The Little Hen

Once there lived an old man and his wife. They had a little Tatar hen, who laid an egg in the corner under the window: speckled, pointed, bony, and strange! She…

Once there lived an old man and his wife. They had a little Tatar hen, who laid an egg in the corner under the window: speckled, pointed, bony, and strange! She put it on a little shelf. A mouse came along, flicked her tail, the shelf fell down, and the egg broke.

The old man wept, the old woman sobbed, the fire blazed in the stove, the roof of the hut shook, and their little granddaughter hanged herself in her grief. The woman who baked the communion loaves came by and asked why they were crying so.

The old couple began to tell her:

“How can we help crying? We have a little Tatar hen, who laid an egg in the corner under the window: speckled, pointed, bony, and strange! She put it on a little shelf. A mouse came along, flicked her tail, the shelf fell down, and the egg broke! I, the old man, am weeping, the old woman is sobbing, the fire is blazing in the stove, the roof of the hut is shaking, and our little granddaughter has hanged herself in her grief.”

When the communion-loaf baker heard this, she broke all her loaves and threw them away. The church clerk came up and asked her why she had thrown the loaves away.

She told him the whole tale of woe. The church clerk ran to the bell tower and smashed all the bells.

The priest came along and asked the church clerk why he had smashed the bells.

The church clerk told the priest the whole tale of woe, and the priest ran off and tore up all the books.