A Hen's Tale

 Henny Penny, of fame, and the awful Nightmare

She could just as well have been called the Little Red Hen.  She did all the chores around the hen house and about the roosts.  There were other hens, but they spent all their time preening and trying to catch the eye of Mr. Bucks, himself, rooster in charge.  HP was a bit older and had been around.                                                      

So it was Henny who made sure the nesting boxes were arranged just so, and that the bedding in the hen house was scratched and fluffed just right. Since she didn't at present have a family of chicks, she slept roosting up on the bars in the hen house.

One night Henny, up on her bar in the hen house, had a troubled dream.  She muttered and moaned a bit all night while it was still dark.  Chickens don't move during the dark hours, as you know.  That is when they can be caught or moved by the farmer, or anyone, for that matter. When the sun came up in the morning she let out a despairing squawk!  Oh no!  The dream!  

Running outside, she looked for Mr. Bucks.  He was strutting around out in the yard, like he always did.  She ran up to him saying "I dreamed a terrible dream.  The sky is going to touch the earth!"  "Oh my beak and feathers!  It was awful!"  He looked at her and kept strutting.  A rooster is above such things, you know!

She ran up to the farm cat who was sitting up on a fence post.

 "Oh kitty!  I dreamed a terrible thing!  The sky is going to touch the earth!  Whatever shall we do?"  Kitty regarded Henny with feline amusement, and scratched in a desultorily manner at her chin.  No help there!  Henny jumped up in the air, a few feathers flew and off she went, at top speed.

 

She thought of the farm dog. Now there was a sensible fellow!  She had by now raised such a fuss that Banjo the dog came running up to the chicken yard fence to see what was what.  Henny said "oh Dog!  I had the most awful, frightening dream.  I don't know what to do!  The sky is going to come down and touch the earth.  How will we breath?  How shall we find our way to eat?"

Banjo observed her distress and sat down to think.  He thought she might be just a silly chicken, but she might have something to think about there!

He had an idea.  "Let's try this" he thought.

"Henny" Banjo said "is a cloud part of the sky?  Now, have you ever seen a cloud touch the earth?"  She had to admit that a foggy day looks exceedingly like a cloud touching the earth!

"Henny, do you remember the rain, and how it touches everything?  Isn't it part of the sky?"  "Yes indeed" said Henny, for she did see that it was so. 

They worked their way through snow, wind, lightning, sunrise and sunset, and Henny saw that they were all part of the sky!

Banjo waited with his pink tongue just hanging out a bit, in a friendly manner.  He waited to see how this all settled in Henny Penny's little mind.  Her fluffed out feathers settled in a bit and her breathing slowed.  Her comb came back to being a healthy red. She clucked a chicken chuckle. "Thank you, Dog" she said.  "You are a kind and wise friend."

At last a warm peace filled her little chicken heart.  She saw that the sky was always touching the earth and that it was all good!  No fearful dream at all!

She gave an exploratory little scratch at the ground.  She turned up a little worm, and ate it right up, just like a chicken should.