204 Nursery Tales
By and by the little red hen began to wonder if she could get out. She didn’t want to be eaten for dinner that night, and she happened to think she had her scissors in her pocket. So she took them out, and snipped a hole in the bag and jumped out.
Then she picked up some stones in the road, and put them in the bag in her place, and ran home as fast as she could go.
By and by the old fox said to himself, “How heavy this little red hen is. She’s so plump and fat, won’t she make a good dinner!” and he smacked his lips to think of it.
When he came in sight of the house his mother stood in the door watching for him; and he called out, “Hi, mother, have you got the pot boiling?”
His mother said, “Yes, yes; have you got the little red hen?”
And he answered, “Yes; and she’ll make a fine dinner. Now, when I say three, you take the cover off, and I’ll pop her in.”
“All right,” says his mother.
“All ready,” says the fox, “one, two, three.”
His mother took the cover off, and
