A WOMAN once saw a most beautiful black hen enter her poultry yard and lay an egg, as large as a turkey’s and as white as chalk. The. woman grew very proud of this black hen which laid a most beautiful egg for her every day. But at last the hen ceased to lay, which so annoyed its mistress, that she ceased to give it any food, saying:—
“The hen that does not lay,
Shall have no corn to-day.”
To which the fowl, opening its beak fearfully wide, replied:—
“Lay eggs and get no corn!
For that I was not bom!”
And spreading its wings, it made a spring, flew out of the window, and disappeared.
By this the woman perceived that the beautiful black hen was a fairy, which had been sent to reprove her greediness.
