Explore "The Intelligent Hen" by Carolyn Wells on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
'Twas long ago, -- a year or so, -- / In a barnyard by the sea, / That an old hen lived whom you may know / By the name of Fiddle-de-dee. / She scratched around in the sand all day, / For a lively old hen was she.
And then do you know, it happened this way / In that barnyard by the sea; / A great wise owl came down one day, / And hooted at Fiddle-de-dee, / Just hooted at Fiddle-de-dee. / And he cried, "Hi! Hi! old hen, I say! / You're provincial, it seems to me!"
"Why, what do you mean? " cried the old red hen, / As mad as hops was she. / "Oh, I've been 'round among great men, / In the world where the great men be. / And none of them scratch with their claws like you, / They write with a quill like me."
Now very few people could get ahead / Of that old hen, Fiddle-de-dee. / She went and hunted the posy-bed, / And returned in triumphant glee. / And ever since then, that little red hen, / She writes with a jonquil pen, quil pen, / She writes with a jonquil pen.