Once upon a time, there was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered some grains of wheat. She called to her barnyard neighbors and said, "If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?"

"Then I will," said the little red hen. And she did. Her wheat grew tall and ripened into golden grain. So the little red hen asked her neighbors,"whowill help me harvest my wheat?"

"Then I will," said the little red hen, and she harvested her wheat.

And it came time to bake the bread. "Who will help me bake the bread?" asked the little red hen.

"Then I will,"said the little red hen, and she did. She baked five bread loaves and held them up for her neighbors to see.

Her neighbors saw their beauty, and smelled their freshness and they all wanted some. In fact, they demanded their rightful share. But the little red hen said, "No, I and my chicks can eat the five loaves ourselves."

"Excess profits!," squealed the pig.
"Profiteering leech!," honked the goose.

"Equal rights!," demanded the cow.
And the duck quacked in too!

And the animals painted "unfair" picket signs and marched round and round the little red hen, shouting their slogans, and their obcenities.

When the government agent came (a new legislative lgal appointee), he said to the little red hen, "You must not be greedy."

"But I earned the bread," said the little red hen.

"Exactly," said the agent. "That is the wonderful free enterprise system. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants, but under our liberal government regulations, the productive workers must contribute their product to the idle."

Well, the barnyard calmed down, and the animals lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, "I am grateful, I am grateful."

But her neighbors wondered why she never again baked any more bread.

Thanks for reading—