grain was ripe, so she ran about calling briskly:\n\"Who will cut the Wheat?\"\n\nThe Pig said, \"Not I,\" the Cat said, \"Not I,\" and the Rat said, \"Not\nI.\"\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n\"Well, then,\" said the Little Red Hen, \"I will.\"\n\nAnd she did.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nShe got the sickle from among the farmer's tools in the barn and\nproceeded to cut off all of the big plant of Wheat.\n\nOn the ground lay the nicely cut Wheat, ready to be gathered and\nthreshed, but the newest and yellowest and downiest of Mrs. Hen's\nchicks set up a \"peep-peep-peeping\" in their most vigorous fashion,\nproclaiming to the world at large, but most particularly to their\nmother, that she was neglecting them.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nPoor Little Red Hen! She felt quite bewildered and hardly knew where\nto turn.\n\nHer attention was sorely divided between her duty to her children and\nher duty to the Wheat, for which she felt responsible.\n\nSo, again, in a very hopeful tone, she called out, \"Who will thresh\nthe Wheat?\"\n\nBut the Pig, with a grunt, said, \"Not I,\"\nand the Cat, with a meow, said, \"Not I,\" and\nthe Rat, with a squeak, said, \"Not I.\"\n\nSo the Little Red Hen, looking, it must be admitted, rather\ndiscouraged, said, \"Well, I will, then.\"\n\nAnd she did.\n\nOf course, she had to feed her babies first, though, and when she had\ngotten them all to sleep for their afternoon nap, she went out and\nthreshed the Wheat. Then she called out: \"Who will carry the Wheat to\nthe mill to be ground?\"\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nTurning their backs with snippy glee,\nthat Pig said, \"Not I,\"\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nand that Cat said, \"Not I,\" and that Rat said, \"Not I.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nSo the good Little Red Hen could do nothing but say, \"I will then.\"\nAnd she did.\n\nCarrying the sack of Wheat, she trudged off to the distant mill. There\nshe ordered the Wheat ground into beautiful white flour. When the\nmiller brought her the flour she walked slowly back all the way to her\nown barnyard in her own picketty-pecketty fashion.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nShe even managed, in spite of her load, to catch a nice juicy worm now\nand then and had one left for the babies when she reached them. Those\ncunning little fluff-balls were _so_ glad to see their mother. For the\nfirst time, they really appreciated her.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration:]\n\nAfter this really strenuous day Mrs. Hen retired to her slumbers\nearlier than usual--indeed, before the colors came into the sky to\nherald the setting of the sun, her usual bedtime hour.\n\nShe would have liked to sleep late in the morning, but her chicks,\njoining in the morning chorus of the hen yard, drove away all hopes of\nsuch a luxury.\n\nEven as she sleepily half opened one eye, the thought came to her that\nto-day that Wheat must, somehow, be made into bread.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nShe was not in the habit of making bread, although, of course, anyone\ncan make it if he or she follows the recipe with care, and she knew\nperfectly well that she could do it if necessary.\n\nSo after her children were fed and made sweet and fresh for the day,\nshe hunted up the Pig, the Cat and the Rat.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nStill confident that they would surely help her some day she sang out,\n\"Who will make the bread?\"\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nAlas for the Little Red Hen! Once more her hopes were dashed! For the\nPig said, \"Not I,\"\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nthe Cat said, \"Not I,\" and the Rat said, \"Not I.\"\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nSo the Little Red Hen said once more, \"I will then,\" and she did.\n\nFeeling that she might have known all the time that she would have to\ndo it all herself, she went and put on a fresh apron and spotless\ncook's cap. First of all she set the dough, as was proper. When it was\ntime she brought out the moulding board and the baking tins, moulded\nthe bread, divided it into loaves, and put them into the oven to bake.\nAll the while the Cat sat lazily by, giggling and chuckling.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nAnd close at hand the vain Rat powdered his nose and admired himself\nin a mirror.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nIn the distance could be heard the long-drawn snores of the dozing\nPig.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nAt last the great moment arrived. A delicious odor was wafted upon the\nautumn breeze. Everywhere the barnyard citizens sniffed the air with\ndelight.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nThe Red Hen ambled in her picketty-pecketty way toward the source of\nall this excitement.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nAlthough she appeared to be perfectly calm, in reality she could only\nwith difficulty restrain an impulse to dance and sing, for had she not\ndone all the work on this wonderful bread?\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nSmall wonder that she was the most excited person in the barnyard!\n\nShe did not know whether the bread would be fit to eat, but--joy of\njoys!--when the lovely brown loaves came out of the oven, they were\ndone to perfection.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nThen, probably because she had acquired the habit, the Red Hen called:\n\"Who will eat the Bread?\"\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\nAll the animals in the barnyard were watching hungrily and smacking\ntheir lips in anticipation, and the Pig said, \"I will,\" the Cat said,\n\"I will,\" the Rat said, \"I will.\"\n\nBut the Little Red Hen said,\n\n[Illustration:]\n\n[Illustration:]\n\n\"No, you won't. I will.\"\n\nAnd she did.\n\n[Illustration: ]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nUniform With This Volume:\n\nLittle Black Sambo\n\nWillie Mouse\n\nWee Peter Pug\n\n\nThe Saalfield\nPublishing Company\n\nChicago\nAKRON, OHIO\nNew York","title":"The Little Red Hen: An Old English Folk Tale","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":1488}