Red Feathers

Red feathers, the hen, was so-called because all her feathers were red.

One day the fox caught sight of her in the farmyard and his mouth began to water.

He ran home and told his wife to put on water for boiling a chicken and then he rushed back and before Redfeathers knew what was happening, she found herself snapped up inside a sack and was not even able to call for help.

Luckily, her friend the dove saw what had happened. She fluttered on to the path in the woods and lay there, pretending to have a broken wing.

The fox was delighted to find that he would have a first course as well as the main dish. He put down the sack with the hen in it and chased off after the dove who cleverly began to hop further and further away. ,

Red feathers slipped out of the sack and put a stone in her place then she too ran off. When the dove saw that her friend was safe, she flew up onto a tree. The fox then went back and picked up the sack, thinking that the hen was still in it.

When the fox got home, he tipped the sack into the pot of boiling water, but the stone splashed it all over him and he burned his greedy paws.