The Cock, the Mouse, and the Little Red Hen

The Cock, the Mouse and the Little Red Hen carries a dedication to the writer's nieces Cecilia Garry and Nelly Melville, and to a little friend, Harford Lury. The story begins with a hill and a pretty little house with one little green door, where a Cock, a Mouse and a Little Red Hen live.

On another hill close by stands a very ugly little house with a door that wouldn't shut and two broken windows, where a bold bad fox and four bad little foxes live. One morning four bad little foxes tell the big bad Fox they are so hungry, and the Fox says that this very day he will take his great sack and put the Cock, and the Mouse, and the little Red Hen into it. The big Fox jumps in with a cruel smile upon his face, takes the little Mouse by the tail and pops him into the sack, and seizes the Cock by the neck and pops him in too. The poor little Red Hen comes running down-stairs to see what all the noise was about, and the Fox catches her and puts her into the sack with the others.