The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cock, The Mouse and the Little Red Hen, by Félicité Lefèvre This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Cock, The Mouse and the Little Red Hen an old tale retold Author: Félicité Lefèvre Illustrator: Tony Sarg Release Date: September 13, 2009 [EBook #29980] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COCK, THE MOUSE, THE HEN *** Produced by Louise Hope, David Edwards and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) The original (printed) book came in at least two versions. In the edition used for this e-text, some full- color illustrations had a red frame and the others were unframed. The line drawings alternated between reddish magenta and blue-green. In another version, all color illustrations had the same black frame, and all line drawings were black-and-white. In this e-text, red frames are as printed; black frames were added by the transcriber to make illustrations look cleaner. running mouse from endpaper Thumbnails Title Page Text Note on Colors THE COCK, THE MOUSE AND THE LITTLE RED HEN rooster, mouse, hen title page To My Nieces CECILIA GARRY and NELLY MELVILLE and to my little friend HARFORD LURY this book is dedicated with my love 4511 NINETEENTH PRINTING Manufactured in the United States of America THE COCK, THE MOUSE AND THE LITTLE RED HEN Once upon a time there was a hill, and on the hill there was a pretty little house. It had one little green door, and four little windows with green shutters, and in it there lived the pretty house a rooster A Cock a mouse with a belt and A Mouse and A Little Red Hen little red hen On another hill close by there was another little house. It was very ugly. the ugly house It had a door that wouldn’t shut, drawing of the house and two broken windows, and all the paint was off the shutters And in this house there lived four little foxes one big fox and four little foxes A BOLD BAD FOX and FOUR BAD LITTLE FOXES four little foxes on a barrel One morning these four bad little foxes four little foxes came to the big bad Fox and said: the big bad fox “Oh, Father, we’re so hungry!” “We had nothing to eat yesterday,” said one. “And scarcely anything the day before,” said another. “And only half a chicken the day before that,” said the third. “And only two little ducks the day before that,” said the fourth. one big fox, four little foxes The big bad Fox shook his head for a long time, for he was thinking. fox leaning against the wall At last he said in a big gruff voice: “On that hill over there I see a house. And in that house there lives a Cock.” “And a Mouse,” screamed two of the little foxes. big fox points out house to little foxes “And a little Red Hen,” screamed the other two. “And they are nice and fat,” went on the big bad Fox. “This very day, I’ll take my great sack, and I will go up that hill, and in at that door, and into my sack I will put the Cock, and the Mouse, and the little Red Hen.” one little fox “I’ll make a fire to roast the Cock,” said one little fox. “I’ll put on the saucepan to boil the Hen,” said the second. one little fox “And I’ll get the frying pan to fry the Mouse,” said the third. one little fox one little fox “And I’ll have the biggest helping when they are all cooked,” said the fourth, who was the greediest of all. So the four little foxes jumped for joy, and the big bad Fox went to get his sack ready to start upon his journey. four little foxes dancing the rooster But what was happening to the Cock and the Mouse, and the little Red Hen, all this time? the mouse Well, sad to say, the Cock and the Mouse had both got out of bed on the wrong side that morning. the rooster the three at home The Cock said the day was too hot, and the Mouse grumbled because it was too cold. They came grumbling down to the kitchen, where the good little Red Hen, looking as bright as a sunbeam, was bustling about. “Who’ll get some sticks to light the fire with?” she asked. “I shan’t,” said the Cock. “I shan’t,” said the Mouse. “Then I’ll do it myself,” said the little Red Hen. So off she ran to get the sticks.