The Little Red Hen

Tagged with fables on June 28, 2024

“The Little Red Hen” is a fable I extracted from an issue of “St. Nicholas Magazine”, published in 1874. The link to it is available in the “References” section of the Wikipedia page about it. I changed the statements that should have been questions, I corrected punctuation, and I added “help me” to each question. People don’t speak or write the way they did in 1874.

Other than readability changes, this is the original version of the fable. It has subsequently been rewritten as children’s stories and politicized stories. You can infer what you want from this fable, but it reflects the things we still deal with today, people who think they deserve something when contributing nothing.

The Little Red Hen

There was once a little red hen. She was scratching near the barn one day when she found a grain of wheat. She asked, “Who will help me plant this wheat?” The rat said, “I won’t”, the cat said, “I won’t”, the dog said, “I won’t”, the duck said, “I won’t”, and the pig said, “I won’t”. The little red hen said, “I will, then.” So she planted the grain of wheat.

After the wheat grew up and was ripe, the little red hen asked, “Who will help me reap this wheat?” The rat said, “I won’t”, the cat said, “I won’t”, the dog said, “I won’t”, the duck said, “I won’t”, and the pig said, “I won’t”. The little red hen said, “I will, then.” So she reaped the wheat.

Then she asked, “Who will help me take this wheat to mill to be ground into flour?” The rat said, “I won’t”, the cat said, “I won’t”, the dog said, “I won’t”, the duck said, “I won’t”, and the pig said, “I won’t”. The little red hen said, “I will, then.” So she took the wheat to mill.

When she came back with the flour, she asked, “Who will make this into bread?” The rat said, “I won’t”, the cat said, “I won’t”, the dog said, “I won’t”, the duck said, “I won’t”, and the pig said, “I won’t”. The little red hen said, “I will, then.” So she made it into bread.

When the bread was baked, the little red hen asked, “Who will help me eat this bread?” The rat said, “I will”, the cat said, “I will”, the dog said, “I will”, the duck said, “I will”, and the pig said, “I will”. The little red hen said, “No, you won’t, for I am going to do that myself.” And she picked up the bread and ran off with it.

Other Versions

After I finished editing the story and starting searching for an appropriate image to add to the article, I found a lot of other versions of the story, and even some YouTube videos. I didn’t spend any time reading or watching them because I have better things to do with my time.

Image by Dominique Benoist from Pixabay