took out her scissors,and began to snip a hole in the sack, just large enough for theMouse to creep through. "Quick," she whispered to the Mouse, "run asfast as you can and bring back a stone just as large as yourself."Out scampered the Mouse, and soon came back, dragging the stoneafter him. "Push it in here," said the little Red Hen, and he pushedit in in a twinkling.
Then the little Red Hen snipped away the hole, till it was largeenough for the Cock to get through. "Quick," she said, "run and geta stone as big as yourself." Out flew the Cock, and soon came backquite out of breath, with a big stone, which he pushed into the sacktoo.
Then the little Red Hen popped out, got a stone as big as herself,and pushed it in. Next she put on her thimble, took out her needleand thread, and sewed up the hole as quickly as ever she could. Whenit was done, the Cock and the Mouse and the little Red Hen ran homevery fast, shut the door after them, drew the bolts, shut theshutters, and drew down the blinds and felt quite safe.
The bad Fox lay fast asleep under the tree for some time, but atlast he woke up. "Dear, dear," he said, rubbing his eyes and thenlooking at the long shadows on the grass, "how late it is getting.I must hurry home." So the bad Fox went grumbling and groaning downthe hill till he came to the stream.
Splash! In went one foot. Splash! In went the other, but the stonesin the sack were so heavy that at the very next step down tumbledMr. Fox into a deep pool. And then the fishes carried him off totheir fairy caves and kept him a prisoner there, so he was neverseen again. And the four greedy little foxes had to go to bedwithout any supper.
But the Cock and the Mouse never grumbled again. They lit the fire,filled the kettle, laid the breakfast, and did all the work, whilethe good little Red Hen had a holiday, and sat resting in the bigarm-chair. No foxes ever troubled them again, and for all I knowthey are still living happily in the little house with the greendoor and green shutters, which stands on the hill.
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Errors and Anomalies (noted by transcriber):
The hyphen in "down-stairs" is conjectural, based on hyphenization ofother words in the book.
said the little Red Hen. And off she ran [superfluous close quote after "Hen." deleted] See, here I have my little [no open quote in original at new paragraph] and / A Little / Red / Hen was off the shutters crumbs upon the floor FOUR BAD / LITTLE FOXES said the / rude Cock back of the biggest / arm-chair [no final periods (full stops) in original]
The Cock, The Mouse and the Little Red Hen Page 3