“I shan’t,” said the Cock.

“I shan’t,” said the Mouse.

“Then I’ll do it myself,”
said the little Red Hen.

And she tripped away
upstairs.

But the lazy Cock and
Mouse each sat down in a
comfortable arm-chair by
the fire

and soon fell
fast asleep.

Now the bad Fox had
crept up the hill, and into
the garden, and if the Cock
and Mouse hadn’t been
asleep, they would have seen
his sharp eyes peeping in
at the window.

“Rat tat tat, Rat tat tat”, the Fox knocked at the door.

“Who can that be?” said the
Mouse, half opening his eyes.

“Go and look for yourself, if
you want to know,” said the
rude Cock 

“It’s the postman perhaps,”
thought the Mouse to himself,
“and he may have a letter
for me.” So without waiting to
see who it was, he lifted the
latch and opened the door.

As soon as he opened it
in jumped the big Fox, with
a cruel smile upon his face!

“Oh! oh! oh!” squeaked the
Mouse as he tried to run up
the chimney.

“Doodle doodle do!” screamed
the Cock, as he jumped on the
back of the biggest
arm-chair 

But the Fox only laughed,
and without more ado he
took the little Mouse by the
tail, and popped him into
the sack, and seized the
Cock by the neck and popped
him in too.

Then the poor little Red
Hen came running down-stairs
to see what all the
noise was about,

and the Fox caught her
and put her into the sack
with the others.

Then he took a long piece of
string out of his pocket, wound
it round and round and
round the mouth of
the sack, and tied it very
tight indeed.

After that he threw the sack
over his back and set off down
the hill.

“Oh! I wish I hadn’t been
so cross,” said the Cock, as
they went bumping about.

“Oh! I wish I hadn’t been
so lazy,” said the Mouse, wiping
his eyes with the tip of his tail.

“It’s never too late to mend,”
said the little Red Hen. “And
don’t be too sad.

See, here I have my little
work-bag, and in it there is
a pair of scissors, and a
little thimble, and a needle
and thread. Very soon you
will see what I am going
to do.”

Now the sun was very hot,
and soon Mr. Fox began to
feel his sack was heavy,
and at last he thought he
would lie down under a
tree and go to sleep for
a little while.

So he threw the sack down
with a big bump, and very
soon fell fast asleep.

Snore, snore, snore, went
the Fox.

As soon as the little Red
Hen heard this, she took
out her scissors, and began
to snip a hole in the sack,
just large enough